Up to two million tourists visit the Great Barrier Reef in any one year. This number fluctuates depending on tourism trends, weather and even global factors. Information on the number of tourists visiting the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park has been compiled from logbook data that tourism operators are required to provide when submitting their Environmental Management Charge (EMC) returns (see Related information below).

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority is currently upgrading its EMC database. Until this upgrade is complete, no data will be available from October 2009 onwards.

Find out exactly how many tourists visited the following areas within the Marine Park since 1993:

• The entire Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
  
• Far Northern Management Area
• Cairns/Cooktown Management Area
• The Cairns Planning Area
  
• Townsville/Whitsunday Management Area
• Whitsunday Planning Area
• Mackay/Capricorn Management Area

See Related information below for a map of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park showing these areas.

Information collected

For each commercial tourism vessel operating in the Marine Park, information is collected on:

• The number of visitors carried by the operator each day
• The locations visited.

The following categories of passengers are separately recorded:

• Full day EMC passengers who undertake a trip of three hours or more
• Part day EMC passengers who undertake a trip of less than three hours
• Passengers who are exempt from the EMC.

Specific enquiries

For further information concerning visitor numbers, please contact:

Email: gbr.visitation@gbrmpa.gov.au

Related information

• Environmental Management Charge (EMC)
• Map of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park