Tourism Management Assignment on the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
Question
Task:Role of any Government Travel agency of Australia in increasing the visitor economy of a region, city or country.
- You are required to evaluate the strategies they have articulated and implemented relating to increasing the visitor economy for a region, city or country. Make a reasonable use of table of contents, headings, sub-headings and other organisational methods (such as tables, charts, diagrams).
- Write a 1500 words report evaluating the infrastructure, principles and practices, risk management, stakeholders, promotion and support the agency provides for the destination.
- The report should demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the destination/attraction experiential services and qualities, and tourist/visitor motivation theory.
Answer
Executive summary: Tourism is a vital part of an economy and helps in the growth and development of the nation. It is evident that the Great Barrier Reef is one of the most popular tourists due to the beauty and unique ecosystem of the place. However, due to coral bleaching, the destination is experiencing reduced tourism activities, and in order to enhance the tourist number, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Agency has taken the initiative of maintaining the beauty of the place and improving tourism activities. The agency advertises about the adventure sport and the unique beauty of the place on various channels in order to attract potential visitors.
Introduction: This tourism management assignment will focus on assessing the great barrier reef. The Great Barrier, Reef Marine Park Agency, is the leading management agency that is responsible for the management of the tremendous natural icon of Australia the Great Barrier Reef. The agency is responsible for maintaining and protecting the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef with the assistance of a number of regulations, plans and legislation. The reef has been listed as a World Heritage Area and is one of the reason due to which visitors are attracted towards the reef. However, due to the issues of coral bleaching and global warming, tourism activities have reduced significantly. This report is aimed at evaluating the strategies and the policies that are articulated and implemented by the agency in order to increase the visitor economy. The strategies and promotional activities assist the agency in attracting potential visitors towards the Great Barrier Reef. This tourism management assignment outlines the importance of ensuring adequate visitors visit the site as the funds generated by those visits help in the maintenance of the Reef along with the support provided by the government and other agencies.
Findings and discussions
Visitor destination attraction: Tourism is considered as one of the primary industry of the Great Barrier Reef region. The Great Barrier Reef has been declared as the World Heritage site and is considered as the largest coral reef system in the planet. This acknowledgement of the reef and its beauty has significantly enhanced the attractiveness of the place and majority of local as well as international tourists visiting Australia are encouraged to visit this heritage site and experience the beauty of its ecosystem and marine life.
On this tourism management assignment it is analysed that the Reef is visited by around two million visitors each year that help the industry in generating around AU$ 5-6 billion every year (greatbarrierreef.org, 2019). The Reef stretches across more than 3000 kilometres initiating from the tip of Queensland south towards the coastal town of Bundaberg and is popular as the world riches ecosystem. It is so vast complex of reefs, coral cays, islands, sea grass beds, and mangroves that it is the only living structure that is visible from the space. These unique features of the reef and the variety of marine as well as coral life forms it support has made it attractive among the tourists throughout the world. The reef consists of an impressive coral garden that reveals many astounding underwater attractions which includes the world’s most extensive collection of corals, dolphins, rays, coral sponges, molluscs, over 1500 species of tropical fishes, around 20 different types of reptiles including giant clams that are more than 120 decades old and sea turtles, more than 200 types of birds.
Due to the natural beauty both above and below the water surface, the reef is considered as the most attractive tourist destination that encourages visitors to explore the most beautiful marine life and enhance their travelling experience. The tourism management assignment emphesis on how the Great Barrier Reef is not a single continues reef; instead, it is made up of over 900 islands and 2900 reefs (greatbarrierreef.org, 2019A). It is the most massive reef structure, and Marine Park in the world and the region has a tropical climate that helps the tourists to enjoy their visit to the place. Due to the beauty as well the various marine and tourism experiences such as scuba diving, cruise, campsites and more provided by the management of the reef to their tourists has made the destination more attractive for the tourists.
Tourist motivation: In order to increase the number of visitors visiting the Great Barrier Reef, the management Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Agency try to motivate their tourist with a number of activities that will help the visitor in enhancing their visit to one of the most beautiful destinations in the world. Reef between 15 to 150 kilometres offshore is a gathering of brilliant, vivid corals that provides divers with and spectacular underwater experience imaginable. Some of the activities that motivate tourist to visit the site have been discussed below:
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park: the park covers more than 344,000 square kilometres and was established in the year 1975 in order to protect the fragile ecosystem of the reef. Tourists are motivated to visit this park in order t observe the rich patchwork of the fragile ecosystem and the astounding biodiversity consisting of 2900 coral reefs, 300 coral cays, mangrove islands and more (marineconservation.org.au, 2019). The underwater jungle is home to giant clams, dugongs, dolphins, 1625 species of fishes, sea snakes and more.
