Hinterland Sustainable Tourism Development Study

Product Description The Gold Coast Tourism Visioning project articulates a set of core values and principles that underpin a preferred future for the sustainable prosperity of Australia's leading tourism destination in the medium to longer term (10 to 20 years). It challenges destination Gold Coast to move from a past ad hoc approach to tourism to one that integrates economic, social and environmental dimensions to evolve new patterns of managing and growing tourism in a more systematic and dynamic way in this new century. Tourism is a key component of the inevitable transition to sustainable development strategies in advanced western democracies such as Australia. Through this Gold Coast Tourism Visioning project, the local tourism industry has an opportunity to confirm itself as part of the solution, rather than as a contributor, to the economic, social and environmental challenges of the future. With the assistance and support of numerous public and private sector organisations and individuals, a team of interdisciplinary researchers built the knowledge foundation for the leading-edge Gold Coast Tourism Visioning Project. The project has created a more strategic perspective towards tourism policy, planning, development and marketing involving the process of visioning - a technique combining the settling of a "vision" and "planning". It had its origins in the late 1990's, when a number of Gold Coast tourism's key stakeholders recognised that the relationships between business, government and community, which had enabled the Gold Coast to flourish in the past, were changing and the destination was confronted by a new range of challenges. Many of these challenges are shared with maturing destinations the world over. The tourism visioning project has provided a vehicle for advocating long-term change in the overall approach to tourism by all stakeholders concerned with the creation of a sustainable, prosperous tourism industry for the Gold Coast. Cooperation and collaboration at all levels between various stakeholder groups must override fragmentation, confrontation, internal competition and a lack of an agreed common long-term focus. A new vision for tourism is required in what has been - and can continue to be - Australia's most successful tourism destination. About the Author Dr David Weaver was an Associate Professor in the School of Tourism and Hotel Management at Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland. On January 1, 2002 he moved to George Mason University in Virginia, USA where he is currently Professor of Tourism and Travel in the Department of Health, Fitness and Recreation Resources. David specialises in the areas of ecotourism, sustainable tourism and destination management, and has authored three books and over 50 refereed journal articles and book chapters. He is also the editor of the Encyclopaedia of Ecotourism and sits on the Editorial Boards of four international refereed tourism journals and is the recipient of considerable grant funding. Laura was a Research Assistant and Ph.D student in the School of Tourism and Hotel Management at Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland. She was also a Visiting Teacher Fellow in the School of Business at Bond University on the Gold Coast. Since 1 January 2001, Laura has been an adjunct professor in tourism and travel in the Department of Health, Fitness and Recreation Resources at George Mason University in Virginia, USA. Laura specialises in ecotourism and tourist attractions and is the co-author with Dr Weaver of the second edition of "Tourism Management", and introductory textbook.