The who, how and what of rainforest tourism in Australia's World Heritage Wet Tropics

Abstract

Globally, rainforests are coming under increasing pressure from farming, urban settlement and extractive industries. In the near future rainforests will also come under further pressure from climate change. Recognizing the danger confronted by these unique ecosystems a number of nations have responded by declaring parts of their forests as protected areas. In many of these protected areas tourism has emerged as a new business sector. In Australia, the northern Wet Tropics rainforest were declared as a world heritage area in 1988 and now supports an extensive tourism industry attracting an estimated 4.65 million visits by local residents and tourists during 2001- 2002. This paper reports on the first results of a four year study of rainforest tourism. Key aims of this research include establishing visitor profiles, identifYing the importance of the rainforest as an attraction and visitor interest in walking activities. The methodology is based on monthly surveys over a 12 month period at six major rainforest sites. In the reporting period (January to December 2007) a total of 1,408 visitors were surveyed. Results show that domestic visitors accounted for 59.8% of all visits. Using a 5 point Likert scale where 5 was very important, respondents were asked to reflect on how important visiting the rainforest was on their trip. The overall mean was 4.32 indicating the significance of rainforest activities. The results also indicated that walking in the Wet Tropics rainforest was considered to be an important activity.