Sustainable Tourism in Australia: Promoting Responsible Travel

This article explores the concept of sustainable tourism in Australia, its stakeholders, and the government's efforts to promote responsible travel. It discusses the impact of tourism on the environment and how sustainable tourism can help preserve natural resources for future generations. The article also highlights the laws and programs that have been implemented to promote sustainable tourism in Australia.

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Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction:
Sustainable tourism is defined as the form of tourism, which takes complete account of
the environmental, social, cultural and environmental impacts that come up with the industry
along with addressing the needs of the tourists, visitors, the industry, the internal and the external
stakeholders and the host communities. With the growing environmental impact of the industries,
the tourism industry is not excluded. The impact that the tourists leave behind the virgin spots or
the pristine natural reserves, are highly detrimental and increase the environmental footprint to a
great extent.
Tourism contributes nearly 34 billion to Australia’s GDP and employs over 500,000
people. It is one of the major contributors in the Australian economy. With the growing trend of
holistic travelling, the tourism industry has taken new turns in developing the sectors with
environmentally conscious approaches and sustainable tourism. Sustainable tourism brings in a
balance between tourists and the tourism hotspots in way that allows mutual development, aided
with protecting the local communities and resources that favour the regions tourism industry.
Sustainable Tourism can also be referred to as responsible tourism and its growing importance
cannot be undermined since the necessity to keep our ecologically rich environments for the
future generations is paramount.
What is Sustainable Tourism?
The intriguing fact of sustainable tourism lies in the fact that it allows the visitors or
tourist to experience a world from a very different perspective and which makes sustainable
tourism so trending in the present world. The need to conserve and preserve is the USP of
sustainable tourism and it is rightly catered with such tourism ventures and practices. Sustainable

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tourism is the next generation definition of travelling. Tourism combined with an experience that
allows any individual to connect with the natural environment and feel the urge to contribute to
its sustenance along with enjoying the nature at the same time is defined through sustainable
tourism. As the Green Getaways, a responsible tourism venture states in their website that the
main objective of promoting sustainable tourism is to create a responsible means of travelling
and lessening the impact of tourist on the environment. They rightly admit that though they may
not be able to achieve perfect sustainability yet they can keep up their effort in reducing the
impact of the millions of tourists travelling to Australia every year.
What is done differently in Sustainable Tourism?
The Australian Tourism sector is highly enriched with government and private
stakeholders, thereby making it more comprehensive and sustainable in nature. For preserving
and conserving the natural resources of the country the government brought into the most
important laws, the Environmental protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of 1999 which
empowers the government protect the natural and biological resources of the country, thus
paving the way to sustainable tourism. Similar other laws have been brought into effect to
empower the responsible tourism and promote sustainability. Sustainable tourism promotes
tourism with a different experience and catering the huge resources of Australia to the tourist that
makes them aware about the degrading environment and the need to protect the environment and
the ecology for our future use. According to Sustainability For All, sustainable tourism not just
involves responsible tourism practices but also includes wastes managements, proper disposal
and recycling of the wastes generated through tourist activities and reducing the impacts as much
as possible to a degree where s mutual sustenance exists.

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How recent is the trend of Sustainable Tourism?
The trend of sustainable tourism is a recent one but the practice has been initiated since the last
decade and the government has taken appropriate steps in promoting and managing ecological
resources as a source to tourism but aided with laws and environmental programs that bring
credibility to the program. According to ‘The Place Brand Observer’, Australia had started
investing in the concept of sustainable tourism since the late 80s and 1990s and had been a leader
since then in sustainable and responsible tourism. The promotions included collaborations with
several governing bodies similar to the agreement between the Queensland and the
Commonwealth governments in jointly funding and managing the Wet tropics world Heritage
Area. Ecotourism was greatly promoted in the late 1992 and with the Great Barrier Reef Zoning
Plan In 2004 received great acclaim in the international scenario promoting the conservation of
marine park ecosystems. Therefore though the trend has been growing recently, the concept had
been implanted long back which is yielding its results at the present.
The Stakeholders
The most prominent stakeholders involved in the promotion of sustainable tourism include the
government along with the various private and nongovernmental organisations who contribute to
the growth of sustainable tourism in the country. According to the Australian Government
Department of Environment and Energy “Achieving sustainable tourism requires motivation,
determination and a systematic approach” and has therefore introduced a guide manual named
“Steps to sustainable Tourism” which introduces the several principles and guides that define the
concepts of sustainable tourism and also explain the principles that are laid down in the manual
which emphasize the need to protect and recognize the values of the ecological and natural
conserves of the country. The guide offers step by step approach to promote tourism in the

