Sustainable Tourism

Marine tourism has the highest commercial value of any activity in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park with an estimated contribution of more than $1.5 billion per year to the Australian economy. Approximately 1.6 million visitors travel to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park on commercial tourism operations each year. In addition, more than one million visitor nights per year are spent on island resorts.

The ‘footprint’ of marine tourism on the Reef is considered to be small and generally localised. However, because of the size and significance of the tourism industry, careful science-based management and responsible self-regulation by the industry is needed to ensure that tourists do not damage the environment that attracts them.

The impact of tourism on most of the Great Barrier Reef is low because of the large size of the Reef, the low population levels adjacent to it, well-developed management systems, and industry stewardship. Future advances in technology will make more of the Great Barrier Reef accessible to more people, which could increase the potential for deleterious impacts of marine tourism if left unmanaged.

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Researchers of the Cooperative Research Centre for the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (CRC Reef) in Townsville, Australia have produced a number of Technical reports about reef tourism :

CRC Reef Technical Report 46
Marine tourism impacts and their management on the Great Barrier Reef. (Adobe Acrobat File - 2.92MB)

CRC Reef Technical Report 42
Incorporating visitor experiences into ecologically sustainable dwarf minke whale tourism in the northern Great Barrier Reef.

CRC Reef Technical Report 39
Reef infrastructure guidelines: tourist pontoons

CRC Reef Technical Report 29
Understanding public perceptions of the Great Barrier Reef and its management

CRC Reef Technical Report 27
Towards sustainable management of the developing dwarf minke whale tourism industry in northern Queensland

CRC Reef Technical Report 24
Developing reliable coral reef monitoring programs for marine tourism operators and community volunteers

CRC Reef Technical Report 21
Visitor experiences and perceived conditions on day trips to the Great Barrier Reef

CRC Reef Technical Report 18
The development and evaluation of activity schedules for tourists on one-day dommercial reef trips

CRC Reef Technical Report 16
The estimation of visitor use from GBRMPA data returns

CRC Reef Technical Report 15
Evaluating the effectiveness of pictorial symbols in reef visitor education

CRC Reef Technical Report 13
A review of environmental impact monitoring of pontoon installations in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park

CRC Reef Technical Report 5
Impact of tourist pontoons on fish assemblages on the Great Barrier Reef

CRC Reef Technical Report 4
The effects of qualified recreational scuba divers on coral reefs