Tourists – love ‘em we do?

Not so in a few European destinations. One of the most vocal recent protests has broken out in Malaga in the Costa de Sol region of Spain where the locals are posting stickers on doors of short stays.

The messages go from the direct “go f*cking home” to more measured pleadings about how the influx of tourists is bumping up prices of accommodation and restaurants while also changing the cultural vibe of the city.

Similar campaigns have been running in Venice, the Canary Isles and others.

Couldn’t happen in sleepy Tassie, could it? Activists have been stirring the pot in Hobart amid a housing shortage while the Government response seems to be “let’s keep our heads down”.

The state government has been working with good old Tourism Tasmania (TT) in the form of the “2030 Visitor Economy Strategy”

The strategy talks up “sustainability, the conservation and management of our protected areas, and embracing Tasmania’s net zero emissions future.”

Fantastic!

Except, as pointed out in a recent post, the incoming minority Liberal Government has promised to open more land for native forest logging which will kill off more wildlife, reduce biodiversity and accelerate CO2 emissions. That’ll be real winner for attracting the “climate-conscious traveler” as espoused in the strategy document.

When Gunns closed the Triabunna woodchip mill in 2011, Tasmania became one of a very few jurisdictions in the world to become carbon negative. That means the forests that weren’t being destroyed absorbed more carbon from the atmosphere that was being emitted.

The technical term is Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) which continued to decline when the Mill was never re-opened for wood chipping under our stewardship.

Most State Governments would have been very proud of such a situation given the potential boost to climate-conscious tourists and business event attendees.

Not so in Tas where the leaders of TT are carefully screened to ensure they toe the ideological mood of the prevailing Labor/Lib gummint.

The most recent chief of TT moved seamlessly into the role of chief advocate for the Salmon Industry determined to continue to convert once-pristine inshore waters into slime-covered, biological dead zones.

But hey! He got Albo down to extol the virtues of the uber-polluting Salmon industry and to promote the extinction of the Maugean Skate in Macquarie Harbour. This would be the world’s first marine fish extinction.

Of course, the local copper on the beat, the EPA was too busy sorting out his sock draw to have an opinion. Could it be that the EPA dude has ideological problems as well? Nah.

TT loves data. Which is good.

Maybe TT could have a crack at modelling a world where the taxpayer funded subsidies flowing to the native forest logging industry could be re-directed to the tourism sector?

I’m not a gambler and I’m not holding my breath.