The Peregian Beach Community Association (PBCA) recently delivered its submission on Destination 2045: Queensland’s Tourism Future Consultation. Here is its executive summary:
This submission primarily addresses the fundamental premise of the Destination 2045 discussion paper – increased visitor numbers – while also addressing several specific themes identified in the paper.
While the PBCA acknowledges Queensland’s strong environmental, natural and cultural attributes as outlined in the discussion paper, we are strongly of the view that Noosa’s unique selling point (USP) will be severely compromised if the State government pursues a tourism strategy that is focused on securing increased visitor numbers and increased tourism product in the Noosa Shire. While increased investment and infrastructure would be welcome to support residents and visitors, increased visitor numbers is contrary to the wishes of residents, as is any strategy to attract more events to the Noosa Shire.
PBCA rejects a pro-growth tourism strategy as appropriate for Noosa. We contend that Noosa’s unique USP requires a different approach; one based on a genuine partnership between the state government, Noosa council, and community organisations that aims to protect and enhance Noosa’s unique natural assets while implementing strategies to manage -rather than increase – visitor numbers.
Noosa not only has a strong record of successful community action to protect its natural environment but is also a demonstrably successful example of cooperation with state governments to achieve desired outcomes. Noosa should capitalise on this experience to develop a cooperative framework to manage visitor numbers to the Shire.
Noosa’s appeal is its natural beauty and laid-back atmosphere. If tourism strategies focus too much on bringing in more visitors, more events, and more development, we risk destroying what makes this place special in the first place.
Background
The Peregian Beach Community Association (PBCA) is a volunteer, community organisation representing the interests of residents of Peregian Beach and Marcus Beach. It was founded on residents’ concerns for the future of our natural and built environment.
The Association acts as a watchdog over local and state activities and new residential and commercial developments as well as protecting and restoring the local natural environment. Its members engage with issues affecting the Peregian Beach area for the benefit of the local community at large.
PBCA is recognised as the pre-eminent community organisation that protects and enhances the liveability of the Peregian and Marcus Beach communities and our mission is to provide leadership through genuine community engagement in preserving and enhancing our village community.
Increased visitor numbers – Not the Noosa way
The basic premise of the discussion paper is to develop strategies that encourage the growth of the tourism product. The paper seeks to identify strategies that promote tourism growth but makes no reference to the biggest challenge facing tourism worldwide which is overtourism.
The visitor growth strategy identified in the discussion paper is not appropriate to Noosa’s unique position and such an approach would do little to protect residential amenity or enhance Noosa’s unique position as an environmental showcase for visitors.
PBCA rejects the basic premise of the discussion paper that increased tourism is an appropriate strategy for all communities across the state. We reject the “one size fits all” approach. While increased visitor numbers may be accommodated in various locations throughout Queensland due to existing economies of scale, population mass, existing infrastructure and so on, Noosa needs strategies to manage tourist numbers, not increase them. This is necessary for the sake of our environment, our public infrastructure, the visitor experience and, most importantly, resident amenity.
Noosa needs to control and manage visitor numbers if we are to protect our environment and natural assets – Noosa’s USP, our infrastructure and, most importantly, resident amenity.
Overtourism
If we are to avoid the negative impacts of “overtourism” we need to accept that more is not better. Noosa is already paying the price of being loved to death. We are in danger of destroying the very thing that attracts visitors in the first place – our unique lifestyle and unparalleled natural assets.
The NSW government has worked with Lord Howe Island and the Byron Bay community and has capped visitor numbers. Closer to home, a recent report by the K’gari world heritage advisory committee (KWHAC) has warned the Queensland Government that the island’s ecology risks being “destroyed” by overtourism. The committee has warned that overtourism will destroy not only the environment but the very experience being sought by visitors. It recommended a visitor cap.
Over tourism world-wide is the single biggest issue to confront the tourism sector yet the issue rates no mention in the discussion paper. Overtourism is the biggest threat not only to the industry but to the very communities that support the sector.
There appears to be an assumption that increased tourism numbers and product is the answer.
A genuine partnership between the State, Noosa Council and community
There needs to be a social contract between the State, Noosa Council and community groups and come to an agreement as to how we want Noosa to be positioned. This would result in a formula that would protect and enhance the Noosa product.
The success of the Noosa Parks Association (NPA) in creating, over many years, a continuous “national park” from Coolum to Tin Can Bay is both a testament to the dedication of NPA volunteers and the partnership involving the Queensland Government and Noosa Council.
