Kakadu National park is located in Northern Territory of Australia. This unique ethnological and archaeological park exists from more than 40K years. Rock carvings, cave paintings, archaeological sites represent unique skills. This park is a perfect balance of complex ecosystem which consists of plateaux and lowlands, floodplains, tidal flats, and a wide range of rare animals and plants species can be seen here. It is the largest national park of Australia as well as one of the largest tropics in world. This park is from least affected areas and consists of huge diversity of flora (Kakadutourism, 2019). Therefore, Kakadu national park consists of cultural and natural values that make it as a World Heritage area.
But in recent years, a huge increase in tourism in Kakadu national park has resulted in various issues related to preservation of its features. It is the responsibility of government of Australia and its management entities to take steps in order to preserve its rich cultural values. Increase in number of tourist is placing environmental pressure on the area and thus resulting in conflict between its conservation values and human use. A request has made by aboriginal people to investigate the impact of developments in area which include mining, tourism, and management (Ecotourism, 2019). However, with preservation of rich heritage culture of park is important, it is equally important to promote advance practices of development to increase tourism in the park which is the major source of economic development for northern territory and Australia. This report discuss about the various factors that influence its tourism including market, transport, accommodation, social media, and visitors’ experience. Risk and crisis are also considered in the report and management of them by managers is discussed.
The visitor economy can be enhanced at Kakadu national park by focusing on the niche market and products. It needs to develop strategies to promote the market potentials in the park and its surrounding areas. First strategy that would be helpful in increasing tourism in Kakadu national park is to promote this area as a brand through different advertisements. One of the niche tourism markets that can be a potential market for the destination is promoting “Mountain Biking Plan”. Kakadu national park is located in northern territory of Australia which provides a bicycle-friendly destination, services, and experiences to the mountain bike riders (CDU, 2019). This master plan was collaboratively developed by government agencies and different tourism industry groups. To provide excellent experience and to make this market successful, quality trails are being developed in area. Development of trails will also help in providing resources which further foster local people participation, health benefits, employment, and other opportunities to visitors. In order to attract a wide range of adventure market, world class distinctive rides need to be developed that present iconic and unique landscape of Kakadu. Along with distinctive rides, epic rides can also be a ‘must do’ attraction for mountain bikers (Northernterritory, 2019).
A well class level of promotion and positioning is required that describes the distinguished features of mountain biking. Promotion of mountain biking will attract variety of mountain biking visitors that includes enthusiasts that want special rides, leisure visitors that have natural attraction for mountain biking, and sports, athletes, and hard core bikers who look for competitions, adventure, and challenges (AUgov, 2018). According to the International Mountain Biking Association (IMTB), there are some expectations of mountain bikers to experience excellent rides which provide them a connection with nature, enjoyment and opportunity to experience flow of nature, adventures that examine technical skills of rider, workout to strengthen their mental and physical level, connection of routes and trails with other routes which create wide range of possibilities, and necessary facilities to make bike ride experience complete. Development of mountain biking events has the potential of creating business opportunities for local communities (Cycletrailsaustralia, 2019).
One of the major problems that restrict tourist to visit Kakadu national park is poor access to reach there. To attract domestic and international tourists in Kakadu Park, there is need to improve accessibility to reach there. First problem of access is less and expensive flight schedules to access to Kakadu. Even there is need to improve internal access in Kakadu. Kakadu has international reputation and one of the major attractions in Australia. But, still some tourists especially from Asia who are restricted with time limitations (UNESCO, 2018). In such case, road journey which take around three to four hours seems impractical to those tourists. This can be improved by providing improved internal access through scheduled flights or charter. Kakadu has the potential of being a very attractive tourist’s destination for incentive market but due to the lack of transport facilities, opportunities of growing this market have been limited (AustralianGovernment, 2019).
This can be enhanced through increasing domestic and international flight services. During peak season time, flight services should be expanded to ensure that tourists do not face issues to reach to the destination and they will get better and excellent experience of visiting. Regional airports like Cooinda and Jabiru need major investments for its up gradation (Tremblay, 2008). This up gradation involves providing services of medium sized jet aircrafts. This will help in arranging flights from major gateway ports like Alice Springs and Darwin or from more populated areas directly. Improvement in runways automatically enhances airport facilities.
Tourism in Kakadu is restricted by season in the region. Business in Kakadu is at its peak during the dry season window of four months which is because lack of resources on the ground during the extreme weather conditions. To enhance tourism in Kakadu, it is recommended to provide enhanced all year round road infrastructure to attractions like Ubirr, Jim Jim & Twin falls, Nourlangie, and Gunlom (AUgov, 2019).
Kakadu is located in northern territory of Australia, away from the chaos of city. It is a treat for body, mind, and soul to stay in this region. The peace and calmness of this region allows people to connect with their inner self. This is the region people want to come here again and again. Although, there are various accommodation options available in Kakadu, but there is still a lot of development needs regarding infrastructure, hotels, and luxury services for the people. Tourism authority of Kakadu has provided a report which suggests, there is need of developing around 100 hotel rooms every year in order to meet the tourism growth demands of coming years (Kakadutourism, 2019). Due to the lack of quality accommodation availability in this region, it reduces the visitor’s holiday value and overall experiential offering.
One of the barriers in constructing more rooms in this region is high cost of construction and this cost further increases during the time of construction. Also return on accommodation investment is very low as compared to the other classes of property asset like residential and commercial development. One strategy to meet accommodation demand in order to induce and support the demands of visitors is to supply commercial accommodation. This can be achieved by encouraging private investors to make investments for developing luxury hotel in order to provide standard accommodation facilities to visitors. Government of Australia should implement a new and enhanced approach in order to attract potential investors to invest in territory which may include strategic crown land release program and accommodation development incentive schemes (Tourismtopend, 2019). More programs should be developed and encouraged to refurbish and refresh existing accommodation properties. For this property owners should be provided access to take information and advice from experts. Through partnership with Flash camp, a new style of accommodation can be developed in Cooinda which includes 30 glamping tents setup for dry season.
