Australian Alps gets new Plan
Australian Alps National Landscapes Inc.
MEDIA RELEASE
Date: 18 September 2009
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The Australian Alps National Landscape Management Committee today released its new Tourism Master Plan for public comment
In releasing the draft Tourism Master Plan for a four week public consultation period, chair of the Australian Alps National Landscape, Ian Geer, said the Australian Alps had been recognised as one of Australia’s key nature-based tourism areas, along with destinations such as Kakadu, The Red Centre, Greater Blue Mountains and the Great Ocean Road.
Mr Geer said the Tourism Master Plan provided the tourism industry across the Australian Alps with a blueprint to co-operatively develop the best-of-the-best experience offers and market, through Tourism Australia, the region to the international tourist seeking to experience the essence of the Australian Alps.
The Australian Alps National Landscape covers a very large area from Canberra in the north to Walhalla and Mt Buller in the south. It includes around 5 million hectares of the alpine and sub-alpine area of Australia including all of the mainland ski resorts, national parks, State Forests and other protected areas, dozens of mountain towns and villages, 14 Shires and hundreds of tourism operators.
The Master Plan identifies what it is that distinguishes and separates the Australian Alps from all other nature-based tourism areas in the world and highlights the features and reasons why international experience seekers would want to think about the Australian Alps for a holiday.
The Experience Seeker is a very specific market segment that is interested not in mass tourism, but rather understanding and immersing themselves in a particular area, interacting with the locals, and becoming involved in local happenings that reflect the character of the area. Experience seekers generally spend longer enjoying their holidays, with flow-on benefits of increased expenditure in regional areas.
Mr Geer said that while the Australian Alps are a very large area, there were actually common themes that helped to set the region apart from other natural and cultural environments across Australia and overseas. In particular the folklore of the mountain horsemen as typified in the Man From Snowy River legend, the harsh environment endured by those who built large developments like the Snowy Mountain Scheme, or small grazing properties, are overlain with the very strong but little known stories of migration of Indigenous communities as they followed the seasonal migrations of large and small food sources.
The Tourism Master Plan will help the tourism and conservation industry better understand how the Australian Alps can be interpreted to the international visitor in a way that ensures both fantastic experiences as well as long-term protection of the key elements of the environment.
You can access the Tourism Master Plan at: nevt.com.au/home/Australian-Alps-National-Landscapes.html
Media Enquiries
Ian Geer
Chair, Australian Alps National Landscape Inc.
ph 03 5775 8585
mob 0417 545 606