Discuss about the Tourism Growth and Environmental Impacts on Greater Blue Mountains Area.
Background Information
The lush forests along with the deep canyons of the Greater Blue Mountains Area (GBMA) in NSW form a special type of environment which is rich in spectacular landscapes, culture and history that is unique and varieties of plants as well as animals in abundance. In 2000, it was listed among as the “World Heritage Area”. With approximately a million visitors yearly, it is the country’s natural tourist attraction that is most frequently visited. This growing number of tourists has put the GBMA under intense pressure as it has increased the collective mark that people have on the environment and also the natural processes associated with. Disturbance of wildlife, vegetation, litter and water pollution indicate that there is a need for developing a national ethic which protects the area (Jaworski- Neilson, 2006).
The aim of the analysis is recognising the real subjects in relation to the growth of the business of tourism and the overall effect that it has on the whole industry as well as the “world heritage site”, the GBMA. Besides this, the aim of the analysis is also discovering the significant arrangements along with the approaches which are being led by the “Area Tourism Board” and the effect that they are having on the tourism industry.
The research issue proposed needs to be investigated for creating awareness among the people regrading the need to preserve the national heritage by acting in a responsible manner towards the environment and also regarding the strategies that the development committee of the “local tourism board” has taken and the challenges which they are facing with respect to GSBA (Sunlu, 2003).
The study will be delimited to the members of the development committee of the “local tourism board” and residing in Sydney, Australia.
Introduction
The section of literature review will be taking into account the need for promotion of environmental messages and the extent to which they are being done in case of WHAs and particularly the GBMA.
Negative Impacts of Tourism Growth on the Environment
Tourism leads to negative impacts when visitor use levels exceed the ability of the environment of coping with the use within the limits of change that are acceptable. Conventional tourism that is uncontrolled poses potential threats to several natural areas worldwide in the form of increased pollution, soil erosion, loss of natural habitat, enhanced pressure on the endangered species, increased probability of forest fires and strain on the natural resources causing critical disturbance to the local population (Hall, 2001). In such a scenario, it becomes the responsibility of the Government and the Communities to come up with strategies for protection and conservation of the environment.
Role of Tourism Industry in Promotion of Tourism along with Protection and Conservation of the Environment
It is increasingly being expected by the governments and communities that the protected areas are not just the conservation mainstay but also attract tourists and provide recreational and economic benefits to the communities adjacent to them (Lloyd et al., 2015). Such a drive for increasing the number of tourists puts pressure on the managers to provide support to the initiatives of tourism to areas like the “World Heritage Sites” (Buckley, 2004) (Thompson et al., 2011).
The tourism industry can make contributions to conservation by means of financial contributions, bringing improvements in “environmental management and planning” particularly of the tourism related facilities, raising environmental awareness, protecting, conserving and restoring the biological diversity and using the natural resources in a sustainable manner. Finally they can come up with regulatory measures (Sunlu, 2003).
The main focus of the Government tourism agencies till now has been the impacts that climatic changes have on destinations and the increase in costs for the operators (Tourism Northern Territory , 2009). However, there have been differences in their extent and coverage of the issues of climate changes (Zeppel & Beaumont, 2012).
As far as the GBMA is concerned, it needs to be managed in the correct way for providing dual benefits of making use of tourism for meeting the international obligation of the Government in terms of presenting the values of World Heritage and making use this branding along with the natural values for attracting tourism (Wilson et al., 2011). On the contrary increasing tourism without having a proper understanding of the threats, values and vulnerability of the World Heritage sites can lead to conflicts between the conservation and economic goals of the Government (Fairweather et al., 2005) (Halpenny, 2010) . In case of GBMA, the development committee of the “local tourism board” has been entrusted with the responsibility of discovering the issues in relation to tourism that impact the environment, the effects that such issues have on the various stakeholders, the strategies being developed by them in this respect and the challenges they face.
