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Australia’s tourism industry faces the challenge of climate change and
the threat of losing billions of dollars to rural communities.
According to research undertaken by Sarah Perkins for the Climate
Change Research Centre, climate change will have an effect on natural
landscapes, snow cover and industries like the wine sector very
shortly (see link below to a summary of Perkins’ research).

Sadly we do not currently have a comprehensive Tourism Climate Change
Mitigation and Adaptation plan at national level nor in many states.

Accreditation programmes without independent verification and without
government agency promotion will not replace a whole of government
approach that incentivises local communities and SME tourism
businesses to mitigate and adapt. This is because tourism is a broad
sector that interlinks across communities and its supply chain.

Perhaps at this time governments and NGOs representing the interests
of tourism could establish a Climate Change Strategy through:

• A partnership approach involving a working group that assesses
climate research, tourism trends and Climate Change impacts on cost of
transport
• Putting forward scenarios that paint pictures of changes
• Involving SME tourism businesses and communities
• Setting a plan that is implemented

Even if we were to ignore the climate research the
benefits of a more sustainable sector alone would help the rural economy
and could make contributions to the protection of our natural heritage
– a key component in our brand Australia.

Above all we do not want to leave SME with a sense of fear, that the
scale of the task is simply too big. Like in any good business
strategy there should be innovation at its heart taking advantage of
opportunities and threats. If these strategies combine responsible
action which minimises environmental, social and economic impacts and
utilises retro fitting and existing infrastructure, then at least we
have started the process.

No action is ignoring our responsibilities.