Research Report
Alexandra Coghlan and Bruce Prideaux
School of Business, James Cook University
ISBN 9781921359293
Published March 2009
MTSRF Project 4.8.6 -
Analysis of recreational and tourism use and impact of the Great
Barrier Reef for managing sustainable tourism
Introduction (Extract)
One of the key ways to ensure the sustainability of a tourism
destination is to measure and build its competitiveness. Success is
achieved when the destination is able to achieve the highest level
of well-being for its residents on a sustainable basis (Ritchie and
Crouch 2000). Destinations that do not evaluate themselves and
their competitors will often encounter difficulties in the long run
as markets change and the demand for destination goods and services
evolves under the influence of technology and changing consumer
preferences. One example of this failure is the emergence of a
product gap where the tourism goods and services supplied do not
appeal to an increasingly larger segment of the destination's
tourism market. To remain competitive, destinations need to be
constantly on the lookout for new ideas, changes in existing
trends, new market sectors and, importantly, have a contemporary
knowledge of developments in the destinations that are their main
competitors. In this report, we examine the competitiveness of the
Great Barrier Reef in the region that encompasses Tropical North
Queensland (Port Douglas, Cairns and Townsville). For the
purposes of this report the region is classed a destination and
referred to as the Northern Great Barrier Reef (GBR).
Destination competitiveness is a specific form of
competitiveness that focuses on the tourism industry, its products
and services. As Ritchie and Crouch point out, "the tourism
phenomenon represents a fundamentally different form of economic
exchange than does the sale of physical resources" (1993: 35-36).
Nonetheless, using traditional models of competitiveness is a
useful guide to understanding destination competitiveness and
therefore will be the starting point for this research, as well as
providing an introduction to models that specifically examine
tourism destinations' competitiveness.
In this report the destination is defined as the Great Barrier
Reef region that has both a land and marine element. Previous
research (Coghlan and Prideaux 2007) has found that visitors to the
region list the reef as the main attraction (rated with a mean of
4.65 on a scale of 1 = not at all important, to 5 =
very important), followed closely by the weather (3.77),
native animals (3.63) and the rainforests (3.61). While this report
specifically focuses on the marine component of the region, the
importance of the other elements of the region's attractiveness
'bundle' should not be ignored.
Aims (Extract)
The principle aim of this report is to draw together a range of
data which have a direct influence on the competitiveness of the
Northern GBR.
The indicators suggested by Dwyer and Kim (2003) and presented
in Appendix 1 form the basis of the search for relevant data both
within Queensland and as much as possible for other reef tourism
destinations.
The indicators for which data are available and most relevant to
an analysis of reef tourism include endowed natural resources,
situation conditions, demand factors and market performance
indicators.
