Promoting the Great Barrier Reef as an international icon that everyone should visit in their lifetime is critical to its future protection and the prosperity of the many regional communities that this World Heritage area supports.
On behalf of the Regional Tourism Organisations that promote the Great Barrier Reef, Tourism Tropical North Queensland is seeking bipartisan support for the next Federal Government to invest $15 million over three years into the Great Barrier Reef Recovery Fund.
This Fund would build on the success of the Federal Government’s $15 million International Tourism Recovery Program and generate $250 million in visitor spend creating 1300 jobs in regional Australia.
Without this funding the Regional Tourism Organisations along the Great Barrier Reef will not have sufficient funds to market the Great Barrier Reef which is a critical attraction in making Queensland a strong international destination.
Over the past two years the International Tourism Recovery Program funded more than 150 campaigns which to date have delivered one-quarter of the region’s international visitors, $175 million in spend and $340 million in publicity, bringing an extra 160,000 international visitors to Australia.
It also enabled the Guardian of the Reef campaign to draw global attention to the need to visit the Great Barrier Reef resulting in $14.3 million in sales of Great Barrier Reef products and more than $20 million in publicity reaching 200 million consumers globally.
This media attention is necessary because negative global publicity about the Great Barrier Reef’s health, amplified by global bleaching events increasing in frequency, is impacting international perception about visiting the Reef. In 2023 we had 500,000 less reef visitors than in 2019.
The negative publicity also undermines the significant contributions being made by the Federal and Queensland governments as well as philanthropic groups with management, conservation, restoration and water quality programs. The reef tourism industry has been an active partner in reef conservation, monitoring and restoration since the 1950s but their future is at risk from a lack of understanding of the role that every visitor plays in the future health of the Reef.
The health of the Great Barrier Reef also reflects on Australia’s global reputation as a protector and manager of our natural wonders. With a $4.4 billion combined spend from 2014 to 2030 by the Australian and Queensland governments, we need to show the world what a significant impact this investment is having on reef conservation.
Investing just 2 per cent of that funding – $5 million per annum – into sharing the story of the Great Barrier Reef globally and bringing the world to see it first-hand is great for our global reputation and our economy.
Mark Olsen
TTNQ CEO