The success of this partnership points the way for a possible template to manage tourism numbers while at the same time protecting / enhancing the natural environment which is the key characteristic of Noosa’s USP. Such a visitor management strategy would recognise both residential amenity and the unique natural environment that characterises Noosa.
There are a number of areas where a compact between the state and local council could benefit the local tourism industry while recognising and protecting residential amenity. A compact or MOU between the state, council and community organisations could result in a “resident-visitor-environment social contract” and include strategies to manage visitor numbers via a permit system; develop a fit-for-purpose transport plan that meets the needs of residents and visitors; prioritise an essential worker accommodation plan; and develop a Noosa specific Olympic plan to develop a Games legacy that meets Noosa’s needs.
The State Government should capitalise on Noosa’s unique status by working in partnership with Noosa Council and key community bodies to showcase Noosa as an example of environmental sustainability, liveability, and carbon footprint.
The Queensland Government has an opportunity to diversify the State’s tourism attractions by making Noosa a unique place to visit, where the visitor experience is unlike anywhere else. This includes the opportunity to use Noosa as an exemplar of best practice in terms of environmental sustainability, liveability, and carbon footprint.
To quote former Noosa mayor, Tony Wellington, “thanks to over six decades of community action, Noosa is a hotspot of biodiversity.” This is a legacy we need to protect.
Thanks to six decades of community action, primarily by Noosa Parks Association, some 45% of the Noosa Shire is today in some form of protected estate. However, pressures on the Noosa River, the Noosa National Park headland, and Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park, all require cooperative solutions to manage the impacts of ever-increasing tourism numbers.
Negative media coverage of the impact of visitor numbers at Teewah Beach, for example, do nothing to enhance Noosa’s reputation as a visitor destination.
Ecotourism
The PBCA notes – and welcomes – the aspirations contained in the discussion paper that aims to develop a strategy that enables tourism to flourish in harmony with our natural beauty, our communities, and our economic aspirations.
Noosa’s unique USP – what makes it attractive to residents and visitors – is its abundant and varied natural environment and the commitment of its residents to protect this unique environment.
This would be threatened by overtourism. Residents do not want increased visitor numbers.
Ecotourism is a great concept, but only if it protects the environment. Any new initiatives in Noosa and especially Peregian Beach should be about preserving nature, not just marketing it. Without strict limits, increasing visitor numbers will do more harm than good.
2032 Games Legacy
The discussion paper focuses on the opportunities offered by the Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games and the 2032 Games legacy. While localities within southeast Queensland could undoubtedly benefit from the Games, similar opportunities are not likely for Noosa.
The discussion paper fails to recognise that the Games pose a threat as well as an opportunity. Increased visitor numbers from the Games will pose a threat to Noosa’s liveability in terms of increased visitor numbers, lack of appropriate infrastructure, transport pressures, traffic congestion and parking problems, all of which will impact on Noosa’s liveability and a threat to the very environment that visitors seek to experience.
The legacy benefits to Noosa from the Brisbane 2032 Games, similar to those benefiting Brisbane from World Expo 88 and to Sydney from the 2000 Olympics, cannot be realised but negatives are possible. Noosa’s size, both in terms of geography and population, mitigate against major infrastructure being delivered to Noosa especially given competing demands from elsewhere in the Sunshine Coast.
The SEQ Update fell short in identifying any meaningful new infrastructure north of the Maroochy River to accommodate an imposed population target for Noosa and, unless there is a genuine partnership between the state, Noosa Council and community organisations, we have little confidence that any infrastructure to manage visitor numbers will be forthcoming. The current economic, financial, and budgetary environment does not provide any confidence in this regard.
The SEQ Update was sadly lacking in offering any transport infrastructure to compensate with increased population targets and the tourism discussion paper offers little by way of infrastructure to meet visitor numbers.
In terms of outcomes, the greatest benefit to Noosa would be a compact between the State Government and Noosa Council to put in place revised public transport arrangements that cedes the provision of internal bus services from TransLink to Noosa Council (via a local government business enterprise). Under this proposed scenario the State and local governments would gradually establish a fit for purpose small bus network that services the Noosa region with TransLink retaining a limited fast bus service from Noosa Junction to the airport and Maroochydore and likewise from Noosa Civic to those locations on the Sunshine Coast.
