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The Byron Shire Sustainable Visitation Strategy 2020 – 2030 Community Solutions Panel Briefing Book
The Byron Shire Sustainable Visitation Strategy 2020 – 2030 Community Solutions Panel Briefing Book has been released. Through community engagement via the Kitchen Table Book process, the Byron Shire Council aims to become a values-driven, environmentally, culturally and economically responsible sustainable tourist destination. View the briefing book here.
Iceland faces tourism slump
Iceland has long been the poster child for both the positive and negative impacts of tourism. A spike in visitor numbers helped the country recover from a financial crisis, and today, tourism accounts for almost half of Iceland’s economy. But, recently, life has changed for Icelanders. The tourism industry is in the midst of a slump – and the country now faces several intractable problems. Read more here.
Letter from the President: September 2019
Why do Byron’s hotels experience underwhelming occupancy levels when visitor numbers are close to all-time highs? This isn’t about the annual ‘day-visitor’ numbers to the Byron shire which hit a record 1.1 million visitors last year – that research can be found on Destination Byron’s website. It’s about the other 50% of visitors to our shire, those that stay ‘overnight’. Their numbers also hit a near record last year of approximately 1.1 million visitors. Recently acquired benchmarking data indicates [...]
Paving the way for eco-tourism in Tasmania and beyond
Robert Pennicott is a pioneer of eco-tourism. His tour businesses, Pennicott Wilderness Journeys, paved the way for sustainability best practices in the industry and helped put Tasmania on the world stage. Earlier this year, Destination Byron welcomed Robert as the 2019 Tourism Symposium’s keynote speaker. Speaking off the cuff, he delivered several key insights that boiled down to one fundamental truth – sustainability cannot just be a word. Keynote speaker Robert Pennicott, Managing Director of Pennicott Wilderness Journeys, at [...]
Is tourism taking over the world?
The number of travellers visiting international destination has grown exponentially since the mid-20th century, with numbers now totalling 1.4 billion. Europe has taken the biggest share, but the Asia-Pacific region is hot on its heels. What’s driving international tourist arrivals? Several factors are driving this increase in international tourist arrivals: Disposable income growth around the world People are living longer People are having fewer children, giving them more time and resources The world has generally become peaceful, meaning areas that [...]