Environmental Impacts of Tourism Growth in GBMA
The perceived growth of canyoning, an adventure recreation sport in the GBMA has led to concerns regarding such activities causing visitor impacts that are unsustainable to the ecosystem of the canyon. Trampling activity was applied in three levels on the communities of “benthic macro invertebrate communities”. Subsequent to initial detrimental effects caused by trampling, recovery started. This reflected a concern for the environment and a shift in the park management emphasis to the impact on the natural area which adventure recreation was having (Hardiman & Burgin, 2011).
Conclusion
Most of the observations in the literature that currently exists indicate the negative impacts of tourism growth on the environment and the measures that need to be taken. However, there is shortage of literature on the strategies actually being adopted by the tourism industry and the challenges that they face. This study will try to address this gap in literature.
Research Paradigm
Research paradigm is considered as a perspective which has a set of shared assumptions, concepts, values and practices as its basis (Johnson & Christensen, 2010). It is the researcher’s views related to knowledge development and helps in conducting an effective study. The research paradigm comprises the positivism, interpretevism and realism research philosophies.
For this research, the interpretivist paradigm is the most suitable one as it portrays the critical thinking and the form is more descriptive. The main focus of the paradigm of interpretivism is on the contents which are a component of the data and the manner in which their production is made via language practices (Collins, 2010). The focus is more on exploring the topic of research and the more the number of explorations made on the topic, the greater will be the findings as well as the interpretations of the varied activities and occurrences in relation to the topic of research (Cryer, 2006).
A research might be deductive or inductive. In case of inductive research, the theory is brought out from the outcome of the research study whereas in case of deductive research the approach is top-down wherein the hypotheses are drawn from the theory (Saunders et al., 2007). Observations will be made by the research on the hypotheses and the theory postulates will be confirmed.
Figure 1: Deductive Research Approach
A deductive approach will be adopted by the study and the outcomes which will be drawn as a result of this study will be adding on to the knowledge that already exists on the environmental impacts that growth in tourism has.
Environmental Impacts of Tourism
The quality of natural as well as man-made environment is vital for tourism. However, the relationship that exists between the environment and tourism is extremely complex. Several activities that might have adverse effects on the environment are involved in it. most of such impacts are related to constructing the general infrastructure like airports, roads, tourism facilities such as shops, restaurants, hotels and resorts. These negative aspects of developing tourism can ultimately result in destroying the environmental resources on which it is dependent. It is a means of raising awareness related to environmental values and has the ability of serving as a tool for financing protection and increasing the economic significance of the natural areas (Sunlu, 2003).
Methodology
For the purpose of collecting the data for the study qualitative research will be used. Qualitative research method comprises collecting data and then using it for describing the varied aspects but there is no focus on statistical inferences (Björklund & Paulsson, 2012). The main aim of such an analysis is to use it for making observations that will be assisting the researcher to comprehend the data that has been collected (Ghauri & Grönhaug, 2005). Qualitative research will be used in this study as the nature is interpretative towards the environmental impacts of tourism growth in the GBMA. Additionally, qualitative research is exploratory in nature along with being descriptive focused. Hence, the design will be emergent instead of fixed and more flexibility will be available to the researcher in order for collecting data in settings that are natural (Creswell, 2003).
The study will be exploratory in nature as it will be trying to figure out the things which are taking place. Additionally, it will also be looking for new insights and also throw open new questions and make sure that the way of analysing the phenomena is a new one (Robson, 2002). The justification for this is that it will assist in analysing further the impact that tourism growth will have on the GBMA and it will hence provide a better insight into the environmental impacts of tourism growth.
Research strategy is said to be a plan that will be utilised for reaching the research question (Neuman, 2004). The strategy used for collecting the data will be conducting interviews of three development committee members of the “local tourism board”. The interviews will be face to face and one member at a time will be interviewed. However, the set of questions will remain the same for all the three members.
The researcher will be taking a prior appointment with three members of the committee who are easily accessible so that they can be interviewed without any disturbances at a time that they have allotted to the researcher.
