Tourism in Protected Areas initiative
Fraser Island, Great Sandy National Park
The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) manages more than 11 million hectares of public lands across the state. Many of these areas are a key resource for the state's nature-based tourism industry and attract over 16 million visits a year.
Commercial tourism operations make parks more accessible for many visitors, and play a valuable role in enhancing appreciation of these unique areas.
The Tourism in Protected Areas (TIPA) initiative was developed in response to tourism operators' concerns about access to Queensland's protected area network.
A working group of industry and government representatives made 18 key recommendations addressing these issues to the Queensland government.
For further information on the working group's recommendations, see the following reports:
- Executive Summary of the TIPA Working Group report (PDF, 129K)*
- TIPA Working Group Report (PDF, 829K)*
Benefits of TIPA
The aims of the initiative are to:
- protect key visitor sites better by determining visitor capacity
- provide greater business certainty as a result of longer permit tenure for commercial operators under commercial activity agreements
- introduce alternate pricing and trading arrangements for tour operators
- introduce performance standards, accreditation systems and codes of practice
- use 'expression of interest' processes to allocate access for new capacity.
Legislation
Legislation provisions for TIPA are contained in:
- Marine Parks Regulation 2006 (PDF)*
- Nature Conservation (Administration) Regulation 2006 (PDF)*
- Recreation Areas Management Act 2006 (PDF)*.
Further information
For further information on the status of the initiative, contact:
Manager Tourism & Visitor Management
Qld Parks & Wildlife Service
Phone: (07) 3330 5247
Email Tourism & Visitor Management
* Requires Adobe Reader
Last updated 14 June 2011