Ensuring a future for Ningaloo
Researchers from Curtin and the Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organisation (CSIRO) have developed a unique and innovative tool to help plan sustainable tourism development in the Ningaloo area.
The Ningaloo Tourism Destination Model can be used to determine the social, economic and environmental impacts of tourism along the Ningaloo coast.
It works by producing a representation of tourists' activities and impacts and how these may change under different development and management scenarios. It is freely available to the region for use by local tourism operators, shires and authorities, and representatives from public agencies and local industries.
A result of public workshops over a two-year period in Exmouth, Carnarvon and Coral Bay, the model is part of the Ningaloo Tourism Destination Modelling Project.
By feeding the results of the Ningaloo Tourism Destination Model into another model, developed by CSIRO's Wealth from Oceans Flagship, the ecological impacts of change can also be explored.
Both models will be used to build a larger model of the complete system by late 2010, which will explore sustainable futures for Ningaloo such as tourism, agriculture, oil and gas and other industries.
The Ningaloo Tourism Destination Model is a project of the CSIRO Ningaloo Collaboration Cluster and is funded by CSIRO's Flagship Collaboration Fund and Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre (STCRC).
