Outlook Online 2009

Swimming with whales tourism

Birtles et al., 2008:

"Surveys of tourists visiting the Great Barrier Reef and interacting with iconic marine wildlife species (e.g. minke whales, sharks and rays, turtles and large fishes such as Maori wrasse, potato cod and Queensland grouper), combined with a business expenditure survey of Reef tourism operators providing these experiences, will provide the first in-depth assessment of some of the relative social and economic values of these iconic marine species and their impact on the local and regional economy.  Field assessments of the quality of key wildlife attractions, impacts and their management will be conducted and will require the continued in-kind support of industry.  Assessment of social values requires an understanding of visitor expectations, satisfaction and perceptions of iconic wildlife species.  An understanding of the social and economic values of these key species is required for a Triple Bottom Line (or Quadruple Bottom Line) evaluation of the sustainability of tourism utilising these important resources.

Estimates of the total regional per-visitor expenditure (including dive boat expenditures) were generated by adding the total regional expenditure estimates to - the publicly advertised price of the boat trip; and - (Self-reported) extra expenditures incurred by the respondents while on the boat trip.

Mean preliminary estimates indicate that respondents spent between $3600 and $5000 while in the region (NB:  Estimates of total expenditures were up to $700 higher when calculated using self-reported estimates of trip-costs rather than advertised prices).  These figures are higher than those reported in the study of Access Economics (2007, p 69), where expenditure per night for overnight visitors to the Tropical Far North during 2004-5 and 2005-6 was listed as being in the order of $170 – $171 per night.

The estimates are also higher than the average daily expenditure estimates of Stoeckl et al (2005) in their study of whale-watchers in Hervey Bay – approximately $103 per person per day, and higher than the Suh and Gartner (2004) study of visitor expenditure in Seoul, Korea (between $US150 and $US200 per person per day). Mules et al (2005) found that overnight visitors to the NSW Alpine region of Australia (where there are many opportunities for skiing) spent, on average up to $523 per person per night – almost four times the daily expenditure of non-skiing visitors."

 

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Citation and/or URL

Birtles, A., Stoeckl, N., Mangott, A., Valentine, P., Farr, M. and Curnock, M., 2008, Understanding the social and economic values of key marine species in the Great Barrier Reef. MTSRF task 4.8.6(a) & (c) Preliminary Report to the Reef and Rainforest Research centre, 30 June 2008.

Spatial Coverage

Far Northern and Northern Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea

Temporal Coverage

2006 - 2008

Update Frequency

Not applicable 

Other Information

None 

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