Challenges for tourism development and management on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef coast

Abstract

An emerging theme in the literature on tourism development is a move away from finding ways to create "sustainable tourism" towards considering the value of tourism in the broader sustainable development of destinations. This chapter will explore this debate in one coastal tourism setting, Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR). It will be argued that there is considerable confusion over the concept of sustainable tourism and that this confusion creates three key challenges for the management and sustainable development of the GBR coast: the eco-efficiency of GBR tourism, the social equity of GBR tourism, and amenity migration and its implications. These three challenges will be examined in detail and an argument made for more systems thinking and future-oriented approaches to tourism planning.