Turn tourism to our advantage
Forging community acceptance and dispersing the crowds will ease path for a growing industry, writes Can Seng Ooi
TASMANIA is attracting ever more visitors. There are serious concerns about the state’s capacity to host them. The good news is that we can be in control of our own tourism destiny.
Singapore is twice the size of Bruny Island, and the island state houses six million people, and welcomes 16 million tourists a year. Tasmania should not be a Singapore. Nonetheless, Singapore shows the potential of what deliberate planning and regulations can do.
The vast beautiful resources Tasmania has should be protected, if not reclaimed and enriched. We also want to be a dynamic, forward-looking, openhearted and prosperous place. We want young Tasmanians to find jobs and stay here. Tourism can help in these.
The fear of over-tourism is understandable. Basically the fundamental challenge in preventing over-tourism is to match tourist numbers with tourism capacity. There are four scenarios. Scenario 1: Decreased tourist numbers + No change to tourism capacity = Reduced tourism growth.
Scenario 2: Decreased tourist numbers + Increased tourism capacity = An underutilised destination.
Scenario 3: Increased tourist numbers + No change to tourism capacity = Overtourism.
Scenario 4: Increased popularity with tourists + Increased tourism capacity = Sustained tourism growth.
Scenario 4 is the one we should aim towards. We can control the popularity of Tasmania by increasing advertising or making it harder to visit this island. We can also control the tourism capacity of the island.
Matching capacity to tourism numbers means ensuring that there is enough infrastructure for residents and visitors. This includes accommodation that will not put affordability pressures on the local housing market, removing traffic congestion with a more efficient public transportation system, physical space development that prevents over-crowding, and ensuring that facilities and amenities are sufficient and shared comfortably by all parties.
We should also try to activate the under-utilised tourism capacity during offpeak periods. The seasons are often seen as a hindrance to tourism development in Tasmania. They are not necessarily an insurmountable challenge.
There are other forms of tourism, such as the meeting, incentives, congress and exhibition, the MICE market. Holding visitor-drawing events during the off-peak season makes good sense, as proven by the winter festival, Dark Mofo.
Similarly, cities that host headquarters and regional offices will attract business visitors; visitors come throughout the year and their visits are less dependent on the climate. Tassie has good internet connection and has a world-class university producing quality graduates.
If necessary, we attract talents to make the island an attractive regional, if not international, business hub.
This strategy, however, may need the airports in Hobart and Launceston to be upgraded and to offer more connections.
Is it not time for us to host a United Nations office?
Tasmania offers more than nature. Mona has made Hobart into a cultural mecca. Gastronomy and weekend breaks have become popular on the island.
With increased numbers of visitors, it is also important to disperse the crowds so that they do not congregate in only a few places. One way of doing so is to have more attractions to draw people into different spots, thinning out crowds from the usual tourist areas.
There are huge potentials on the island, as existing and new attractions in regional places can be clustered, repackaged, re-framed and aggressively promoted. Clusters of diverse attractions are popular and they can be scattered around the island. Unobtrusive specialised attractions, such as familyfriendly entertainment parks and new pop culture offerings are possibilities.
Visitors want nature but the same visitors also want other experiences. Very few visitors have only a singular interest when they travel. They are more likely to travel further afield when there are more and different things to do over there.
Finally, it is also important to know when to say “stop”. If tourism capacity does not
Unobtrusive specialised attractions such as family-friendly entertainment parks and new pop culture offerings are possibilities
match tourism growth, then visitor numbers must be curtailed. It is also time to say “stop” when community support is lacking.
We can again methodologically look at the situation through four scenarios:
Scenario 1: Lack of community support for tourism development + No tourism growth = The economy is not dependent on the tourism industry. Economic development has to come from other sectors.
Scenario 2: Lack of community support for tourism development + Tourism growth = Unhappy residents, probably because of the lack of local consultation. Community support has not been nurtured, and the benefits of tourism are not felt by all in the community.
Scenario 3: Community support for tourism development + No tourism growth = Poor tourism development planning and policies. Opportunities from
tourism are being missed.
Scenario 4: Community support for tourism development + Tourism growth = Balanced and socially sensitive tourism development. Community support is more likely when there is a fair distribution of tourism benefits to the community. Tourism resources are used for community development.
Tourism has become more integrated into Tasmanian society. The industry brings about many advantages. But if overcrowding occurs and a large portion of the local community does not feel that the industry is benefiting them, then the industry will not be sustainable.
The good news is that we can manage our tourism destiny. We need sensitive and balanced development, based on sound planning policies and regulations. We can build tourism capacity and use tourism resources to serve the local community.