Ms O’CONNOR – Okay. Very briefly – and thank you, Chair – minister, I’m sure you would agree that Tasmania’s tourism brand is much more of a niche nature-based tourism brand than a mass‑scale tourism. We’re talking here about the fact that it’s a small island which has an appeal for those things that we talked about before, distinctive and unique. Do you agree that there’s a risk of overuse of the place sort of being loved to death if we’re not careful about visitor numbers? I think about, you know, do you remember that story from a few years ago – in fact, I just checked; it’s on the blogs – the rats at Lake Rhona in the Denison Ranges. Do you agree that we need to very carefully manage our tourism sector to make sure we’re not damaging those very things that Tasmania – people come to Tasmania for?
Mr ROCKLIFF – There’s a couple of aspects to that. First of all, yes, we do need to manage it. We also need to ensure that Tasmanians embrace the tourism industry as well. If we don’t manage the infrastructure in certain parts of Tasmania and people are frustrated by the amount of people coming to Tasmania, then that might engender not the welcoming that many Tasmanians are well-known for.
Ms O’CONNOR – That’s right.
Mr ROCKLIFF – There’s a few aspects to that we need to be very mindful of, as well as, as you say, not loving the place to death in that sense.
CHAIR – Hard not to.
Ms O’CONNOR – We love it madly, but we wouldn’t want to love it to death.
Mr ROCKLIFF – That’s where some key investments such as the Cradle Mountain Master Plan are very important, of course. We would probably differ on the Cradle Mountain cableway.
Ms O’CONNOR – We do differ on that.
Mr ROCKLIFF – That is an example of ensuring that low-impact tourism can be catered for; that large numbers can be catered for in terms of that low-impact tourism opportunity. We won’t be discouraging people coming to Tasmania. We just need to ensure that our 2030 visitor strategy – that we have the right amenities. Parks play a key role there and other infrastructure to support an influx of tourists that continue to be welcomed by the local community as well.
CHAIR – Tread lightly approach.
Ms O’CONNOR – Yes.
Mr ROCKLIFF – I like your question. Do you have anything further to add to that, Vanessa, please?
Ms PINTO – Thank you.
CHAIR – Brief as possible, thank you.
Ms PINTO – Absolutely. Through you, Premier, as a part of the visitor economy strategy, one of the key elements we are looking at is in the very point you were referring to: sustainable visitor capacity. There’s lots of different terms for it, but ostensibly that’s what we’re talking about. We have already – so thanks to the government providing us funding last year in the visitor economy strategy when it was first released Tourism Tasmania has already invested some of that funding into understanding a little bit more around Tasmania and where those pressure points are.
Ms O’CONNOR – Like the Wineglass Bay track, for example.
Ms PINTO – Yes, exactly. It’s been really quite a comprehensive assessment that we’ve done working in partnership with KPMG and then working across all our stakeholder groups.
Ms O’CONNOR – Is that available, that document?
Ms PINTO – Good question.
Mr ROCKLIFF – The strategy?
Ms PINTO – Yes. The strategy is, absolutely.
Ms O’CONNOR – But the work that KPMG have done.
Ms PINTO – The work that you’re doing. I’d have to take, through you, Premier –
Mr ROCKLIFF – Yes. Yes.
Ms PINTO – I’d have to take that on notice to see if it could be made available to the committee. It’s a really invaluable body of work and it looks at how we can work around the state and does note that, you know, there are areas of opportunity that we can invest in in how we manage and protect our environment as well as visitors coming in. Ostensibly it’s at this point in time a lot of the evidence that’s coming through is suggesting Tasmania doesn’t have some of the same pressure points other destinations would have, but –
Ms O’CONNOR – At the moment.
Ms PINTO – At the moment, yes.
Ms O’CONNOR – Thank you.
