Great Ocean Road Communities Network (GORCN) is developing a webinar series that will focus on tourism along the Great Ocean Road. It will be a five-part series each with expert speakers from Australia and overseas.
It is planned to run the series in late February and early March 2025. We will advertise when registrations are open. The sessions will be free and it is anticipated that there will be a high level of interest from local communities around Australia and overseas as well as tourism operators and government agencies.
The series will explore the argument for tourism’s transition from an unsustainable, growth-centric, demand-based model, which will not advance the liveability of the Great Ocean Road region, to a regenerative and resilient model suited to the unique character of our region.
Practitioners from Australia and overseas will share their experience of the transition to regenerative tourism, providing insights, experiences and thinking valuable for the realisation of such a transition for the Great Ocean Road.
Session 1
The first session will explore and explain the current Great Ocean Road tourism model. The session will start with the global forecasts for explosive in growth tourism within our environment.
The session will look at the benefits of tourism as an agent of positive transformation and opportunity. But tourism is not benign and there will be a review of the recent explosive summer season in Europe which was a result of poorly designed and managed tourism systems; the environmental degradation of ecosystems, the pressures on heritage and local character, the heightened precariousness of local economies and on the quality of life and cohesion of communities. Our experiences on the Great Ocean Road will be reviewed to explain how the current model is no longer fit for purpose as it regards the environment as a free resource to be exploited. It is focused on product, and driven by supply and demand to optimise profit and growth.
Questions will be raised such as how did we arrive here? What are the forces that drove us to the ‘extractive’ model? If ‘here’ is not where we want to be, where in the world do we want to be?
Session 2
This session will concentrate on emerging tourism models and will explore the principles and practise of resilient, sustainable tourism. The session will include some overseas and local examples where the transition to this sustainable model is already happening.
Many places around the world have already started their transformational journey, adopting a changed mindset and creating the conditions needed for people and places to flourish and thrive.
We’ll visit places such as Scotland, Copenhagen, Flinders Island and the Bay of Plenty in NZ, and talk about their approach and progress.
Session 3
The third session will revisit the systematic flaws of the current tourism model and look at the values, culture and what is important for the twenty-one communities along the Great Ocean Road. Speakers from these communities will explore the current problems along the Great Ocean Road, such as traffic congestion and parking issues, degraded visitor experiences, heightened seasonal safety risks, housing pressure, threats to local character, environmental impacts, reduced liveability and economic leakage.
The session will also develop an argument for the Great Ocean Road’s new sustainable, regenerative tourism model to be developed collaboratively with the local community.
A regenerative model would involve understanding the interconnection and interdependence of tourism with the community in which it exists, conserving and restoring our habitats, helping support a viable economy, developing local capacity and establishing stronger tourism governance. The transformation of Great Ocean Road tourism would help facilitate a healthier, more equitable future for communities.
During the session, some of our key tourism organisations will outline how they are working with the community and with nature to create a healthy and resilient GOR and at the same time, helping to realise the potential of our places.
What would it take for the Great Ocean Road to become a rich nature-based region, where sustainability is the default and where the focus is on actively revitalising and regenerating the region socially, economically and always in concert with nature?
Session 4
In session 4 the various government and tourist agencies will explain their views, plans and vision for tourism along the Great Ocean Road. How can the community become involved so that tourism along the Great Ocean Road enhances and strengthens local communities and the environment?
Session 5
Session 5 will be a hybrid session with an on-line audience as well as face to face with the various agencies. This session will seek to expose the barriers and blockages for tourism along the Great Ocean Road to move to a more sustainable and resilient model.
The session will demonstrate the gaps between rhetoric, plans and action. Understanding the barriers is essential if there is to be a shift to a new tourist model along the Great Ocean Road. The intention is to create awareness of common blockages to progress, to understand them and to discuss possible pathways and actions to overcome or reduce their impact.
The session will explore issues such as:
- free use of natural resources
- power structures – tourism imposed top down on residents rather than co-designed with and for communities and nature from the bottom up
- who owns tourism – governments, tourism operators, local communities?
- growth and dependency model – relying on visitor growth to survive; government over-dependency on tourism revenue and where nature doesn’t have a ‘seat at the table’ during decision-making
- how might we apply greater emphasis and skilled resources to tourism management, governance and transparency
- From silos and misalignment to co-design and collaboration – how do we more effectively partner in the community?
Suzanne Cavanagh