Regional economic dependence on iconic wildlife tourism: case studies of Monkey Mia and Hervey Bay

Abstract

Iconic wildlife tourism - that which focuses on the viewing and visiting of a single, well known species of wildlife - is a rapidly growing sector of the tourism industry. This paper reports on research undertaken as part of a multidisciplinary investigation which sought to collect information for use in recreation planning, management and product develeopment of iconic wildlife tourism. Although the larger study considered a broad range of issues, this paper confines itself to reporting on the economic component of the study / the primary aim of which was to investigate the strength of the financial dependency of the communities of Monkey Mia, Western Australia, and Hervey Bay, Queensland, on the presence of wildlife icons. The estimates indicate that the dolphin experience is directly 'responsible' for between 5% and 11% of Gascoyne's total regional income and that whale watching appears to be directly 'responsible' for between 2% and 4% of Hervey Bay's total.