Discussion Paper: Tourism Plan to Address Climate Change in Australia

This discussion paper addresses the critical issue of climate change's impact on the tourism sector in Australia. It proposes a new tourism plan designed to mitigate the negative effects of climate change on the environment and the economy. The paper begins with an executive summary outlining the report's objectives, which include a position statement from PP Tourism, a discussion of the background context highlighting the detrimental effects of climate change on tourism, and a statement of need emphasizing the necessity of a new tourism plan. The report then details the scope of the proposed plan, including potential policy approaches and instruments. Furthermore, it outlines the proposed planning process, covering consultation, implementation, and review stages. The report also discusses the roles of key stakeholders, including the government, tourists, and tourism businesses, in achieving sustainable tourism practices. It emphasizes the importance of government regulations, tourist awareness, and eco-friendly business models to ensure the long-term viability of the Australian tourism industry. The paper concludes by advocating for strict actions against climate change violators and promoting awareness campaigns to maintain ecological balance and economic growth in the tourism sector. The paper draws on various research and studies to support its arguments and recommendations.

Running head: TOURISM PLANNIG ENVIRONMENT
TOURISM PLANNIG ENVIRONMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The major objective of this report will be to prepare a discussion paper where a new tourism
plan will be laid in order to address the issue of climate change in the region of Australia. It
has been identified as one of the key issue which is hampering the growth of the economy.
There will be a position statement through which there will be a clear indication about the
organization along with its objective of reducing the changes in the climate by diminishing
the factors which causes changes in the climate. The background context will involve the
discussion of the issues that have addressed the climate changes as a major issue in the region
of Australia. After that, a statement of need will be laid, which will involve the background
statement about the necessity of the tourism plan. Scope of the proposed plan will come after
that, where identification of the possible policy approaches along with the instruments that
the tourism plan will address will be laid in this paper. At last, an outline of the proposed
planning process will be given, which will include the details about consultation,
implementation and review process.

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Table of Contents
Position Statement......................................................................................................................3
Background Context...................................................................................................................4
Statement of Need......................................................................................................................6
Government............................................................................................................................6
Tourists...................................................................................................................................7
Tourism Sector Businesses....................................................................................................7
Local Communities................................................................................................................8
Scope of the Proposed Plan........................................................................................................9
Proposed Process......................................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................12

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Position Statement
It has been found in various researches that tourism is one of the fastest growing
business industries in the world. But it has been seen in recent days that changes in climate is
hampering the growth of tourism in the country of Australia. Many profit as well as non-
profit organizations has addressed the issue of climate changes and its impact on the tourism
sector of Australia. One of such organization is PP Tourism, an organization which focuses
on identification of the issues that causes climate changes in the country of Australia.
Number of tourists is gradually decreasing due the negative effect on the places of major
tourist attractions in and around Australia, which is hampering the growth of the economy of
the country of Australia.
The organization has its presence in almost all the major cities of Australia, from
where the address the issues of climate changes and help in providing recommendations to
the identified issues and propose them to various tourism companies along with the
government of Australia, who possess the authority to take necessary actions against the
business entities who are violating the rules and regulations related with changes in the
climate conditions that are mainly caused by violating the tourism laws and ethics. The
company was established in the year of 1947 and possesses a number of 100 employees who
work altogether to address the issues related with climatic changes. They are fully supported
by the government of Australia along with co-funded by the apart from investment of capital
by the shareholders of the organization. Though the government of Australia has taken
necessary actions for violating the laws, rules and regulations related to tourism, still the rate
of violation is increasing day by day and due to this, number of tourists is decreasing on the
major tourist attritions like Great Barrier Reef and other attractions of Australia. It has been
seen that tourism is one of the major earners of money, which also contributes a healthy share

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in the economic growth of the nation, which is getting hampered as number of tourists are
getting less due to the climatic changes, which is hampering the economic growth of the
nation.
Background Context
In the context of the discussion of this paper, it can be stated climate change is the
alterations in the climate conditions of a particular place or region due to expected or
unexpected issues. In other words, it can be said that it is the abnormal differences that ours
in the climate of a particular place, and possess a negative impact on the happenings of the
places where it occurs. It happens due to many factors, like global warming, which can be
termed as the most important factor of the causes of global warming. Many business sectors
have to face the ill-effects due to alterations in the climate. Due to all these factors,
organizations like PP Tourism are coming into foray in order to identify the causes and try to
reduce them by taking necessary actions against the violators. Almost all the business
industries get affected due to the changes in climate, which directly hits the economy of the
nation where it is having the impact (Arnell et al., 2013).
It has been found by the researchers that Australia faced the warmest winter in the
year of 2017. Again, the summer in the year of 2013-14 was warmer than the other summer
seasons in the region of Australia. All these happened due to rise in the temperatures, mainly
due to the global warming which is caused by the excessive emission of greenhouse gases.
Climate change has emerged as a global issue and many nations apart from Australia are
facing the ill-effects of this in the tourism sector of those countries. Regions like Australia,
which hugely depends on the tourism industry for growth in the economy suffers a major
setback due to alterations in the climatic conditions, and increases droughts, bush fires and
floods in those regions, which again affects badly the economic conditions of those regions