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ecological habitats and also directs the approaches to be adopted while collaborating with other
organisations in the promotion of the industry. The guide also fosters the role of partnerships to
achieve maximum benefits for both the tourists and the environment. The other major
stakeholders include the TripAdvisor GreenLeaders Programme, the Global Sustainable Tourism
Council; the Tourism & Events Queensland contributes greatly to the growth of the sustainable
tourism in Australia. Apart from these, nongovernmental organisations such as Conservation
Volunteers Australia also play a considerable role in promoting sustainable tourism in Australia.
The Parks Australia, the NSW Office of Environment & Heritage, the
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the Department of Parks and Wildlife - Western
Australia and the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service are some of the notable stakeholders in
the sustainable tourism stakeholders in Australia.
The promotion and marketing of sustainable tourism has been designed with alignment to
the capitalist model of economy which has resulted in bringing such huge returns from the
sector. As reported by NOTCH the tourism contributes 34 billion to the Australian GDP reflects
the success of the promotion and marketing strategies of the Sustainable Tourism industry that
align with capitalist model.
Conclusion
Thus we can observe that the growth of sustainable tourism in Australia is not a recent
phenomenon but has been promoted since the beginning of the last decade. The joint venture of
the government with other governments and the nongovernment institutions has promoted the
growth of sustainable tourism in Australia. The future of Sustainable Tourism seems bright with
the increasing trend and the amount of investment being made in the sector. The people of
Australia have also made notable contribution in supporting the venture of protecting and

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preserving the ecological habitats along with promoting tourism in the country. It has to be
understood that with the growing environmental concerns, it is high time that responsible
approaches are applied to tourism industry to protect and conserve the environment and that
these habitats remain unaltered for the future generations to explore and enjoy the gifts of nature.

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Research Appendix
He research has been mostly done from reviewing of several websites of the Australia including
government and nongovernment Portals. I am immensely grateful to the concerned websites and
acknowledge their contribution in contributing to this research. For undertaking the research I
have reviewed the websites of the TripAdvisor GreenLeaders Programme, the Global
Sustainable Tourism Council, the website of Tourism & Events Queensland. I have been
immensely helped by the information available from Notch Communications who have provided
considerable information. the other websites that I have accessed to perform my research include
the websites of the Conservation Volunteers Australia. The governmental websites include The
Parks Australia, the NSW Office of Environment & Heritage, the
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the Department of Parks and Wildlife - Western
Australia and the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service. I have also taken help from NOTCH
communications, the Placebrandobserver.com to evaluate various aspects of the research. The
Ecotourism.org.au has also helped greatly in identifying the various stakeholders and partners
related to sustainable tourism.

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References:
Activesustainability.com (2019). Sustainable tourism destinations III: Australia | Sustainability
for all. [online] Activesustainability.com. Available at:
https://www.activesustainability.com/sustainable-development/sustainable-tourism-destinations-
australia/#6 [Accessed 19 Jan. 2019].
Department of the Environment and Energy (2019). Department of the Environment and Energy.
[online] Department of the Environment and Energy. Available at:
http://www.environment.gov.au/resource/steps-sustainable-tourism [Accessed 19 Jan. 2019].
Ecotourism.org.au (2019). [online] Ecotourism.org.au. Available at:
https://www.ecotourism.org.au/assets/Resources-Hub-Ecotourism-Plans/Parks-Australia-
Sustainable-Tourism-Overview-2011-2016.pdf [Accessed 19 Jan. 2019].
Ecotourism.org.au (2019). Our Partners » Ecotourism Australia. [online] Ecotourism.org.au.
Available at: https://www.ecotourism.org.au/about/our-partners/ [Accessed 19 Jan. 2019].
GBRMPA (2019). GBRMPA. [online] Gbrmpa.gov.au. Available at: http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/
[Accessed 19 Jan. 2019].
Green Getaways (2019). Responsible Tourism in Australia. Ecotourism Accommodation and
ResponsibleTravel in Australia. [online] Green Getaways. Available at:
https://www.greengetaways.com.au/sustainability-in-tourism-in-australia/ [Accessed 19 Jan.
2019].

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Notch (2019). Notch | Growth of Sustainable Tourism in Australia. [online] Notch
Communications - The Art of Science Communications. Available at:
https://www.notchcommunications.co.uk/growth-of-sustainable-tourism-in-australia/ [Accessed
19 Jan. 2019].
Placebrandobserver.com (2019). Destination Check: Current State of Tourism Sustainability in
Australia – The Place Brand Observer. [online] Placebrandobserver.com. Available at:
https://placebrandobserver.com/destination-check-tourism-sustainability-australia/ [Accessed 19
Jan. 2019].
Tripadvisor.com (2019). Green Hotels: The GreenLeaders Program from TripAdvisor. [online]
Tripadvisor.com. Available at: https://www.tripadvisor.com/GreenLeaders [Accessed 19 Jan.
2019].

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