Destination attractive to tourists
Discuss about the Geography of Tourism and Recreation System.
The aim of the report is to outline the major tourism destinations issues that are associated with the location. The tourist location on which this report has been prepared is Gold coast, Australia. Gold Coast is the coastal city in the Australian state of the Queensland. This place is known for the best places to eat, to stay and to enjoy the stunning beaches along with the chilled vibes of the Burleigh heads or the salty chic of the Broad beach (Australia, 2018). The report includes the tourist visitation in the location along with the attractive destination available on the Gold Coast with the help of the related tourism system, motivation, and satisfaction theories present in the unit. It also includes the negative and the positive impact of the tourism activity on the host community at the location. In the end, the paper includes the 4 policy implications that are essential to achieve the sustainable tourism outcomes for the destination.
Since the establishment of the Gold coast Tourism Corporation in the tourism industry by the year 1975, has operated as a membership-based destination based marketing organisation that represent the sector and generate the rise in the visitor demand, visitor’s arrivals and the visitor’s expenditure for the benefit of the city (Gold Coast Tourism Corporation, 2018). Considering the recent figures, there are approx. more than 6 million tourists who have visited Australia from the year 2012 to 2013 and this make it the region’s biggest industry. Considering the research done by the tourism research Australia, the place has approx. 66% of the gold coast visitors are female and 34% are male. The biggest age group that visits the location include the age group of 35-44 years that reflects approx. 23% of the gold coast visitations. The second largest group who visit the location falls under the age group of 45-54 years which is followed by 25-34 years (Gold Coast Holiday Rental, 2014).
The people who visit the place belongs to the different lifestyles, the report reflects that 48% of the visitors have family along with this 15% of people are a young/midlife couple with no children followed by the older working couples/single. In addition, the visitors include 10% young/midlife single with no kids and remaining 13% are older people who are included in the non-working single/couple (Gold Coast Holiday Rental, 2014). The place is not only occupied by the visitors but also by the people who visit as the immediate family member and join by their partners. 43% of the visitors in the Gold Coast come with their immediate family member and 29% are joined by their partners. In addition to this, there are 18% who come here with their friends and family while 5% go here alone on the weekends.
Issues related to tourism and destination development at the location
The Gold Coast attracts the tourist because of its attractive destinations which makes them visits the place again and again. The location has major tourist attraction includes its pristine beaches that are considered some of the best across the world. Along with this, the other attractive destinations include a Broad beach, Main Beach, Surfers Paradise, Currumbin and many others (Saunders, 2017). Considering the intrinsic motivation theory that is related to the tourism, there are many people who satisfy their psychological needs which include exploring things, learning about the new culture, relaxation and additional leisure activities (Correia, Kozak and Ferradeira, 2013). The tourist who visits gold coast satisfies their needs of traveling, performing leisure activities, self-expression, and self-assurance, creativity, competition, exploring novelty and capabilities and need for the relaxation. The visitors can make themselves relax on the beaches of the goal coast along with this they can perform the numerous leisure activities. This will fulfill the psychological needs due to which the place become attractive for the visitors.
Along with this, the Gold Coast is the place where the tourist can get a link with the environment and nature which makes them feel pleasure. This is possible by visiting the places like Sea Wold gold Coast, Spring brook National Park and the wildlife century. This shows that the theory of the system approach is implemented in which a set elements standing in interrelation among themselves and with the environment (Cohen and Cohen, 2012). The tourism system involves several interrelation parts that work together to accomplish the common purpose. Considering the same theory, people visit the gold coast because they want to get linked to the environment of the place.
There are numerous issues that are associated with the tourism activities and the destination development at the Gold Coast. Some of them are discussed below: –
The tourists who visit the place are not able to access more area of the national park and rainforest area. The tourist doesn’t get satisfied with the limited access of the environmental area due to which there is need of the development of the new activities that can easily grab the attention of the tourists. Though, this is accessibility leads to the issue because tourist gets the permit to access the environment then they might affect the nature and the environment resources, for instance; putting waste on the places, risk of exploitation of resources and many others (Ma and Hassink, 2013). Along with this, the development will lead to the removal of the plants and shrubs from the rainforest to make the space for the walking trails. These are the some of the issues that are related to the development of the Gold coast tourism (Barbier, et al,2011).
Impact of Tourism Activity on host community at Gold Coast
There is need of the effective accommodation and entertainment at a location but this is the fact that overdevelopment at the place leads to the major impact on the environment of the country which is a major issue (Moore, 2018). Mangrove forests and the seagrass meadows were removed due to which the Gold coastal was able to provide the open beaches facilities to their visitors. These developments also lead to the wastage of the natural resources which might be utilized effectively in the areas for some other purposes.