It has been identified in the report of Shared Vision that development of plans to increase tourism in Kakadu national park will create several risks and crisis that needs the attention of park managers. These issues are divided into two categories:
Cultural and Natural Resource Management: This category involves the risks that occur due to increase in tourist number or developments made to increase tourists in the park. These risks are associated with the natural and cultural resource. Preservation of rich heritage culture of Kakadu along with improvement in tourism in this region is a challenging task for park managers (Environment, 2011). Risks related to cultural and natural resource management includes: Park inventory, wildlife management, human resources, management of art and archaeological sites, safety of visitors with crocodile management, protection and management of park, protection of native plants, weed control, managing history of aboriginal and colonial, support and liaison from board of management and traditional owners, managing climate change, compliance and enforcement of law, feral animal control, protection of traditional knowledge, capital infrastructure and works, management of landscape, monitoring and scientific research, waterways and wetlands, fire management, and training of park management (Ecotourism, 2019).
Development of Visitor, Tourism Services and Business: At one end as it is important to preserve and conserve the rich heritage cultural of Kakadu national park, it is equally important to promote and enhance tourism in this region as tourism industry has the ability of creating huge revenue for economic development of northern territory and Australian government (Kakadutourism, 2019). But, managing tourists and business development creates challenges for park mangers which include: interpretation and services of visitors, communication and liaison of tourism industry, promotion and marketing, access and control of visitors, training for seasonal ranger, permits, training of operators, leases and contracts for commercial purpose, development of business and enterprises, and support and liaison issues from board of management and traditional owners (Learnline, 2019).
Kakadu is universally recognised as one of the great world heritage regions due to its extraordinary and rich culture. These qualities of Kakadu national park are enough to establish it as a brand. To promote a destination as a brand has large number of benefits because visitors connect themselves emotionally easily with a brand. Brand adds the values in a destination and makes it unique. It is the value of a brand that differentiates it from other destinations (Popali, 2017).
And now due to the impact of social media on the lives of people, it has changed the relationship between a brand and a visitor. Social media holds the power of making or breaking a brand to a large extent. Kakadu should also use this opportunity of social media in promotion of Kakadu as a brand on sites including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and several others (Collins, 2009). Social media gives knowledge about likes and dislikes of visitors that can help in building tourism strategies in a better way. Some benefits of Kakadu brand promotion on social media are:
Recent visitor experience at Kakadu emphasize on ‘activities’ instead of ‘experiences’. Visitors of Kakadu relate their experiences of destination with activities such as Yellow water boat cruise, swimming, tours, and others, but very less about their experiences. In initial years of 90’s, Kakadu has an image of ‘Crocodile Dundee’ and an experience’s perception of ‘Crocodile Dundee’ experience. In a case study it has found that there was only visitor experience was climb the rock outside the resort at Uluru. After that a number of new experiences have been included such as Uluru base camp, Anangu tours owned by aboriginal, ‘Sounds of Silence dinner, camel rides, base walk at Uluru, helicopter rides, and cave hill trips. This enhanced the visitor experience to a great extent and also provided various economic and social benefits (Environemnt, 2010).
Visitor experiences can be improved by focusing on experiences instead of attractions. This requires shifting of market demands to the side of engaging and learning experiences instead of just visiting places. These experiences should show the rich culture, brand values and attributes, spirituality, and diversity of Kakadu. For this there is need of refurbishment of existing and creating new experiences (Kakadutourism, 2019).
New experiences should be developed for visitors that has the potential of attracting new market and also meet the expectations of visitors. Possible experiences include: bird watching tours, night wildlife tours, modified landscape and wildlife tours represented through eyes of aboriginal, evening dining with night sky storytelling by aboriginal, luxury eco-camps with low impact, new and modified walking tracks that provide cabin accommodation for overnight, bush tucker tours, culture camps, small tourism centres at the sight of Twin Falls, others also (Kakadutourism, 2019).
Conclusion
The above report discuss about the rich heritage culture of Kakadu National Park which is located in the northern territory of Australia. This unique park is in existence from more than forty years. As it is discussed in the report, Kakadu has huge potential of attracting large number of tourists which can contribute in the enhancement of economy of northern territory as well as the economy of Australia. But, there are several lack of resources which is restricting Kakadu as being one of the world’s biggest tourism destination. First thing identified that can enhance tourism further is development of new market which has the potential of attracting new visitors. One of the best markets that attract more visitors is development of Mountain Biking plan. Mountain biking has the capacity of attracting various kinds of visitors. Second issue identified is the need of developing transport facilities in the area. There is need in improving access to this area by providing more flights and charter services in this region. Development of new roads and linkage to different sites can improve it further. Third thing that can be done in order to enhance tourism is development of new and luxury accommodation facilities. Social media also plays a significant role in promotion and marketing of a destination. It has a large influence on vast number of people which can create huge tourism. And the final improvement can be done by enhancing and extending the existing visitor experiences. Focus should be on visitor experience rather than attraction of visitors. A quality experience felt by visitors encourage them to visit the place again and also to recommend it to more people. Various visitor experiences can be developed for tourism improvement. Finally, one major concern is related with enhancement of tourism in Kakadu is, preservation of its natural and cultural resources which need to be considered by the park management authorities and the government of Australia.
References
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