Commercial Tourism Development in National Parks Forum

National parks are areas of high conservation value and their primary purpose of them is to protect Australian wildlife and native flora. Visiting national parks is an activity that many enjoy for a range of reasons and visits with minimum impact are encouraged. The saying ‘leave only footprints and take only photographs’ sums up this viewpoint. From the beginning of national parks in Australia professional guides have been taking visitors into the parks, however, over recent years there has been a trend to encourage commercial development, especially accommodation, within the parks.

Commercial development within National Park is often controversial and this Forum will present a variety of perspectives of those who enjoy our national parks, those who work in this area and the Government policies. Gecko’s position is a preference for commercial development for tourism to occur outside of national park boundaries. The clients of such businesses are facilitated to access the national park in the same way as the general public, though with professional guides providing information and interpretation.

Some other matters raised on this topic are summarised here:-

1. Many conservationists, tour operators, and members of the public have voiced concern about the increasing impact of commercial tourism developments within national parks especially those with World Heritage and Wilderness status.
2. The global tourism market is highly competitive and there is a growth in nature based tourism, especially post Covid. Governments are keen to take advantage of this growth to add to the economic income of the State.
3. Queensland has only 8.24% of protected area of which 5.6 % is national park. The tourism development industry has access to the remaining Queensland land area for their commercial developments.
4. Some tourism operators who bring tourists into the national parks for guided tours are concerned that areas of the publicly owned parks are set now aside for the exclusive use of the development that has been permitted to hold a lease within the park. This has resulted in other guides and their clients being excluded from these areas.
5. Tourists staying outside of national parks are known to benefit the local communities as they use their accommodation, shops and facilities. This may not be true of accommodation built within the national parks.