Moving tourism forward with the community

Seize the opportunity to resolve Tasmania’s debate on tourism – because too many people are unhappy about its growth, write some of the state’s foremost academics and demographers.

ON March 19, Tasmania entered a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tasmanians were ordered to stay at home unless on essential business, and tough border restrictions were imposed, making travel to or from the rest of Australia and the world almost impossible. Every individual, community, organisation and business has been impacted, and all are facing challenges as the crisis and recovery phases progress.

No sector faces a bigger challenge than tourism. Before the pandemic, one in five Tasmanians worked directly or indirectly in tourism.

Until COVID-19, tourism was considered the engine of economic development for Tasmania, particularly its perceived role in job creation.

The Tasmanian tourism industry grew from strength to strength over the past decade.

It contributed significantly to the economic prosperity of the state.

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As with any growing sector, tensions emerge that require negotiation and management — for example, between peak periods of demand and room or flight availability, local and visitor access to national parks, short-term rentals and residential needs, skills availability and those required by a developing industry. The debate on how the state as a whole benefited from industry expansion was unresolved.

Not all Tasmanians were enjoying the growth in tourism before COVID-19.

There was growing dissatisfaction with increased visitation to the state in terms of road infrastructure and congestion, environmental impacts and increasing prices for locals, including housing.

Four in five Tasmanians believed there were negative impacts associated with increases in visitor numbers to the state, increasing from two in three in 2016. And then the pandemic was declared.

The sector now faces new tensions. How to rebuild?

VISITORS: MoMa market on the Mona museum rooftop, held during Mona Foma.

Getting people back to work with income and purpose must be central to any recovery agenda. But while doing that, we can also support the growth of a sustainable and resilient industry with a strong social licence. The Institute for Social Change’s Tasmania Project found that almost three quarters (72 per cent) of respondents want a new Tasmania to emerge from the crisis.

When asked what they wanted most for Tasmania’s future, most expressed desire for access to quality health care (66 per cent), affordable housing (62 per cent) and access to nature (59 per cent), while being known as a desirable place to live or visit was important for 25 per cent of respond-ents.

While some commented freely about the need to return to increased tourism, others also expressed a desire to diversify away from tourism and for a “restriction on tourists”, less reliance on international tourism and more focus on intrastate tourism, as well as despair about the impact of Airbnb on housing for Tasmanians.

As we recover, greater alignment between Tasmania’s tourism policy priorities and the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) is needed to ensure the benefits of tourism extend to all Tasmanians.

The UNWTO, based on the Sustainable Development Goals, promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability, under the banner of “responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism”. To realise these, wider tourism and social issues need to be addressed.

For example, current tourism strategies and governing bodies use indicators of progress and measures of success in relation to volume (visitor numbers), expenditure, employment, dispersal (regional tourism) and satisfaction of visitors’ experience. Current measures of success do not include community engagement, satisfaction or benefit.

DRAWCARD: Salamanca Market. Picture: MATT THOMPSON

A measure comprising a number of independent, existing or new indices will help Tasmania track the state’s tourism performance and progress in a comprehensive manner.

The industry’s sustainability and success would be better reflected by a variety of measures.

A co-ordinating body is required that not only promotes Tasmania as a place to visit, but also drives balanced and sustainable tourism development to benefit not just visitors, but also Tasmanians. Industry-focused groups such as Tourism Tasmania and the T30 Committee should expand to incorporate community, workers and education representation in their deliberation.

Tasmania’s tourism master plan needs to be based on trust in the system and a community-first ethos. Residents are the best tourism ambassadors for Tasmania and, as such, we recommend the following:

• Identify a value-based vision for Tasmania that energises the local community, and one that is also relevant to visitors.

• Frame tourism as a resource for local community development that includes facilities, amenities and infrastructure of benefit to both residents and visitors.

• Engage tourism businesses in local projects.

Tourism has become more integrated into Tasmanian society, and the impact of COVID-19 has brought home not only the opportunities that come with tourism, but the consequences. The sector brings many advantages, and these must be, and seen to be, well-distributed, sustainable and as resilient as they can be to future crises, in order to protect the increasing number of Tasmanians who rely on the industry for their livelihoods.

Pursuing service expertise and excellence in the tourism industry will bring positive long-term and statewide benefits, just as sensitive and balanced development, based on sound planning policies and regulations, will build tourism capacity and harness tourism resources to serve the local community, so that the benefits of tourism are distributed more widely and become clearer to locals, their families and communities.

Professor Can-Seng Ooi is sociologist and Professor of Cultural and Heritage Tourism at the School of Social Sciences, University of Tasmania.

Dr Lisa Denny is an independent workforce demographer.

Dr Becky Shelley is a political scientist with the Peter Underwood Centre for Educational Attainment, University of Tasmania.