A Tasmanian wildlife centre is re-inventing the concept of wildlife tourism while at the same time playing a key role in saving the now-endangered Tasmanian devil.

The long established Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park on Tasman Peninsula in Tasmania’s South East is set to become a model for 21st century wildlife tourism.

Under the guidance of Jon Coe, the internationally acclaimed zoo architect, the park is reinventing the concept of what a wildlife centre should be and expanding its visitor experiences to include field surveys of local fauna and flora.

“Jon Coe has a vision that tips conventional zoo thinking upside-down and we have accepted the challenge,” park founder and director, John Hamilton said.

“However, as we are a small family run centre, we believe we are in a position to completely rebuild our park to embrace a number of world-first principles,” he said.

Multilingual New Age interpretation will range from SMS text messaging for Gen Y visitors to eco-talks by zoologists about the park’s efforts to help save the now-endangered Tasmanian devil.

“The “new” park will be open by late 2008 and if we achieve Jon Coe’s objectives he believes it will become a model for the way wildlife is kept and managed for the next century,” John Hamilton said.

For the past three years the park has been a leader in Tasmanian devil conservation programmes that include developing a road traffic grid to stop diseased devils crossing the gateway bridge to the isolated Tasman Peninsula and breeding founder devils for restocking the region.

The park’s new visitor experiences also will extend to monitoring the local wild devil population as part of a project to make Tasman Peninsula the major disease-free sanctuary for wild Tasmanian devils.

Following extensive consultation with the nature-based tourism industry, the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment, Parks Victoria and Tourism Victoria have released a new licensing system for tourism businesses operating on public lands. The new licensing policy includes changes to the length, fees and conditions of licences, with the aim of ensuring a more sustainable nature-based tourism industry and the conservation of parks, forests and reserves.

Further information: http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/DSE/nrenrt.nsf/fid/C40836B334C7DDCF
CA2574500 08362CC

The Project AWARE Foundation and Reef Check Foundation have formally partnered to protect coral reefs around the world. Project AWARE and Reef Check both rely on dedicated volunteer divers to collect relevant data for their monitoring programs. Project AWARE’s CoralWatch monitoring, implemented in partnership with the University of Queensland in 2005, collects information on the intensity of coral bleaching and recovery. Since 1997, Reef Check has carried out an annual global scientific survey of human impacts on coral reefs.

Further information:
http://www.projectaware.org/americas/english/hipages/coralreefs.asp

The Australian National Landscapes Program is a partnership between Tourism Australia and Parks Australia aims to identify and promote world-class landscapes distinctive to Australia. The National Landscapes program was launched in December 2006 and in June 2008 seven subsequent landscapes were named at the Australian Tourism Exchange. Detailed information on each individual national landscape, including maps, video and things to do and see can be found on the website.

Further information: http://www.experiencescapes.com/

The Department of Tourism, Regional Development and Industry supports regional, industry and business development in Queensland through a range of strategic business assistance activities including financial incentive schemes.

Further information: http://www.industry.qld.gov.au/dsdweb/v4/apps/web/
content.cfm?id=4977

Australia has topped the Expedia Vacation Deprivation survey for a second time as the world’s worst takers in entitled annual leave. Reasons for the trend included financial pressures, rising interest rates and addiction to work commitments. The results have psychologists concerned with the mental and social impacts entailing holiday deprivation on the Australian population, especially when Australians receive the second lowest amount of annual leave in the world with 18 days, only 4 more than the Americans.

Further information: http://press.expedia.com/index.php?s=pageB

New research on the Australian spa industry by Intelligent Spas’ has identified spa numbers have grown 152% over the last five years. The new Australia Spa Benchmark Report 2002-2010 identifies current industry trends observed by spa owners and managers, as well as over 450 statistics on financial benchmarks covering revenue (per spa, visitor and square metre), visits and employment. Many of the benchmarks are available by spa type and also detail infrastructure, business models and treatments.

Further information: http://www.intelligentspas.com/main/details_SIS.asp

http://milan5665.blogspot.com/2008/05/my-carbon-footprint_15.html

At the recent global Aviation and Environment Summit in Geneva, commercial aviation industry leaders signed a declaration on climate change to lead towards carbon neutral growth and a totally sustainable industry. The declaration brought together all sectors of commercial aviation including manufacturers, airlines, airports, and air traffic control. The declaration outlines aviation’s concept of ‘carbon neutral growth’ with an aspiration goal of carbon-free flight. The industry will achieve this through focusing on investment in new technology, increasing operational efficiency, air traffic and airport infrastructure improvements and appropriate economic measures.

Further information: http://www.enviro.aero/declaration.aspx and http://www.enviro.aero/Home.aspx

Carepar is a new sector benchmark for hotels and venues which allows business and leisure travellers to understand the emissions involved in their hotel usage, whether for accommodation, conferences or events. Launched by The Hotel Carbon Index Company – Carepar (Carbon Emission Per Room Available) is on target to become the industry standard classification with information including room sizes, fuel bills, recycling initiatives supplied by hoteliers and venues.

Further information: http://www.carepar.com/

The South Australian Tourism Commission, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and Ecotourism Australia have released a pilot program for the Climate Action Australia Certification Scheme. Tony Charters and Associates won the tender to develop the scheme and drafted the program over four months from March 2008.

Thirty operators from South Australia and the Great Barrier Reef are participating in the pilot, which will be launched at the upcoming Green Travel, Climate Change and Ecotourism Conference.