The tourism activities include the recreational activity which leads to the issues in the Gold Coast. The recreational activities like four-wheel driving lead to the exploitation of the sand dunes and vegetation’s and the bottom-trawling in Great Barrier Reef lead to the negative impact on the biodiversity. Most of the visitors at the tourist place dumped non-biodegradable rubbish into the sand which affects the environment of the gold coast. Along with this, the activities that take place near the beach area also exploit the water resources like the construction of the sea walls and the marinas for the advantage of the human’s leads to the erosion of the marine and estuarine environments (Page and Hall, 2014). This exploitation is one of the major issues that are associated with the tourism in Gold Coast.
The rise in the population of the cruise ships in the area has also affected the marine environment. These cruise ships lead to the marine pollution in numerous ways like the dumping of garbage and untreated sewage at sea and release the other shipping that is linked with the pollutants. Along with this, the rise in the cruise ships also affects the marine animal as this garbage affects their lifestyle and leads to the numerous diseases (Cohen and Cohen, 2012). In addition, these marine animals are consumed by most of the visitors due to which they might get affected. Therefore, the tourism also leads to some of the issues.
Tourism has been said to be a key industry, and several private organizations and government have now become aware of the tourism potential, both as an instrument and investment of policy of the government to increase employment opportunities and economic growth (West and Bayne, 2018).
As per the research conducted by the Tourism Queensland, 55% of the local people approved that the tourism has an optimistic or positive impact on their living and on local society (Gursoy, Chi and Dyer, 2010). Similarly, the same percentage of people approved that their domestic area must keep always appealing the tourists as it provides various advantages to both to the region and to residents. While researching it was noticed that 90% of local residents said that there is improved economic growth in Gold Coast. 20% of them replied that increasing tourism in Gold Coast has a positive or optimistic effect on the individual’s life quality and 62% of people agreed that there is a positive influence on the society as a whole (Gold Coast Holiday Rentals, 2014).
In the meantime, 59% approved that there is the benefit of tourism in Gold Coast as it has resulted in increasing the local pride. 62% people replied that they have experienced enhanced facility upkeep because of the fact that maximum of the visitors reaches their every year. Likewise, 77% approve that due to the increasing tourism, innovative and new infrastructure was constructed whereas 72% approve that tourism has resulted in increasing the number of tourism activities at the location (Gold Coast Holiday Rentals, 2014).
There are various positive effects of tourism on the physical environment of the Gold Coast. Influencing people to experience things and locations personally is actually an operative method of endorsing environmental preservation.
The main impact of tourism in Gold Coast is economic development or growth that is foreign exchange earnings, contributions to the revenue of government, generating business opportunities, and increase employment opportunities.
Contribution to the revenue of Government- The revenue of the government from the sector of tourism in Gold Coast can be categorized as an indirect contribution and direct contribution. The indirect contribution is derived from the duties and taxes on the services and goods delivered to tourism, for instance, alcohol, service of the tour operators, restaurants, and taxes on tickets, souvenirs, and hotels.
Foreign exchange earnings- Expenditures of Tourism, the import and export of the related services and goods make income for the Gold Coast’s economy. Tourism is said to be the key foundation of the foreign exchange earnings in the Gold Coast and also for other countries which covers around 38% of the earnings of the country.
Employment generation- The quick growth of the global tourism has resulted in the substantial creation of the employment. Tourism has created jobs opportunities directly in the Gold Coast by taxis, souvenir sales, hotels, and indirectly by supplying services and goods required by the businesses related to tourism, for instance, conducted tour operators (Farr, 2018). Tourism involves around 7% of the employees of the whole world. Encouragement of the investment of the infrastructure Tourism has influenced the domestic government of Gold Coast in order to develop the infrastructure by making improved systems of sewage and water, electricity, telephone, public transport networks, and roads. All this has enhanced the living standard of the people in Gold Coast. [For further details related to the employment please refer appendix 1)
Contribution to the local Economies- Tourism is an important and an essential portion of the domestic economy. As it is known that environment is a key constituent of the asset of the tourism industry, revenue of tourism is frequently utilized to evaluate the economic value of the safe areas. Some portion of the tourism income arises from the informal employment, like informal guides and street vendors.
If there are positive impacts of tourism in the Gold Coast then it possesses negative impacts even. In regards to economic disadvantages, domestic communities need to fund the demands of the tourist, which results in an increase in the taxes. The total living prices are increasing in the Gold Coast in terms of rates, and rent, along with the values of the property are going upwards. This is a problematic situation for the local people who are thinking to purchase property or land, etc. Additionally, in order to balance the destinations of tourism, the locals to tourists need to be comparatively equal. This becomes more difficult for the tourists at the destinations because their entree can be denied (Mdusm, 2016).
