“But we’ll be helping all these innovations evolve in an environmentally friendly way. As a result,we can demonstrate that tourism can add value to the lives of people who both live in Queenstown and to their visitors,and not have a negative impact.”
The only other tourism centre coming close to Queenstown is Hainan,whose largest industries are agriculture and Chinese tourism,with its tropical beaches and lush forests. Its provincial government plans to end the sale of fossil fuel cars by 2030,and have EVs and hybrids account for 45 per cent of the island’s fleet.
In Australia,just seven tourism areas so far have achieved global standard ECO Destination certification by Ecotourism Australia and,of those,three have set their own net zero targets:Bundaberg in Queensland,the Blue Mountains in NSW and Augusta Margaret River in WA.
Ecotourism Australia CEO Elissa Keenan said it is now known that the demands of travellers are changing,with visitors and operators looking for sustainable and responsible options,and clear,credible certification standards.
“We know we need to commit now to really start embedding sustainability as a normal part of business and indeed it is a ‘must do’,no longer a ‘nice to have’,” she said.
“Research over the past few years and global reports from the World Travel and Tourism Council,Expedia,booking.com,American Express and others have found a growing consumer interest in what businesses are doing in terms of sustainability. We know that increasingly more and more travellers are actively looking for sustainable options.”
At the Bundaberg Regional Council,director of strategic projects and economic development Ben Artup outlined similar aspirations as Queenstown to go to net zero but said they wouldn’t be able to do it as quickly.
“We meet with industry every quarter to see how they could transition and green the grid and invest in renewable energy,” he said. “We have a fund to set up more EV-charging infrastructure and educate people to make the switch and Bundaberg already has the number one take-up rate of household solar PVB in the world,with more than half of our properties having solar on their roofs.
“We hope we can be carbon-zero as soon as possible,we hope by 2033. We’re working to bring the whole region on the journey.”
The Blue Mountains City Council is also striving hard for a carbon-zero future,and for the council to become a leader in the field. But it’s concentrating on a narrower field of direct emissions from sources that it owns or controls,including electricity usage from street lighting,with voluntary codes imposed on indirect emissions produced outside the council.
In the Shire of Augusta Margaret River,there’s also a lot of work being done revegetating land,developing a new renewable energy project and drafting a Sustainable Economy Strategy. Its efforts,however,to move further with challenges like bringing in low-carbon tourist transport have encountered commercial viability issues.
Meanwhile,in Queenstown,the EV infrastructure is being expanded,public transport is to be either electrified or run on hydrogen and made free,racks of e-bikes will be installed at every bus stop,small hydrogen-powered ferries will be introduced across the lake,and a new solar farm will be developed along with the existing nearby wind farms.