How Is Tourism Utilised In The Great Barrier Reef?

The Great Barrier Reef is a world-renowned tourist destination, attracting at least 1.6 million visitors annually. Its long-term attraction is largely due to its size, best-known, and well-managed coral reef, which is home to a diverse array of species. The reef’s richness and uniqueness make it crucial for tourism and the Australian economy.

The Solution Exchange focused on exploring tourism carrying capacity at sites and how to shift tourist behavior to support local resilience goals. The Great Barrier Reef lies in tropical waters with warm temperatures that offer enjoyable swimming and diving year-round. However, climate change, pollution, Crown-of-thorns starfish, and illegal fishing pose threats to the reef.

The Great Barrier Reef offers diverse activities and experiences, including diving, snorkeling, sailing, sleeping on it, kayaking, learning about it, and flying above it. Tourism is one of the major industries in the Great Barrier Reef region, with approximately 2.19 million people visiting each year. Today, the diversity of Reef tourism products, services, and activities includes charter fishing, bareboat sailing, cruise shipping, helicopter and seaplane rides.

Some visitors choose to visit the reef for its novelty value or use hotels as navigation aids. To manage tourism use in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, participants explored how World Heritage Marine sites can make their local tourism industry more sustainable for both people and the environment.

What are 3 reasons why the Great Barrier Reef is important?

The Great Barrier Reef is crucial for protecting coastlines, providing essential habitats, medical research, water purification, carbon dioxide absorption, supporting healthy fishing industries, generating billions of dollars for Australia, and climate tracking. However, it is in grave danger due to global warming, creating inhospitable seas and potentially causing the entire coral ecosystem to be lost.

Coral reefs form barriers for coastlines, acting as a buffer from waves and storms from the open ocean. Without coral reefs, many towns could face significant impacts, such as flooding and damage to their infrastructure.

Why is the Great Barrier Reef so famous?

The Great Barrier Reef, spanning over 14 degrees of latitude, is one of the world’s most complex natural ecosystems. Covering 344, 400 square kilometers, it includes the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem, 3000 coral reefs, 600 continental islands, 300 coral cays, and 150 inshore mangrove islands. The park, created in 1975 through the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act, spans between 60 and 250 kilometers in width, has an average depth of 35 meters in its inshore waters, and extends into the airspace above and beneath the seabed. The reef’s intricate architecture also provides a home for a vast number of animals and plants. The park’s unique features make it a must-see for nature enthusiasts.

How is Great Barrier Reef used?

In a 2017 presentation, Dr. Woolsey underscored the necessity of safeguarding coral reefs, citing their role in sustaining livelihoods for millions, mitigating shoreline erosion, and offering compounds with potential therapeutic applications. Despite occupying a mere 0. 1% of the global sea floor, coral reefs are home to approximately 25% of the world’s marine biodiversity.

Why is the Great Barrier Reef worth visiting?

The Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral reef system, spans over 2, 300 kilometers and features over 2, 900 separate reefs and 900 islands. Despite being damaged, the reef remains a vibrant ecosystem and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is home to over 1, 500 fish species, 400 coral species, and numerous marine flora and fauna. The reef is located off the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, between 20 and 160 km (12 – 100 miles) out in the Coral Sea.

Its corals serve as a crucial breeding ground for numerous marine species that venture into the world’s oceans. Accessible as a day trip from Cairns, Port Douglas, and Airlie Beach, the Great Barrier Reef is a must-see for marine enthusiasts.

What can visitors do at the Great Barrier Reef?

The Great Barrier Reef offers a variety of tourism activities, including day tours, overnight and extended tours, snorkeling, scuba diving, fishing charters, long-range roving tours, aircraft or helicopter tours, bare boats, glass-bottomed boat viewing, semi-submersibles, educational trips, cruise ships, beach hire, water sports, passenger ferries, whale watching, and swimming with dolphins. The marine tourism industry contributes over $4.

228 billion per annum to the local and Australian economy, making it the largest commercial activity in the region and presenting the World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef Marine Park to a wide range of visitors.

How do people travel around the Great Barrier Reef?

