Whitsunday Climate Change Innovation Hub strives for carbon-neutral tourism
Whitsunday tourism operators are developing programs to ensure tourists leave footprints in the sand, not on the environment.
Mackay
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The Whitsundays region is making major inroads into becoming a carbon-neutral destination so visitors can leave footprints on the sand, not the environment.
The Whitsunday Climate Change Innovation Hub is delivering the Whitsunday Healthy Heart Project, which aims to achieve a sustainable tourism destination rating for the Region.
The project will work with the Whitsunday Tourism industry to reduce the Region’s carbon footprint, and is funded through the Great Barrier Reef Foundation’s Reef Islands Initiative.
Lee Hawkins will lead the Healthy Heart Project and is based at the Whitsunday Climate Change Innovation Hub in Proserpine.
Ms Hawkins was appointed to the role in April this year and attended the first Steering Group meeting recently to present a range of Sustainable Destination certification options.
Hub co-ordinator Olivia Brodhurst said EarthCheck was the world’s leading scientific benchmarking, certification and advisory group for travel and tourism, and was selected as the key certification program.
“This is a collaborative four-year project, focusing on marine tourism operators in the first year with plans to expand further in following years,” she said.
“Whitsunday tourism operators will be engaged throughout the project and provided with support to understand and improve their carbon footprint.
“A series of workshops are planned in the next few months and we will be reaching out to marine tourism operators to get involved.”
Whitsunday Regional Council Mayor Andrew Willcox said the four-year project aimed to help address climate change in the Whitsunday region, create green marketing opportunities and enhance the tourism industry.
“We have committed to achieving a Sustainable Destination certification at the end of this project, to protect our reef and further support the tourism industry’s recovery from the impacts of COVID-19,” he said.
Great Barrier Reef Foundation managing director Anna Marsden said the effects of climate change were already being experienced.
“We’re proud to be working towards a carbon neutral Reef industry in the Whitsundays as part of our Reef Islands Initiative, which is protecting the habitats of the thousands of species of marine life that call the Reef home,” Ms Marsden said.
The Reef Islands Initiative is a Great Barrier Reef Foundation program, supported by funding from Lendlease, the Australian Government’s Reef Trust, the Queensland Government and the Fitzgerald Family Foundation.
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