Data Required
Qualitative data needs to be collected for fulfilling the objectives of the research. This is because the main research objectives consist of finding out the issues that are having an impact on the environment due to tourism growth and the solutions that are possible for those issues, recognising the way these issues effect the environment, the business visionaries and the tourism body, investigating the key strategies they have come up with and identifying the concerns that they are currently facing. These research objectives can be achieved only after a one-one discussion with the concerned members. Therefore, for collection of this qualitative data, members of the development committee of the “local tourism board” will be interviewed.
The data that is required by the researcher is located with the members of the development committee of the “local tourism board” in Sydney.
For the collection of the primary data, the use of the open ended questionnaire will be made. The use of a semi-structured questionnaire will be made for the purpose of interviewing the respondents and collecting the data which is relevant for achieving the research objectives. The data will be collected from three members of the development committee of the “local tourism board” which is responsible for management of tourism at GSMA.
The use of open-ended questionnaire that is informal will be made for primary data collection as such a technique of interview assists in figuring out a qualitative dimension that is totally new with respect to the research questions. It will be consisting of ten questions. The use of questionnaire has been made as the interview instrument as it comprises a “formalised set of questions” which provides assistance in getting the answers from the respondents selected (Malhotra, 2011). Besides this, it also provides assistance in collection of data which is of very good quality and also highly relevant (Adler & Clark, 2011).
The collection of secondary data will be made from reliable sources such as scholarly textbooks, academic journals, reports, research theses, refereed conference proceedings and publications which hold relevance in the context of the research.
The subset with respect to the population selected for the purpose of study forms the sample while the number of individuals or respondents who form a part of the sample is the sample size (Adler & Clark, 2011). Simple convenience sampling will be utilised for selecting the members of the development committee of the “local tourism board” for the purpose of interviewing. Such a technique involves non-probability sampling as the choice of respondents is based on the ease with which the researcher can gain accessibility to them (Saunders et al., 2009). As the entire population is too large to be included in the study, convenience sampling was chosen. This method is also faster and easier. The sample for this study will be three managers from the above mentioned committee. The sample size of three can be justified because all the managers will be having the information that is needed for answering the research questions.
The secondary data will be selected based on the authenticity of the sources from where it is obtained.
The data that will be collected after interviewing the managers will be analysed on the basis of the responses of the managers. First the data will be transcribed as well as checked and then analysed. The recording of the interview will be done and each respondent will be allotted a number. The data will be deindetified after discussing it with a transcriptionist so that a correct meaning can be given to the text. The data will be organised as per the responses that have been provided by the managers to the different questions. The answers to each question provided by the three managers will be grouped together for identifying the common themes in the findings. Arranging the data in accordance to the common themes will simplify the process of analysing the data.
The collected data will be coded by assigning a phrase for each coding category. The responses to the interview will be analysed systematically and the main themes will be coded.
The secondary data collected will also be qualitative in nature and its comparisons will be made with the primary data to find out the similarities and differences between the two of them.
Ethical considerations are highly significant as human beings form the respondents in the study. A substantial amount of advantages as well as explanations will be provided to the respondents with respect to the study. The participants will be free to participate in the research and will not be forced to do so. Each respondent will be dealt with in a manner that is ethical by taking consent in a proper way for their participation in the research. They will also be provided with proper information regarding the purpose of the research. The responses that the respondents will be providing will be maintained as confidential and the use of data will be made only for academic purposes. The participants individuality will be given due respect and high value will be allotted to their responses and no misrepresentation of the facts or information that have relevance from the research perspective will be done.
The size of the sample has been limited due to the timeframe for data collection being limited. Additionally, the focus of the research is primarily on tourism growth and environmental impact on GBMA, the secondary data is available in limited amount. Most of the academic journal and research papers of the previous years have either dealt with the aspect of tourism growth and its environmental aspect in general or in some other tourist places and thus there is a probability that accuracy of the outcomes may vary. This will also make the aspect of collecting secondary data very challenging.
References
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Buckley, R., 2004. Effects of WHA listing on Australian national parks. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 12(1), pp.70-84.
Collins, H., 2010. Creative Research: The Theory and Practice of Research for the Creative Industries. Switzerland: AVA Publishing.
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