The Great Barrier Reef can be accessed by car or boat depending on the location. For mainland visitors, renting a car is the best way to reach attractions in and around Cairns. For those planning to spend their vacation on remote areas like the Whitsunday Islands or Lizard Island, catching a boat is the best option. Cairns Airport (CNS) is the tourist hub of Queensland, and many visitors fly into it.

However, changing planes in Sydney or Brisbane is necessary to reach Cairns from the U. S. If flying directly to the reef’s islands, the Great Barrier Reef Airport (HTI) on Hamilton Island is the best option.

If you’re not planning to spend the entire vacation on the secluded islands, renting a car can be a convenient option. The Captain Cook Highway runs from Cairns to Mossman, with tourist towns like Palm Cove and Port Douglas in between. Scenic drives along the Whitsundays coastline are also available. Rental agencies are stationed at Cairns Airport and Airlie Beach.

For scenic island-hopping, consider booking a charter or plane tour with one of the reef’s charter operators. GBR Helicopters, GSL Aviation, and Air Whitsunday offer transfers between Cairns Airport and the reef’s islands starting at 189 Australian dollars ($140) per person. These operators also offer sightseeing tours, with daylong tours that include island stopovers.

How does the Great Barrier Reef help with tourism?

The Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest, most well-known, and most effectively managed coral reef, attracts tourists due to its diverse species and its long-term attractiveness as a tourism destination. The majority of tourism activity occurs in approximately seven of the total 34 sites that comprise the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

What are the benefits of the Great Barrier Reef?

Tropical coral reef ecosystems, which occupy less than 1% of Earth’s surface, are home to at least 25 known marine species. These ecosystems provide food, shelter, resting, breeding grounds, and refuges for millions of species, including turtles, dolphins, whales, and manta rays. Coral reefs are a vital source of livelihood for over a billion people worldwide.

How much tourism does the Great Barrier Reef attract?

The Great Barrier Reef, a popular tourist destination, attracts approximately 2. 19 million visitors annually, contributing $5. 89 billion to the Australian economy and employing around 69, 000 people. The region’s reputation as the “most pristine coral reef on the planet” is a key competitive advantage. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMPA) manages the area to minimize tourism impact, including permits for camping and commercial marine tourism. However, rising coral bleaching, coastal development, and tourism impacts have negatively impacted the reef’s biodiversity.

The earliest known tourism in the region began in the 1890s on Green Island. Scientific field expeditions and visiting Aboriginal missions were briefly popular tourist activities, but missionaries disapproved of tourists giving money and goods to Aboriginals. Torres Strait Islanders relocated south to demonstrate turtle hunting and performed songs and dances for tourists.

In 1931, The Morning Bulletin called for increased awareness of tourism in the area, highlighting the game fish caught in the region. Tourism largely stopped during World War II. However, during the 1960s and 1970s, tourist numbers grew steadily, and transport improved. The remoteness of some parts of the Great Barrier Reef has naturally prevented access and human impacts.

What makes the Great Barrier Reef a popular tourist destination?

The Great Barrier Reef, one of the seven natural wonders of the world, is the world’s largest living reef system and the largest living structure on Earth. Covering 344, 400 km2, it is about the size of Japan or Italy or 70 million football fields. The reef is home to 2, 900 individual coral reefs, containing an array of marine life including 600 types of soft and hard coral, over 100 species of jellyfish, 3000 varieties of molluscs, 500 species of worms, 1625 types of fish, 133 varieties of sharks and rays, and over 30 species of whales and dolphins. Ten of the world’s fish population can be found within the reef alone.

How do coral reefs provide tourism?

Seafood provides food security, employment, coastal defense, and new medicines for various illnesses. On-reef tourism generates $19 million annually. However, 75 of the world’s reefs are threatened, and by the 2030s, over 90 will be threatened by human activities, warming, and ocean acidification. Increased tourist numbers and irresponsible business practices will further threaten these reefs. Reducing direct local threats, such as diving-related damage, is critical to make coral reefs more resilient and healthier, ensuring a more hopeful future for coral reef ecosystems. Preventable business practices and irresponsible tourist behaviors are essential to reducing these threats and ensuring a healthier future for coral reefs.