The Noosa Experience – what is it exactly?

It seems to me with Council elections looming that an aspiring or existing politician should take on this vexing question of ‘The Noosa Experience’ as a key platform item to get clarity and resolution and communicate that clear understanding through all segments of our community to set common, longer-term aspirational objectives?

Prompted by the Noosa Parks Association’s October newsletter article on the subject of ‘over-tourism’, in conjunction with my own ongoing concern that there are differing definitions of what ‘The Noosa Experience’ should be, I decided to explore this fundamental question further.

We all know that Noosa Council have its own views. The business community theirs. Residents have their own. As do many others. So why do we have a situation of such diverse opinion? Why (as the NPA state) was the Mayor ‘howled down’ by business and tourist interests on the concept of ‘Tourist Caps’?

I took it upon myself to do a random bit of research amongst friends, residents, business people in Noosa and neighbours – not by any means a professional research study or comprehensive group – simply a ‘toe-in-the-water’ rough, sample. The question was simple…”what does the Noosa Experience mean for you?”

I asked some 10 people and got what I believe was 20 plus different answers. And yes, people have many and varied opinions on this.  While there was some commonality on key concepts, what was really surprising is that there is significant divergence of opinion. It therefore was apparent why the Mayor was not given a great reception.

But why is this possible when so many of us seem to share very similar values for our beloved Noosa? To answer this question some further desktop research was needed. Essentially, what information is available all seems to suggest  that the reason for such variability is because the definition of tourism varies source by source, person by person.

There is no consensus concerning the definition of tourism. Nearly every each institution define “Tourism” differently. So if we cannot define Tourism clearly how do we define Over-Tourism? Especially when experiences tend to be very subjective, intangible, continuous, and highly personal.

But all is not lost! It is however possible to explain it with basic terms as follows………

“Tourism is a collection of activities, services and industries which deliver a travel experience comprising transportation, accommodation, eating and drinking establishments, retail shops, entertainment businesses and other hospitality services provided for individuals or groups traveling away from home. The sum of the phenomena and relationships arising from the interaction of tourists, business suppliers, host governments and host communities in the process of attracting and hosting these tourists and other visitors”.

This now in a small way starts to show that Tourism or Over-Tourism has very different impacts for many stakeholders and that the debate so far has seen views and opinions from only a narrow selection of stakeholders.

It is very clear that tourism has become one of the world’s highest priority industries and employers. Tourism in Noosa gives an important contribution to regional and local economic development, but it seems to in parallel increasingly cause negative impacts mainly on the environment and social context as South East Queensland’s population grows quickly?

We don’t have the data nor the science – only a ‘gut feel’ particularly at peak seasons that this is the case and that this concerns many of us. How do we know in a qualitative or quantitative sense that over-tourism in Noosa is a reality today and what should the ideal actually be? How much is too many cars? too many apartments, too many people? too many boats? too many whatever?

The relevance of this phenomenon and the simultaneous spreading of the sustainable development concept have pushed towards the identification of a more sustainable process of planning, development and management of the tourist activities but all in the context of not knowing or defining what the ideal is for each stakeholder. 

The council has been pretty good at keeping control over tourist development to ensure that there is no rapid degradation and reduction of the environmental, cultural and social resources but unless we all start sharing the same definition of ‘What the Noosa Experience’ is, there are likely to be negative effects on all stakeholders and in particular tourism development and the possible decline of the tourists and, more generally, of the economic activity of the area – This we clearly don’t need or want!

There exists today, tourism carrying capacity models (TCC’s) globally. Experience has shown that for these to work effectively in practical and economics terms, stakeholder involvement is needed because natural tourist destination are assets that cannot be reproduced and they should be treated as public goods whereas destination facilities, goods and services are private market investment mechanisms outside of the sphere of the general public control. Tourism carrying capacity represents a problem of allocation of scarce resources, e.g. protected natural or historical areas, to recreational tourist opportunities that are density dependent.

So the challenge for our policy makers is to make this a singular issue and to engage each stakeholder, whether resident, tourist, business owner, environmentalist, government, indigenous groups, or other to clearly define for all with clarity what “The Noosa experience’ is for each/all which in turn delivers carrying capacity models and commensurate legislation and controls.