australian ecotoursim

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Conference Report:Australian EcotourismRoss K. Dowling*

College of Business, The University of Notre Dame Australia, PO Box 1225, Fremantle,WA 6959, Australia

INTRODUCTION

The third Australian national ecotourism con-ference was held on Kangaroo Island, SouthAustralia (SA) from 14 to 17 November 1996. Theconference was convened by the EcotourismAssociation of Australia (EAA) and it focused on

the theme Strategic Alliances: Ecotourism Part-nerships in Practice. The conference attractedover 100 delegates from Australia as well as fromseveral countries from the northern hemisphere.The theme explored how to reap the benefits ofdeveloping ecotourism partnerships and alli-ances. Partnerships were explored betweenoperators, protected area managers, local com-munities, traditional owners, other industryassociations and the conservation movement.

DAY ONE

The first day was hosted by the AustralianGovernments Office of National Tourism. Enti-tled People and Parks Profitable Partners, it wasopened by Mrs Cathy Parsons, Acting Director ofthe Office of National Tourism. This was fol-lowed by an address by Tim Richmond,Executive Director, Environment Australia whospoke on the role of the Australian Governmentsenvironmental arm, particularly in relation to itspartnerships with indigenous groups, industryand tourism.

Subsequent sessions comprised parallel work-shops on a series of themes. They includedBeyond Protected Areas The Regional Manage-ment of Tourism with Jim Sharp [Department ofConservation and Land Management, Western

Australia (WA)]; Scott Cogar (Australian Resorts,Qantas Group, Queensland); and Ross Alan(Department of Environment and NaturalResources, SA) as well as Parks, Players andPayment Managing Tourism Beneficially withNeil Price (Jarwoyn Association); Peter Ogilvie(Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Serv-

ice) and Tony Medcraft (Exmouth Diving Centre,WA). Other papers were presented on ProfitablePartnerships for Conservation on Philip Island

by Rob Saunders (Victorian National ParksService), Parks and Partnerships An Indige-nous Perspective by Mark Sutton [NationalParks and Wildlife Service, New South Wales(NSW)] and Conservation and Tourism Achieving Million Dollar Partnerships by JohnWalmsley (Earth Sanctuaries Ltd, SA).

DAY TWO

The morning of the second day centred onKangaroo Island. Situated at the bottom of SouthAustralia, 30% of the 4500 square kilometres ofthis island is dedicated to conservation parksand is a prime ecotourism destination. Wildlife isabundant, with the major attraction being a largecolony of sea lions which are visited by over100,000 people annually. The island is currently

being planned for tourism development and aTourism Optimisation Management Model(TOMM) was launched by the South AustralianMinister for Tourism, Hon. Graham Ingerson,together with the SA Minister of Environmentand Natural Resources, Hon. David Wotton. Themodel is an approach to manage and monitortourism on Kangaroo Island which has beendesigned by Simon McArthur of ManidisRoberts Consultants, Sydney. The key to the* Correspondence to R. K. Dowling.

PROGRESS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH, VOL. 3, 273276 (1997)

CCC 10773509/97/03027304 $17.50 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


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approach is that it continually checks on thehealth of tourism in a place by comparing theamount and type of tourism activity with thenature and scale of tourisms impacts. Thus itcan predict change and assists the tourismindustry identifying growth opportunities.

Following the launch were another set ofparallel sessions on themes including Partner-ships: The Drawbridge to Opportunity. FraserVickery (Department of Environment and Natu-ral Resources, SA) examined the traditional rolesof natural resource managers and the nature-

based tourism industry in managing andproviding experiences for visitors to public land.He also described the successful partnership

between the resource manager and tourismindustry in relation to the management of theSeal Bay sea-lion colony on Kangaroo Island.

Ross Dowling (The University of Notre Dame

Australia) and Jim Sharp (Director of NationalParks, WA) presented a joint paper outlining theWestern Australia Department of Conservationand Land Managements partnerships with arange of sectors in the tourism industry. Theydescribed the need for the Department to fosterpartnerships in order to adequately fulfil itsmission of wildlife protection and visitor oppor-tunities, and added that partnerships should besought and not allowed to develop by osmosis.

Tony Charters (Ecotourism Management Aus-tralia and EAA President) described the range of

partnerships undertaken by a private companywhen developing a nature-based resort. Heillustrated this by describing partnershipsundertaken with the resource managers, com-munity, and indigenous people in developingthe A$70m Kingfisher Bay Resort and Village onFraser Island, a World Heritage Area on TheGreat Barrier Reef.

A second session focused on Managing Eco-tourism Operations. This was followed by asession on Professional Ecotour Guide Trainingwhich generated considerable interest. Presenta-tions were on Ecotour Competency Standards

by Alice Crabtree, EAA; Site-Specific TourismTraining Workshops, by Jane James; Tertiary andFurther Education (TAFE), SA; and An EcotourOperations Certificate Course by Sharon Stacey,Tumut Skillshare, NSW. The final session exam-ined partnerships further with presentations by

Janice Withnall, University of Western Sydney,Nepean; Phillip Moore, Sunraysia Institute of

TAFE, Victoria; and Guy Chester, Gutteridge,Haskins and Davey Planning Consultants,Cairns, Queensland.