Holiday-makers and travellers will easily be able to judge the efforts being made by tourism operators to reduce or eliminate the carbon footprint of their operation with a new certification system being launched by Ecotourism Australia’s new arm Climate Action Australia.

The Climate Action Australia scheme is dedicated to ranking efforts to neutralise carbon emission -from entry level through to 100 per cent off-set and extending to climate change adaptation.

It is designed for all sectors of the tourism industry, regardless of size and level of carbon reduction already undertaken. It will include the tourism hotels, attractions, tours, transport, restaurants, travel agents, tourism commissions and industry bodies.

This certification scheme will be a user-friendly, online application with an online help desk, and automatic filtering so businesses only deal with relevant questions.

The pricing structure will be based on turnover, ensuring the many small businesses in the tourism sector will achieve and maintain certification for under $500 per year.

Climate Action Australia will provide businesses with:
* an understanding of climate change concepts and terminology;
* awareness of credible offsetting activities that can be undertaken;
* clear and practical ways of reducing their carbon footprint – reducing carbon emissions through design, equipment selection and changes in operational practices;
* best practice examples relevant to the business sector and operating environment;
* approaches to adaptation that will assist both the individual enterprise and the collective industry and community within its area of operation.

For more information contact Ecotourism Australia www.ecotourism.org.au

The development stage of the Tourism Excellence program has recently been completed. Tourism Excellence has been designed to help tourism businesses and destinations get the best from their workforce, deliver the best possible visitor experience, grow tourism by working together, and ensure a sustainable industry. The Tourism Excellence modules and website include case studies and resources, made it easy to develop and structure the workshops.

Further information: http://www.tourismexcellence.com.au/

“The reality is Australia can drop its prices all it likes – but we will never compete on price with our Asian neighbours while their workers earn in a month what our workers earn in a day. We must offer quality experiences that appeal to tourists on the basis of their uniqueness and bragging rights – not their price.”

Tony Charters convened the 2008 Tourism Futures conference last month and was surrounded by an industry that was becoming increasingly gloomy.

With a record attendance of 450 delegates gathered at Crowne Plaza Royal Pines on the Gold Coast, the mood was reminiscent of the post September 11 and the Ansett collapse with talk of the lowest visitor number in three decades, record fuel prices. That week Qantas had announced cessation of long haul leisure destination flights.

“There are some major challenges facing the industry. The issue of fuel is monumental in itself. On top of that the industry is facing up to climate change and what it means for business. And the whole area of building visitor numbers and marketing is a colossal challenge – but there were some very inspiring guide ropes into the future,” said Mr Charters.

Leading US technology and online travel expert, Philip Wolf, president and CEO of PhoCusWright addressed the conference over the three days, giving real insights into where the market is heading and how to capitalise on new technologies.

“Philip was able to shine a torch light into the future for us. For example the consumer market in the USA is now booking half of its entire travel online – this far exceeds the Australian take-up of online bookings. For small operators this represents a huge opportunity – in theory every operator now has the same potential to reach their customers. Philip really did give us a head-start on how to take the initiative and be prepared for the coming decade,” said Mr Charters.

Australian operators and major government agencies shared their experiences and strategies, including the successful branding of Victoria and the city of Melbourne.

And while the city of Sydney is struggling, there is some promise in New South Wales.

“The overhaul of New South Wales Parks is one of the most exciting makeovers in the country. It has adopted a very progressive and entrepreneurial approach to the parks, developing some very interesting partnerships with industry and using the parks, which are a truly significant national asset, to mature our tourism product – particularly in the regions.

“Daniel Levine, a keynote speaker who is an international trend-spotter fully supported the focus on the environment and pointed out that beach holidays alone were never going attract North Americans or Europeans in numbers. It is our unique wildlife that is a really valuable asset and we have failed to capitalise on it to date.”

Just like Southern Africa promotes its ‘big five’, Australia may soon go one better and be the home of the ‘big six’ and rather than shying away from the long haul travel it takes to get to here, Australia could soon be promoting the vast open spaces.

While Australia is considered one of the world’s most desirable destinations, the marketing pitch needs to target the baby boomers and backpackers who have plenty of time, as well as tapping into the 2 billion people to our north.

“It is not sustainable for New Zealand to be our major inbound source market,” said Mr Charters.

“We need to get on the front foot about our isolation, our unique wildlife and our natural assets. We can offer amazingly different experiences within the safety of a stable, clean, friendly environment.”

For a full review of the conference a CD Rom of conference proceedings and the communiqué can be purchased via www.tourismfutures.com.au

“Regions need to be looking at what the domestic visitor wants now and at opportunities for the future,” Kate said.

Rose Wright from the Regional Tourism Research Centre will be presenting on food, farm and nature based tourism. Ms Wright will be talking about agricultural diversification and business strategies that enable regions to broaden their economic base using tourism.

The unique Hidden Treasures partnership was developed by an innovative group of shires and communities in Western Australia to demonstrate that small disparate communities working together can create a viable tourism destination. Based in the Great Southern area of Western Australia, Manny Papadoulis the Principal of Icon Tourism will talk about how Hidden Treasures developed into the success story it is today.

In addition to over 50 case studies on practical responses to the needs across regional Australia SEGRA is host to 15 nationally recognised experts on broader issues facing regional Australia – population change, economic change, political change, indigenous issues, the role of government.

For more information or to register please visit www.segra.com.au/segra or phone 07 3210 0021.