Balancing tourism with the environment
Happy New Year. I hope you had a chance for a break over the holiday period and are excited about 2018.
I got to spend some time in Tasman over the break and the good summer has been great news for tourism based on the number of people I’ve seen in the region.
This part of the world fills up over summer as people come to enjoy our wonderful beaches, rivers, bike tracks and the topquality food and produce available. Visitors to the region are truly spoilt for choice.
The growth in visitor numbers to Tasman has been exponential in recent years. For example, Abel Tasman National Park now has more than 300,000 visitors annually. The increase in visitors brings benefits and challenges.
It is a constant balancing act to ensure that we reap the economic rewards of tourism, which is more than $300 million a year, without damaging the special environments people come to enjoy.
Many years ago I owned and operated a tourism business on the West Coast, which included white water rafting on the Buller River and jetboating its swift, clear, green waters.
The key part of that business was not the boats, rafts or even, to a degree, the people we hired, but the environment in which we operated. We were careful not to sully it and realised its importance for our brand and ongoing success.
The Tasman’s physical environment combined with its leading exploits, including vineyards and fruit growing, provide excellent branding opportunities to maximise the region’s appeal to visitors.
Sustainability is a word that is thrown around a lot, but it has real importance to people who visit the region.
They want to know that the fruit they eat and the wine they drink are sustainably produced while the beaches they swim on are sustainably managed so they can continue to enjoy them in the future.
There are plenty of great examples of local business who’ve adapted to meet visitors’ changing needs.
Last year, tourism companies including Abel Tasman Canyons, R&R Kayaks and Wilsons Abel Tasman scooped Nelson-Tasman business awards thanks to their giving visitors a high-end experience.
For example, Wilsons Abel Tasman developed trips into the park that allowed for a lower impact on the environment.
I think there is widespread acknowledgement today – just look at the perennial controversy surrounding freedom campers – that to make the most of our tourism opportunities we must not take every dollar possible at the expense of our environment.
If we want a sustainable, and lucrative, future for tourism in the Tasman we must look to branding that highlights the care we take of our natural treasures.