DAY THREE

The morning of the third day of the conferencewas given over to a number of presentations onecotourism topics such as Ecotourist Profiles(Trevor Plumridge, Monash University), Tour-ism and Health (Robyn Bushell, University ofWestern Sydney), Sustainable Tourism (GuyChester), Park Partnerships (Brian Weir, Parksand Conservation Service, Australian CapitalTerritory), and Ecotourism Planning (PeterCock, Monash University) and Kara Krason(Planning Workshop Australia, Sydney).

Three keynote addresses on this day provoked

considerable interest. They included Partner-ships with Government by Cathy ParsonsActing Director, Office of National Tourism whooutlined the continued ecotourism initiatives ofthe Australian Federal Government which haveplaced it at the forefront of the world. Just oneexample is the recent publication of ProjectingSuccess: Visitor Management Projects for Sus-tainable Tourism Growth, which profiles 21projects describing a range of managementstrategies undertaken by land managers acrossAustralia to both enhance visitor experiences

and protect natural resources.The second talk examined Issues in Protected

Area Policy in Australia by Penny Figgis, VicePresident of the Australian Conservation Foun-dation. The paper argued the need for areassertion of the primacy of the concept ofprotected areas as refuges of nature conserva-tion, lest they become severely compromised byhuman demands and commercial motives.Essentially it challenged the ecotourism industryto proceed cautiously with its development inAustralia.

Megan Epler-Wood, Executive Director, TheEcotourism Society (TES), USA, presented thefindings of their organisations Green Evalua-tions of tourism in Ecuador. This was a timelyintroduction to the launch of the National Eco-tourism Accreditation Program (NEAP) by theEcotourism Association of Australia and theAustralian Tour Operators Association (ATOA).The program has been developed by industry for

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1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. PROGRESS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH, VOL. 3, 273276 (1997)


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industry addressing the need to identify genuineecotourism operators in Australia.

The voluntary program provides ecotourismoperators and protected area agencies with theopportunity to meet minimum standards forproviding or conducting genuine ecotourism

operations. It is based on ecologically sustainabledevelopment principles and allows operatorsand protected area agencies to continuallyimprove their environmental management prac-tices.

Ecotourism accreditation provides industryand consumers with an assurance that an accred-ited ecotourism product or service is backed by acommitment to best-practice environmentalmanagement and the provision of quality eco-tourism experiences. The program provides

benefits to ecotourism businesses, clients, naturalareas, natural area managers and local commu-

nities.The program is based upon the following eight

principles. They are that ecotourism:

(1) focuses on personally experiencing naturalareas in ways that lead to greater under-standing and appreciation;

(2) integrates opportunities to understandnatural areas into each experience;

(3) represents best practice for ecologicallysustainable tourism;

(4) productively contributes to the conserva-

tion of natural areas;(5) provides constructive ongoing contribu-

tions to local communities;(6) is sensitive to, interprets and involves

different cultures, particularly indigenousculture;

(7) consistently meets clients expectations;and

(8) marketing is accurate and leads to realisticexpectations.

Each of the above principles is reflected inspecific assessment criteria which establish twolevels core and advanced. Each ecotourismproduct that achieves all relevant core criteriawill be awarded Ecotourism Accreditation.However, ecotourism businesses will be encour-aged to operate beyond the standards of the corecriteria. Advanced Ecotourism Accreditationwill be awarded to an ecotourism product thatachieves a satisfactory number of relevant bonus

criteria or achieves best practice in a range ofareas. Applicants will be required to assess theperformance of their own business against thecriteria. This will involve the completion of theecotourism accreditation application documentand the nomination of referees.

DAY FOUR

The conference concluded on day four withdelegates undertaking a variety of ecotours onKangaroo Island and then evaluating the toursaccording to best-practice principles.

EVALUATION

The conference was well organised and was a

reflection of the efforts of both the Convenor, DrAlice Crabtree, EAA Secretary and CheriseWalmsley, EAA Executive Officer. Feedback fromthe conference delegates indicated that in futuremore practical case studies are desirable, thatworkshops become more participatory, and thatmore time could have been spent on regionalissues. Positive aspects were the five-star loca-tion, the indigenous content and the sharing ofknowledge and experiences.

Overall the conference provided an excellenttime in which to pause and take stock of the

present state and future directions of Australianecotourism. The ecotourism industry in Aus-tralia is at the leading edge of ecotourismworldwide with a national ecotourism programand strategy, rapidly growing association, amultitude of training and education courses,innovative built design principles, water andwaste minimisation practices, marketing strate-gies such as using the internet, the launch of thenational ecotourism accreditation scheme, andthe increasing interest in partnerships. The con-ference fostered the concept that partnershipscan be used to both preserve and protect land-scapes as well as to foster tourism developmentin an environmentally and culturally sensitivemanner. Such partnerships can cover a range ofareas and types and provide partners with theopportunity to achieve far more than they couldfrom within their own resources.

The future of the ecotourism industry looksbright and the next steps to be taken are ones

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which will move the industry forward in aprofessional manner based on the already estab-lished firm foundation of an environmentallysustainable, educative and ethical industry. The

challenge for the future is to maintain Australiasindustry edge by investing in partnerships whileat the same time ensuring the environment is notcompromised.

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