Heritage Tourism: Unbalanced Heritage and Tourism in the Rocks, Sydney

This article discusses the unbalanced heritage and tourism in the Rocks, Sydney. It explores the impact of tourism on heritage sites and the challenges faced by the tourism industry. The article also examines the issues of rental affordability and restrictions on short-term rentals.

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Heritage Tourism

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Introduction
The Rocks is an urban locality that acts as a tourist attractive area in the city centre of
Sydney. It is situated in the southern shore of Sydney Harbour that is immediately to the
north-west of the central business district in Sydney. Smith (2010) argued that the heritage
and tourism is not well balanced in the Rocks, Sydney. Although Sydney has been draped
spectacularly around its glorious beaches as well as harbour, the surface scratch has not been
getting better.
Heritage and Tourism are not well balanced in the Rocks, Sydney
According to Kostopoulou (2013), heritage as well as tourism is not well balanced in the
Rocks as the tourists complained having a hell life. It has been found that more than one-third
of the 163 apartments in the building have been regarded as short-term rentals before
initiating legal action in order to curb the practice. Tourism is acclaimed by politicians as an
up-to-date gold mine that is known to bring untold properties to Australia. The properties are
bought in the form of money expended in restaurants as well as shops and jobs. It has been
found that the tourism industry is decisive to the economy of Sydney (Krolikowski and
Brown, 2010). It is known to contribute billions in revenue thus supporting several jobs
throughout the state. The problem that has been witnessed by tourism is damage to the
heritage. The tourism is allowed to carry unnecessary baggage that includes urban
congestion, social amenity loss as well as destruction of exclusive neighbourhoods. As a
result, it has been assumed that there are other major attractive destinations that attract more
tourists as compared to the Rocks. The tourist sector in the Rocks leads to macro-economic
development models thus bringing about globally competitive tourism supply sector. On the
other hand, the tourism sector is also known to bring about environmental as well as social
outcomes (Krolikowski and Brown, 2010). The heritage sites are mostly congested. In other
words, the tourist hotspots in the Rocks lead to discomfort among the tourists as well as
residents due to its congestion.
The backpackers has been considered to be responsible for trashing Coogee Beach that
comprises of approximately 15 tonnes of rubbish during the year 2018. The Sydney CBD
residents witnessed inconvenience due to road closures in the Rocks. This resulted in locking
out of a resident from her Circular Quay apartment complex where the individual was abused
by traffic controllers (Acuto, 2012). This in turn led to anti-tourism that took place in the

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Rocks, Sydney. As a result, the city came on the verge to lose its UNESCO World Heritage.
The total number of hotels has not been followed by protests in the Rocks (Lesh, 2019). It has
been claimed that the tourist boom has exceeded the cost out of the city. This in turn
increased the bed tax for the tourists that made it difficult to deal with rental affordability.
This shifted the imposition of restrictions related to short-term rentals (Krolikowski and
Brown, 2010). This caused resistance to tourism that restricted mature tourist destinations.
This in turn provided a wake-up call to the global tourism located in the Rocks, Sydney. The
management as well as policy made it difficult for tourism industry in the Rocks to attract
tourists. This in turn increased the risk to lose the tourism identity (Haferburg and Steinbrink,
2017). This created glitzy that did not entertain the tourists thus leading to bastardisation
related to culture.
The impact of tourism in Sydney took place irrespective of the fact that whether the
individuals are indigenous or non-indigenous. The lack of adequate coverage related to
tourism impacts had negative influence on economic, political as well as psychological
aspects. It has been argued by Haferburg and Steinbrink (2017) the tourism as well as
heritage sector has almost isolated the Rocks in Sydney. This made it difficult for the
indigenous individuals to hold a position that dealt with the development of tourism o their
community. This also hampered economic independence in the tourism as well as heritage
sector in the Rocks. Tourism acted as a conduit of renaissance related to local culture. It has
been argued that this reduced the culture that persisted in Sydney (Haferburg and Steinbrink,
2017). The survival of culture turned out to be more tenuous as the community became
comparatively isolated. The isolation took place from the mainstream that hampered the
heritage as well as tourism in the Rocks, Sydney.
Conclusion
It could be concluded that the properties are bought in the form of money expended in
restaurants as well as shops and jobs. It could be inferred that the problem that has been
witnessed by tourism is damage to the heritage. The tourism is allowed to carry unnecessary
baggage that includes urban congestion, social amenity loss as well as destruction of
exclusive neighbourhoods. It has been claimed that the tourist boom has exceeded the cost
out of the city. This in turn increased the bed tax for the tourists that made it difficult to deal
with rental affordability. The resistance to tourism as witnessed in mature tourist destinations
like Sydney that offers a wake-up call to all international tourism destinations.

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References
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