Another negative impact of sociocultural changes is the moral and social values of the domestic society and the visiting tourist. Besides the disturbing relations of the local and tourist, it also results in the friction among groups of the native population. Moreover, it causes drifts in the changing aspects between the new generations and old generations. Tourism has connected with the increase of criminal behaviors in the local society. Along with this tourism has also resulted in the disturbance in the local communities of Gold Coast. Crowding of residents and visitors generate a vibrant atmosphere, it causes obstruction and results in the removal of native residents in numerous places. Augmented tourists have also increased the traffic in Gold Coast which is affecting the daily life of the residents.
National Long-Term Tourism Strategy- National Long run strategy of tourism is also said as a truly national approach to Australia. This strategy or policy is implemented so that tourism can be encouraged at the national level for the long time duration. This strategy possesses engagement of industries in the development of the strategy (Dredge and Jamal, 2013). The strategy helps in identifying the natural environment of Australia as the important part to attract people towards the tourism places of Australia such as Gold Coast.
The major focus of the strategy is on the challenge of the changes in the climate and opportunities. Along with this it also focuses on the sustainable management of the tourism destinations like Gold Coast.
Industry Resilience Working Group- This policy focuses on the sustainability issues that are faced by the tourism industry in the country, for example, changing climate implications which involve mitigations and adaptation.
Destination planning and management Working Groups- These working groups concentrate on growing collaboration of the destinations such as Gold Coast through emerging strategies to increase the region potential of the tourism. The working groups are operating with the program of National Landscapes as the model to increase the collaboration of the tourism region’s cross-jurisdictional.
Promotion of Renewable Energy- This strategy and policy of the government of Australia have devoted to confirming that the 20% of the supply of electricity by 2020 will arrive from the renewable resources. This policy has involved tourism sector also of the country (Australian Government, 2018).
Conclusion
In the end, it can be concluded that Gold Coast, Australia is a very attractive place for the visitors as this provide the connection of the people with the environment. Moreover, the analysis of the tourist visitation reflects that there are numerous people who visit the place from both domestic and international market. There is a rise in the number of the tourist in Gold coast because this is considered as one of the attractive places for the tourist. The issues related to the tourism and destination development at the location are increasing because of the increase in a number of tourists. In addition, the tourism activity leads to the positive and the negative impact on the host community at the Gold Coast. In the end, it includes the policy implications to accomplish sustainable tourism results for the destination.
References
Australia (2018) Guide to the Gold Coast [Online]. Available from: https://www.australia.com/en-in/places/gold-coast-and-surrounds/guide-to-the-gold-coast.html [Accessed on 27th May 2018]
Australian Government (2018) Enhancing Australia’s Economic Prosperity [online]. Available from https://www.oecd.org/cfe/tourism/45558040.pdf [accessed 27 May 2018]
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Gold Coast Holiday Rentals (2014) Positive Effects of Gold Coast Tourism [online]. Available from https://gchr.com.au/holiday-information/positive-effects-of-gold-coast-tourism/ [Accessed 27 May 2018]
Gold Coast Tourism Corporation (2018) We Are Destination Gold Coast [Online]. Available from: https://www.destinationgoldcoast.com/corporate [Accessed on 27th May 2018]
Gursoy, D., Chi, C.G. and Dyer, P. (2010) Locals’ attitudes toward mass and alternative tourism: The case of Sunshine Coast, Australia. Journal of Travel Research, 49(3), pp.381-394.
Ma, M. and Hassink, R. (2013) An evolutionary perspective on tourism area development. Annals of Tourism Research, 41, pp.89-109.
Mdusm, P. (2016) The positive and negative effects of Tourism on the social-cultural environment of a country [online]. Available from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/positive-negative-effects-tourism-social-cultural-prince-mdusman [Accessed 27 May 2018]
Moore, S. (2018) Gold Coast Tourism Scoping Study [Online]. Available from: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.468.8768&rep=rep1&type=pdf [Accessed on 27th May 2018]
Page, S.J. and Hall, C.M. (2014) The geography of tourism and recreation: Environment, place and space. New York: Routledge.
Regional Development Gold Coast (2013) Regional Profile [online]. Available from https://rdagoldcoast.org.au/files/3913/8377/7775/FINAL_Regional_Profile_2013.pdf [Accessed 27 May 2018]
Saunders, J. (2017) Why The Gold Coast Is Australia’s Tourism Destination Of Choice [Online]. Available from: https://wearegoldcoast.com.au/business-and-invest/gc-australias-tourism-capital/ [Accessed on 27th May 2018]
West, G., and Bayne, B. (2018) The Economic Impacts Of Tourism On The Gold Coast [online]. Available from https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.628.2842&rep=rep1&type=pdf [Accessed 27 May 2018]
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