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and hampers the growth. The ecological balance gets disrupted by all these causes, and many
rich species of plants as well as animals get extinct and the community or the society suffers
for not getting the benefits from those extinct spies of animals and plants.
It has been seen from the recent studies that the number of tourists is decreasing on
the major tourist attritions like Great Barrier Reef and other attractions of Australia. It has
been seen that tourism is one of the major earners of money, which also contributes a healthy
share in the economic growth of the nation, which is getting hampered as number of tourists
are getting less due to the climatic changes, which is hampering the economic growth of the
nation. Australia, being an island country, possesses a number of tourist attractions nearer or
on the ocean and sea. Ocean currents affect the climate changes in those regions, which
effects adversely on the tourism industry of the country. Presence of those places nearer to
sea also causes climate alterations. It has been found that the major tourist attractions that are
nearer to sea are moistly affected, like the Great Barrier Reef.
Hence, it has become important for the organizations like PP Tourism to address the
issues in serious note in order to reduce the adverse effects of the organization. Strict actions
need to be imposed in the violators, or the tourism organizations that motivates the tourists to
not maintaining the barriers of having adverse effects on the climate. The government of
Australia needs to be strict and necessary legal actions against the violators. Awareness
campaigns needs to be planned and performed so that tourists will come to know about the
adverse effects of the tasks performed by them on the tourist attractions which will help to
reduce the alterations of the climate and will maintain the ecological balances around the
world. The campaign needs to be performed by the government as well as the organizations
like PP Tourism in and around the region of Australia, so that every citizen can be made
aware about the awareness campaigns and the necessities of those campaigns in the region of
Australia. Proper awareness programs will help to reduce the adverse effects of the climate

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changes, so that they will help to maintain the ecological balance around the region of
Australia and growth of the nation will be maintained at a constant rate. The ill-effects will be
reduced and the tourism industry will again enjoy the competitive advantage in the region of
Australia (Garcia et al., 2014).
Statement of Need
In the above section, the major challenges for the tourism sector due to the climate
issues are identified and this proves the point of relevance for an effective and proper tourism
plan. With the help of the tourism plan, the interests of all the involved stakeholders will get
considered and highest level of sustainability can be gained (Cabiddu, Lui and Piccoli 2013).
However, it should be noted that there are different roles to be played by the different
stakeholders in terms of creating a proper tourist plan. These stakeholder groups include both
internal and external. The following sections will discuss about the roles to be played by each
of the major stakeholders in the tourism plan.
Government
The government plays the most important role in the tourism plan because of the
authority. For example, in the case of the Australian tourism sector, government is
responsible for the regulations and standards to be followed by the other stakeholders in the
destinations. It is the responsibility of the government to safeguard the interest of the
destinations as national element and thus their roles are more extensive in nature.
Government should also play the role of making the internal stakeholders in adhere to the
sustainability and environmental standards (Saarinen 2014). This is due to the reason that
tourism sector of Australia is privatized and thus government should have the control over the
activities of the private sector entities in this business. An ideal tourist plan will consider the
interest of the internal stakeholders including the businesses involved in the tourism sector

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and it is the role of the government to safeguard the interest of the business. The major issue
identified for the tourism sector in this report is the climate change and in this case, the key
role of the government will be to identify the sources and contributing factors for climate
change (Moyle et al. 2014). Government should come up with the regulations to make the
other stakeholders in avoiding the contributing factors. For example, prevention of burning of
fossil fuel in certain places is the regulated by the government.
Tourists
Tourists are the core external stakeholders in the tourism sector and meeting their
needs and preferences is the core objective. In the tourism plan, their major role is to maintain
the sustainability. This is due to the reason that in the earlier section, it is already identified
about how the unsustainable means of consumption and resource exploitation by the tourists
is contributing in the climate change. Thus, as per the recommended tourism plan, the role of
the incoming tourists will be to sustain with the available resources and avoiding exploitation
of the natural resources (Cucculelli and Goffi 2016). The proposed tourism plan should aware
the tourists about the impacts and contributing factors in climate change and how they can be
involved in this. In addition, the role of the tourists is also to adhere by regulatory standards
and bound by the regulations at the tourist destinations. This will ensure the thriving business
in the tourism sector without reduction in the tourism experience. Government intervention is
required due to the reason that the extent to which the regulations and standards are getting
followed should be monitored and the areas of improvement also to be identified (Hopkins
2014).
Tourism Sector Businesses
Tourism sector businesses are increasing the revenue generation and inflow of foreign
reserves and they are one, which are having direct contact with the individual tourists. In this

