Travel-and-Leisure
Concerns Squashed about Great Barrier Reef
In other coral reef news around the world, the Queensland Tourism Industry Council has rejected the opinion that suggests closing off most of the Great Barrier Reef to tourism. This was in response to a recent report related to several world heritage sites being taken off the tourism map.
The Councils Daniel Gschwind says the Centre for Future Studies does not properly consider all the risks to the reef, including climate change and pollution.
On suggestion that a lottery system where a limited number of people could win visits to the reef each year, Gschwind felt the idea is absurd and has little scientific backing. The lottery. . . would in fact cause more grief that good I am sure so let us stick with sound management practices, let us stick with a management authority who can maintain and monitor what operators do,he said. And let us stick with the cooperation that currently exists between commercial tourism operators on the reef and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
As per the information available, about 1.8 million people a year travel to the Reef, generating $5 billion.
In a report prepared for UK insurance company Churchill, the Center for Future Studies (CFS) had listed 10 popular destinations that could be either permanently closed or have a visitor cap within 15 years.
I am reasonably confident we are going to see an increasing climate degradation that is going to impact on various places in the world with increasing severity,CFS director Frank Shaw had said. Floods, storms, droughts, increasing and erratic temperatures will combine to bring about changes in destination choice for tourists.
It is been shared that the Everglades in the United States, Athens in Greece, Croatias Dalmatian coast, Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast in Italy, as well as the Maldives, are also at risk.
There is a conflict between environmental concerns and commercial interests,Shaw said. Rising sea water temperatures are already damaging the Great Barrier Reef.
Meanwhile, Australian Federal Tourism Minister Fran Bailey said tourism operators were ferocious defenders of the Reef?s pristine environment. They rely on the health of the Reef and so have become intimately involved in protecting that environment, she said.
According to The Courier Mail in Australia, coral reef expert Terry Hughes, the Great Barrier Reef was a big place and the tourism industry had little impact. I donot believe there is a conflict between environmental concerns and commercial interests, Professor Hughes said.
It is already underwater and a few more centimeters, or even half a meter over the next few decades is not going to have a huge impact, he said.
For more information grouptravelblog.com
John Parker
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