2020-01-13 GC Agenda - Item 10 - Attachment 1 - Report on the Sustainable Tourism Stakeholder Reference Group

their villages to remain localised and even “sleepy” rather than invigorated with tourists.
The new planning scheme identifies opportunities for more tourism business in the rural areas, and it will
be interesting to see if those opportunities are taken up.
There is an opportunity to increase offerings for physically active tourists, particularly bicycle riders, with
better promotion of facilities such as the Noosa Trail Network or existing bike trails in the Tewantin NP.

8. Acceptable Limits




A real key to the discussions underway at STSRG meetings are two issues: resident amenity and visitor
experience.
Consideration has been given to an acceptable limits study to determine what the ideal carrying capacity
should be for various precincts, most urgently the Main Beach/Hastings Street precinct. Establishing an
acceptable limit for, say, Hastings Street, would require significant work, and arguably be a subjective
rather than objective result. However, perceptions are very important when considering limits on numbers.
What is very clear from other places on the planet is that overcrowding, or “overtourism”, is not in itself an
impediment or deterrent to visitors. Rather, as places become more crowded, different types of visitors
start to arrive. Research from places like Barcelona or Venice suggest that the transformation to
overcrowding results in alienation of residents and continuing arrival of mass tourists that individually
spend less. (Is the overall increase of day visitors and overall decrease in day visitor spend during the year
2019 indicating that Noosa is already on this trajectory?)
Noosa must be watchful that, using the old boiling frog analogy, it doesn’t find itself with more crowding
and commensurate loss of resident amenity and also reduction in tourist spend in the future.
If there is one single element that binds every member of the STSRG, it is an agreement that:
                          What is good for the resident is also good for the tourist.
                       A place that is great to live is also a place that is great to visit.
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