Whitsunday Islands: The 74 tropical islands of the Whitsunday Group allow the travellers in exploring the different wonders of the reef. There are around six national parks dedicated to protecting the fragile ecosystem, and several are home to campsites, eco retreats and luxury resorts. Visitors have the option of signing up for scuba diving or snorkel trips, hop aboard a sailboat and enjoy the cruise. Sightseeing cruises take the visitors to sublime Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island which is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world consisting of fish vibrant reefs.
Scenic flight: the visitors have the opportunity of appreciating the awe-inspiring magnitude of the natural wonder. Seaplanes and helicopters soar over the coral reefs and the palm-fringed islands. They can book full day flying trips to 15 minutes flights with lunch and water sports included (Bedarra.com.au, 2019). Heart Reef is one of the best features that are observed in a scenic flight, which helps in motivating tourists towards this beautiful destination. These are the few adventure sports that drive tourists to visit the Great Barrier Reef.
Strategies used by Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Agency in order to attract increased tourists to the mentioned destination
The tourism management assignment outlines certain strategies used by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Agency in order to enhance the tourist economy of the destination some of the tactics of the organisation have been discussed below:
Maintaining the beautification: This is the foremost priority of the agency they work along with the local community in order to maintain the beauty of the reefs. Due to the issues of global warming and coral bleaching, the reef is losing its beauty as well the ecosystem is highly disturbed. Therefore the agency takes the initiative of maintaining the reef along with other marine parks so that they are able to serve their tourist with mesmerising views that will encourage them to visit the beautiful destination an enhance their experience. They maintain the diverse life forms and maintain the parks and marine life and protect it from damage. The unique ecosystem and the biodiversity of the place help in motivating the tourists to visit the place.
Packages: the organisation develops a number of packages with many different adventure sports for their tourist so that they are able to attract potential visitors to the destination. The packages are composed of different sites with different activities with reasonable pricing strategy. This helps the organisation in attracting tourist towards the destination. In addition, tourists have the option of customising their tour as per the services and destinations that are most desired by them. These initiatives help in attracting the interest of the tourists.
Marketing: The organisation markets regarding the beautiful destinations and the adventures that are offered to the tourists during their visit to the Great Barrier Reef. They make use of social media platforms and websites in order to create awareness regarding the adventure sports, cruise and scenic flight tours and the various island tours that are offered by them (Kotler et al., 2017). The organisation also promotes its packages and seasonal offers provided by them on various promotional channels that help them in reaching out to the tourist and encourage them to plan a trip to the reef.
Blogging: This is one of the most spectacular tools that assist the organisation in reaching to its audience. Blogging helps in spreading details about the destination and the natural beauty that can be experienced by the visitors. In addition, blogs provides stories of real life experience of visitors which helps in motivating other potential visitors.
Conclusions
This tourism management assignment helps in understanding the significance of tourism for a destination. It is evident that tourism activities in the Great Barrier Reef help the management of the reef in collecting adequate funds that assist them in maintaining the beauty and ecosystem of the popular World Heritage. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Agency is playing a vital role in motivating the tourist to visit this reef by spreading awareness about the uniqueness of the reef and the biodiversity of the place with the help of different channels. In addition, the attractiveness of the destination, as mentioned in the project, helps in understanding the reason due to which tourists are inclined towards visiting the reef. This tourism management assignment also outlines the importance and verity of adventure sports that are offered to the tourists while visiting the reef that motivates them to visit and enjoy the scenic beauty and underwater life of the Great Barrier Reef. Tourism management assignments are being prepared by our online management assignment help experts from top universities which let us to provide you a reliable assignment help Australia service.
Reference list
About The Reef | What Is The Great Barrier Reef?. (2019A). Great Barrier Reef. Retrieved 18 May 2019, from http://www.greatbarrierreef.org/about-the-reef/
Bedarra.com.au. (2019). Retrieved 18 May 2019, from https://www.bedarra.com.au/sites/default/files/gallery/Great%20Barrier%20Reef%20Scenic%20Flights%20BIR.pdf
Bedarra.com.au. (2019). Retrieved 18 May 2019, from https://www.bedarra.com.au/sites/default/files/gallery/Great%20Barrier%20Reef%20Scenic%20Flights%20BIR.pdf
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park - Australian Marine Conservation Society. (2019). Australian Marine Conservation Society. Retrieved 18 May 2019, from https://www.marineconservation.org.au/great-barrier-reef-marine-park/
Kotler, P., Bowen, J. T., Makens, J., & Baloglu, S. (2017). Marketing for hospitality and tourism.