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case, the role of the tourism businesses is to maintain their value propositions without the
negative implications on the climate and environment. For example, it is the role and
responsibility of the tourism businesses to promote eco friendly and green tourism, which
will meet the expected standards along with having lower impact on the environment
(Mathew and Sreejesh 2017). The proposed tourist plan should consider both the economical
and environmental factors and should the value propositions, which will be both
environmentally and economically viable. In this case, intervention is required due to the
reason that it is to be communicated to the tourism businesses that managing the
sustainability and lesser impact on the climate will ensure their long term viability. Moreover,
the intervention of the government is also required because the activities of the businesses
should be monitored and evaluated as per the desired standards (Canavan 2016).
Local Communities
Local communities are also a major stakeholder in the tourism plan due to the fact
that they are well involved in these activities as well as their development is also depended on
the tourism activities. In the current sustainable tourism business process, local communities
are involved in the development activities and meeting the service delivery process of the
tourists. In the proposed tourism plan, the role of the local communities is to ensure the
sustainable activities for the tourists and reduce the impacts on climate. Local communities
are the core beneficiaries of the natural resources in any tourist destinations and hence, their
role is to prevent the negative impacts of climate change (Franzoni 2015). In this case also,
the intervention of the government is evident because conservation of the local communities
and equipping them in fighting the climate change is to be done by the government. In
addition, the government should also intervene in the factors affecting the development of the
local communities. The proposed tourist plan will include the modern day approach of
sustainability where the local communities are involved in the service delivery process of the

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tourists. These communities are being able to maintain higher sets of sustainability in the
service delivery process, which should be maintained by the government (Font and McCabe
2017).
Thus, it can be concluded that an effective and ideal tourism plan will be effective in
meeting the interests and expectations of the tourists and other involved stakeholders in this
industry. Moreover, the utility of the tourism plan also involves the integration of all the
involved stakeholders towards the common objective of mitigating the impacts of the climate
changes and ensuring the long term sustainability of the tourism sector.
Scope of the Proposed Plan
There are few policy approaches should be considered by the proposed tourism plan
in order to have the maximum scope in the real world situation. It is recommended that the
major consideration of the tourist plan should be the extensive involvement of the local
communities. This is due to the reason that the more will be the involvement of the local
communities, the more will be the fulfillment of the triple bottom line standards (Throsby
2016). According to the triple bottom line standards, the economical benefits will be gained
by financial development of the local communities due to the revenue generating from the
tourists, environmental benefits can be gained due to the reason that local communities are
more effective in conserving the environment even meeting the service expectations. Lastly,
social benefits can be gained by the social uplift of the communities by involving them in the
business activities.
Another scope of this proposed tourism plan identified is the core contributing factors
in the climate change. This refers to the fact that the tourism plan should be based on the key
contributing factors of climate change. This is due to the reason that these factors should be
mitigated in order to have the long term viability of the tourism plan. In this case, the

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engagement and involvement of each of the stakeholders is important to meet the common
objectives. Thus, the scope of the tourism plan is based on the awareness of the involved
stakeholders. The more will be the awareness of the stakeholders towards the impacts of the
climate change, the more will be effectiveness of the tourism plan. It is also identified that
meeting the economical interests of the tourism businesses is another scope for the tourism
plan (Alonso-Almeida et al. 2018). This is due to the reason that if the economical interests of
the tourism businesses can be met, then only the sustainable activities can get promoted.
Tourism business will not take up the sustainable activities if their business interests are
getting hampered. Hence, the scope of the recommended tourist plan lies in the business
enhancement of the entities.
Scope of the proposed tourism plan also lies in the benefits of the tourists. This is due
to the reason that tourists are the only source of revenue generation for this sector and the
entire viability is depended on the level of incoming tourists. For instance, if the expectations
of the tourists in terms of the tourism experience cannot be met or considered in the plan,
then the attractiveness of the tourist destinations in Australia will get reduced in the long
term. In this case, it should be considered in the tourism plan about how to meet the
expectations of the tourists along with ensuring the environmental sustainability (Singal
2014). This will meet the dual advantages of generating revenue from the increasing inflow
of the tourists and reducing the impacts on the environment and climate change. It can be
concluded that proper consideration of these factors will increase the scope of the proposed
tourism plan.
Proposed Process
The proposed process would involve the stages of consultation, implementation and
review of the entire process, and will be described as follows:

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1. Background-analysis Phase - The organizations like PP Tourism have to
address the issues jointly and consult before designing the plans that would help
to maintain the ecological balances along with stopping the factors that causes
climate changes in Australia. Engagement of all the entities, whether they are
government or private, will help to minimize the communication gap while
addressing the issues and plans will be properly designed can be properly
implemented to be followed by all the tourists as well as the parties related to
tourism.
2. Detailed Research and Analysis Phase – Thorough research needs to be done
while addressing the issues, so that plans can be efficiently designed and
effectively implemented in the market of Australia.
3. Synthesis Phase - PP Tourism need to address the issues at least twice in a month,
so that necessary actions can be taken to safeguard the ecology as well as the
economy of the nation of Australia.
4. Goal setting and Strategy Selection- The right strategies need to be identified to
diminish the factors which are causing alterations in the climate.
5. Plan Development – Implementation of the selected strategies need to be
performed here to diminish the ill-effects of the climate changes.