Evidence shows that with the right incentives and the right environment, public transport usage would increase dramatically.
Investment attraction
Investment attraction for the short-term accommodation market, as referred to in the discussion paper, is not supported. The assertion that securing new and refurbished short-term accommodation supply as a priority is completely rejected. Such a strategy is contrary to the current situation in the Noosa Shire where residents are pushing back against the proliferation of short-term accommodation.
If visitor numbers to Noosa are to be effectively managed there will need to be investment in Noosa’s transport infrastructure. Transport infrastructure should remain in public hands and PBCA sees little scope for non-government investment in this space.
There are several areas in which state investment could protect and enhance Noosa’s Environmental assets. Noosa Council should be provided with funding to protect and preserve what Noosa already has. Funding to maintain the integrity of the Mary River; support for infrastructure upgrades on the Noosa River foreshore; and support to protect the eastern beaches coastal area would enhance Noosa’s environmental credentials.
Tourism experience development
If the State Government is serious about capitalising on, and leveraging off, our First Nations culture and histories, then the State Government must take a holistic approach in addressing issues that affect this section of the community. “Cherry picking” on local traditions, culture,and history as a means of developing new tourism product will otherwise be viewed with some cynicism.
There is, perhaps, an opportunity for the State Government to work in partnership with Noosa to promote its status as a Biosphere.
Events delivery
PBCA contends that Noosa should not aspire to be an “events destination.”
PBCA does not support the expansion of “events” as an appropriate strategy in the management of visitor numbers. The creation of additional events, designed to attract even more visitors, is the antithesis of what Noosa is seeking to achieve.
Noosa seeks to be different. Noosa is different. Aspiring to replicate “transformative mega events” such as the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018 or the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup is hardly in keeping with Noosa’s unique environmental status and should not be part of Noosa’s visitor management strategy.
More is not better.
The protection of our unique environmental status will be seriously compromised by a strategic focus on “maximising event capability” and encouraging more events to the Noosa Shire. We already see the impacts of events across the Shire that lead to road closures, traffic congestion and problems with parking. Our community values a quieter, more sustainable approach to tourism and any state tourism plan should respect that.
In recent years there has been a push back against the number of events staged in Noosa following community backlash.
In July 2019, Noosa Council approved a new events policy for Noosa that aimed to limit the number and nature of events in key precincts in order to control impacts on residential amenity, liveability, and the environment.
There are other locations on the Sunshine Coast that are more appropriate to manage such events; assuming infrastructure is in place.
Access and connectivity
Increased population and visitor numbers are already placing an intolerable strain on Noosa’s transport system contributing to traffic congestion and parking issues.
Noosa Shire is the “poor cousin” when it comes to access and connectivity. Noosa will continue to find its natural assets – the very thing that the Destination 2045 document seeks to capitalise on – under pressure, in part due to an inadequate transport system that fails to cater for the needs of residents and visitors alike.
Frustrations over successive state Government failures to address the Sunshine Coast’s transport needs is well documented. Unless the Sunshine Coast’s transport challenges are addressed in a timely way, Queensland faces significant “reputational risk.” The Sunshine Coast’s transport network is not fit for purpose and is in danger of failing to deliver for the Olympics and Paralympics.
Visitor satisfaction is important. Regular feedback from residents and visitors indicates a high level of dissatisfaction with the congestion and traffic problems associated with a visit to Noosa Shire.
What is required is a transport system that works for locals and visitors now and which leaves a legacy for future generations.
As mentioned earlier in this submission, the State Government should work in collaboration with Noosa Council and key community groups to introduce methods of limiting day visitor numbers and vehicles and develop strategies for reducing congestion and improved transport planning / solutions.
The transport monopoly enjoyed by TransLink acts as a disincentive to address Noosa’s chronic transport problems, an issue that will only be exacerbated with the advent of the Games.
It is recommended that the legislation that provides TransLink with a monopoly over public transport in Noosa Shire be amended to permit Noosa Council to operate its own public transport system. A small, “fit for purpose” electric bus fleet would service a wider area within the Noosa Shire than that currently serviced by TransLink.
Conclusion
If we are to avoid the tsunami of visitors that will accompany the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, we need to ensure that the state government has the right strategies in place over the next 20 years.
We would appreciate a detailed response to our submission.
Barry Cotterell
President
Peregian Beach Community Association Inc
