Kangaroo Island Strategic Tourism Plan
Kangaroo Island is South Australia's premier nature based tourism destination and one of the top four places international travellers visit in Australia. It provides iconic landscapes and wildlife experiences such as Remarkable Rocks and Seal Bay. The island is home to many species of flora and fauna, which have evolved without some of the negative influences and predators experienced on the mainland, such as foxes.
The Kangaroo Island Strategic Tourism Plan outlines the economic, social and environmental directions required for sustainable tourism on the island. It provides guidance on the planning policy changes required to ensure that future tourism developments enrich the natural wilderness experiences without compromising the ecological assets that underpin these. Perhaps nowhere else in South Australia is the need to balance the needs and wishes of visitors with the environmental impacts of their behaviour as critical as it is on Kangaroo Island.
At every stage of this project we were aware that setting a framework for a viable and environmentally responsive tourism industry was a big responsibility. The active engagement of all those with an investment in the outcomes was crucial to the strategy's success. Accordingly we worked hard to build a strong sense of shared commitment through our interaction with a broad-based project steering committee, tourism operators and community leaders. Such stakeholder and community buy-in is essential to making this strategy a 'living' document that will be successfully implemented.