2020-01-13 GC Agenda - Item 10 - Attachment 2 - The Value of Tourism to the Noosa Community October 2019 FINAL REPORT

The perception of tourism’s impact on Noosa from Business respondents

Businesses were also asked questions about their views regarding tourism’s impact on
Noosa generally. On average, businesses agreed that employment is positively impacted
because of tourism, but that this also makes businesses vulnerable to seasonal changes and
downturns in tourism numbers. While coastal and suburban businesses generally felt that
Council, the private sector and their own business invest more because of tourism,
hinterland businesses did not feel the same about these issues. Hinterland businesses in
general also did not feel there were more employment opportunities because of Noosa’s
tourism appeal. This is interesting given that hinterland businesses indicated that the
majority of their custom / trade was due to visitors to the region. It is noted, however, that
the ‘hinterland’ category had a small sample size.

Regardless of whether businesses are likely to be directly impacted by tourism or not, most
agreed that employment is assisted by tourism, but again that this makes businesses
vulnerable to downturns. Businesses that are only likely to be indirectly impacted by
tourism did not feel that employment opportunities in their business were assisted by
tourism or that they had been able to invest more in their business. Businesses indirectly
impacted by tourism did agree, on average, that Council and the private sector invests more
in Noosa because of tourism.

Figure 23: Businesses’ response to Tourism Statements, by Business Location

5.0
       Strongly Agree




                                                                                                                                                1=strongly disagree; 3=neutral; 5=strongly agree
4.5


4.0

3.5

3.0

2.5
                 Coast (n=85)
2.0
                 Hinterland (n=5)

1.5              Suburban (n=11)

                                                                                                                            Strongly Disagree
1.0
         There are more      Noosa is very reliant on Council invests more in    There are more        The private sector Because of the benefits
          employment          tourism which makes infrastructure because          employment         invests more in Noosa of tourism, I have been
      opportunities in Noosa     local businesses     of the level of tourism opportunities in my because of the level of able to invest more in
       generally because of vulnerable to seasonal           in Noosa          business because of          tourism          my business than I
             tourism         visitation changes and                           Noosa’s tourism appeal                       otherwise would have
                              downturns in tourism




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