Tourism Policy

Principles

The Greens NSW believe:

1. Planning for tourism should be based on adequate information to identify sites suitable for tourism and should aim to protect and enhance the environment and prevent community conflict.

2. If well planned and properly sited, the tourism industry can provide significant economic value, high quality experiences and can contribute to the amenity of local communities and their host environments.

Goals

3. The Greens NSW oppose:

• 3.1 Tourism developments which reduce the amenity of the local communities or damage environments in which they are sited or upon which they are based;

• 3.2 Developments which infringe upon and exclude the public from public areas, for example those which alienate people from beaches and foreshores; and

• 3.3 Residential development which masquerades as tourism facilities.

4. The Greens NSW support:

• 4.1 Public participation in tourism planning and decision making at local, regional and state levels;

• 4.2 Tourist activities and development which provide tangible and ecologically sustainable benefits to the communities immediately adjacent and do not impose negative impacts or additional costs upon the host environment, residents and ratepayers; and

• 4.3 Tourism business which trades on the use of natural assets being required to contribute appropriately to the upkeep and management of those assets.

Detail

The Greens NSW will work towards:

5. The identification, through competent ecological assessments and public participation processes, of land suitable for tourism development and areas appropriate to specified tourist activities;

6. The establishment of an accreditation system to assess the bona fides of 'eco-tourism' activities and to conduct regular auditing, and that this accreditation include only those operators who satisfactorily minimise impacts on and contribute positively to the environment and local communities in which they conduct their enterprise;

7. Ensuring that tourist operators or their clientele who use public lands contribute to the up-keep and restoration of those areas;

8. The upgrading of the NSW urban, regional and rural public transport systems so that they are capable of providing services suitable and appropriate to tourists, in addition to serving the NSW population;

9. Requiring the managers of public areas with natural values to include in their Plans of Management strategies for the control and ecologically sustainable management of tourism and recreational activities;

10. The provision of adequate educational funding to service visitors to public areas, especially areas with natural value;

11. Effective monitoring and minimisation of the impacts of tourist activities to ensure their ecological sustainability;

12. Ensuring that all tourism developments and activities are subject to competent Environmental Impact Assessment and public participation processes;

13. Encouraging low-budget, low-impact eco-tourism while ensuring that the number of visitations do not damage the environment or impact negatively on local communities;

14. Placing limitations on the number of visitations to specified, popular, sensitive sites; and

15. Requiring new facilities to be landscaped with local species and to practice effective pollution control, water and energy conservation, and waste management.