Sustainable Tourism: Challenges and Solutions for Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and Sorry Rocks

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Executive Summary
The objective of this paper is to respond to two cases – the Uluru–Kata Tjuta National Park and the
Sorry Rocks and the Tourism of Regret in order to provide a better understanding of concepts of
sustainable tourism themes such as responsible marketing and branding of a destination as well as
development and management of sustainable destinations. The first case identifies major challenges
of operations, resources, and brand image. The second case seeks to discuss ways that the National
Park can successfully manage the relationships between profit, people, and the planet.
Introduction
Sustainable tourism involves the kind of tourism that that considers the entire account of current
and future economic, social, and environmental impacts, responding to the needs of visitors, the
industry, the environment and host communities. Delivering sustainable development implies
gaining a balance between an economic pillar, the social pillar, the environmental pillar, and the
transverse pillar. Therefore, any sustainable tourism destination such as that of the Uluru–Kata Tjuta
National Park and the Sorry Rocks and the Tourism of Regret, management must always ensure
viable long-term economic operations that provide socio-economic benefits to every stakeholder.
Management should also respect the socio-cultural authenticity of all the host communities,
conserve traditional values, and living cultural heritage. Management must also ensure that the
destination makes proper use of environmental resources as part of tourism development,
maintenance of critical ecological processes, as well as conserving the natural resources and
biodiversity.
Identification and Discussion of The key issues and challenges in managing the national
park’s
Operations
Uluru-kata Tjunta National park is managed jointly by the Anangu and Parks Australia. The
Anangu are recognized as the parks original owners. The part is home to Uluru and Tjuta.
The Anangu lease it back to Parks Australia to be managed as a national park (Buckley
2004). When managing the park jointly, challenges are experienced. The main challenge
come with rise in temperature. This causes operational challenges especially during summer.
Extreme heat heightens the risk of heat-related incidents in the park. From October to march,
temperatures rise to over 39 degrees and above. The increase in heat leads to reduction of
actives past 11 am. This consequently leads to lower income earning in eight months.
Reduction in money earned in fees negatively affects the finances of the park.

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The park operates by joint management. In daily operations the laws of Tjukurpa must be
observe and adhered to. The laws form a basis of running the park. They dictate on what
should and should not be done. The law ensures that each gender goes to their rightful cites.
The roads are also marked to protect sacred cities.
The Anangu possess vast knowledge about the park. They thus assist in smooth operations on
the park. They provide cultural information on the resources in the park. This includes
interpreting landscape features to the visitors. They also give guidelines on sacred cites and
activities forbidden in the park.
Brand image
Branding the park is important to its success. It creates a good image to prospective visitors.
Branding entails creating both an image and benefits that lead to a level of distinction, brand
equity and competitor differentiator (Nolan, 2018). This will help increase the level of
visitation thus increasing finances. Branding the park entails giving details of what the
management has to offer. This may be in terms of the wildlife and hospitality serves they
offer. The park has animals, plants and extemporal landscapes. The key attraction is the
Uluru and Kata and should be well exploited. Branding can be done through making
brochure, creating a detailed website. The experience at the park should also be good so as to
encourage tourists to visit again. Good experience also leads to good reviews thus creating a
good public image of the park. This may turn out to be a difficult task. This is because all
tourists have personal expectations. The management may not be able to practically meet
them all.
Resources
The park has vast cultural and natural resources that attract tourists. This is in relation to the
wild life and the Anunga people living in the park. The resources create a base for tourist
attraction . (Buckley 2004). The Anunga has performed songs and dances. This brings a