Noreen Breakey speaks on the Australia’s resurrection after the bushfire disaster and its efforts to attract tourists
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Dr. Noreen Breakey
Board member-Ecotourism Australia
04-06-2020

Noreen Breakey speaks on the Australia’s resurrection after the bushfire disaster and its efforts to attract tourists

Dr. Noreen Breakey, an elected member of the Board of Ecotourism Australia (EA) is an academician by profession. She has been a lecturer and researcher at the University of Queensland for more than 15 years now. She received her PhD on tourism destination development in 2006.

Dr. Breakey joined the UQ School of Tourism (now Business) in 2005. She was the First Year Experience Coordinator for three years, followed by the Undergraduate Programs Director for four years.

Dr. Breakey’s research explores the relationships between people, tourism, and the natural environment, through her principal research areas of environmental ethics, sustainable tourism, ecotourism, community-based tourism, and tourism in protected areas.

In 2010, Dr. Breakey received a UQ Excellence in Teaching & Learning Award - Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, and in 2013, she was part of the team, which was awarded the UQ School of Tourism Award for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning Team. Dr. Breakey undertakes scholarship of teaching and learning and has numerous research publications on tourism and hospitality education.

Before her academic career, Dr. Breakey worked for over a decade in the industry, including hotels, resorts, tour operations, travel agencies, and events in Australia and overseas, as well as in the government, developing the Destination Management Plans at Tourism Events Queensland.

Today, Dr. Breakey is an active member of Ecotourism Australia. She was on their Policy and Advocacy Committee from 2011 to 2014 and was elected to their Board of Directors in 2019.

In an Interview with EcoTourism Expert, Dr. Noreen Breakey traces her journey in the tourism industry and vows to do much more for Australia’s tourism industry going forward.

As you were on Board of Ecotourism Australia (EA) when the Bushfire began and spread in Australia, can you tell us what was the first step taken by Australia to contain the fire and protect affected people? And how effective were the initial efforts?

The response by our emergency services and affected communities has been simply amazing. There was the mammoth task of fighting the fires themselves. Technology was employed to communicate up-to-date details about the sites, severity and evacuations. Everyone was looking for a way to help, such as donating to charities or supporting our volunteer firefighters through supplies and messages of thanks, including pictures drawn by local children. The risk of fire in our very dry drought conditions was so high that awareness programs included consideration of the sparks created when using power tools and lawnmowers.

Given the circumstances, the initial and on-going efforts made a huge difference to potential loss of life and buildings that could have occurred. Members of my family were evacuated to my house and the local fires were able to contain and direct the fire so that people and homes were not lost.

- Media in general is being blamed for the reason for the international community’s perception the bush fire in Australia was an uncontrollable calamity, while only particular areas were affected. While word spread globally that ‘Australia is on fire’, how did it affect the tourism industry of Australia?

There was an outpouring of support from around the world because of the media coverage, but the message ‘Australia is on fire’, combined with many false visuals, has resulted in cancellations even in places nowhere near any fires.

Tourism Australia was very quick to establish a website showing how most of Australia was unaffected by fires, but people didn’t want to take the risk of travelling here at that time.

Australia is a massive country so the reality is that even in New South Wales, one of our most affected states, it is only around 7% of the state that has been affected, but at the same time that is around 5.3 million hectares, which is about the size of Croatia.

As the Chair for EA’s Policy and Advocacy Committee, you led the development of the ‘Bushfire Recovery Position Statement’. Please give some more details on the steps taken, for the benefit of our readers.

As the Chair for Ecotourism Australia’s Policy and Advocacy Committee, I led the development of our ‘Bushfire Recovery Position Statement’.

The challenge for eco and nature-based tourism in Australia is that our sector is completely dependent on our natural environment. Many operators provide tours or accommodation in regional areas in and around our national parks, and these have been the hardest hit by the fires. So, while only 7% of New South Wales was affected by wildfires, over a third of the national park estate has been affected and many parks are still closed.

In addition to the 10% of Ecotourism Australia’s members who have been directly impacted by the fires, all members have been affected through cancellations and lost bookings.

Ecotourism Australia’s Bushfire Recovery Position Statement identified the recovery actions needed to support operators, communities, and our protected area agencies, as well as the opportunities, such as to ‘build back better’.

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- Tourists from across the globe perceive the Commonwealth of Australia as the most biologically diverse country in the world that took immense pride and care of its environment, pristine territories, rainforests etc. How does EA intend to attract and bring hesitant tourists back to Australia like in the past?

Australia’s biodiversity is incredible and unlike other places on this amazing planet. Part of that is due to fires and droughts and floods. These are part of the natural cycle. We have plants, such as the Eucalyptus, whose seeds require fire to sprout, and birds that unintentionally spread the fire.

Research is well underway on the impact of the fires on biodiversity and the focus is on the long-term recovery of our native plants and animals. Tourism Australia is now even promoting trips for people to come and help our wildlife recovery, such as on Kangaroo Island in South Australia.

People will come back. In many cases, cancelled bookings have been remade for next year. We just need to keep our operators in business and our people employed until then!

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- Was your interest in Tourism an inherent passion, as you have studied and researched on the subject? How did it all begin for you? What’s your story?

I was actually in the first cohort of students to undertake a tourism undergraduate degree in Australia, back in the late 1980s. So much of tourism has changed over the last 30 years! But the initial appeals of working with people and helping people to have amazing experiences, especially in nature, are still there.

I enjoyed a decade in the tourism sector, from small family-run businesses to international corporations, including accommodation, tours, the travel sector and events. During this time, I realized that destinations could, and should, be managed better to ensure positive outcomes for the environment and local people. This led me to undertake my Honours thesis on Environmental Themes Affecting Destination Choice, and then my PhD thesis on Tourism Destination Development. I also had the opportunity, as the Corporate Planning Analyst at Tourism Events Queensland, to coordinate the teams and develop the Destination Management Plans for the 12 regions of the state.

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- I heard that the University of Queensland has an MOU with EA which includes four PhD scholarships, how are you involved in the PhD programmes of the university? Are international students eligible for applying for a PhD programme? What is the procedure?

The MOU between the University of Queensland and Ecotourism Australia includes four PhD scholarships on key topics that are relevant to the ecotourism sector: Social license to operate commercial tourism in protected areas, Overtourism in natural areas, Sustainable destinations, and Transitioning to a low carbon future.

These opportunities were promoted internationally in mid-2019, with over 40 applications received from 26 countries. The four successful candidates started in January this year, and I am the supervisor for Ms. Sonya Underdahl who will be investigating the first topic: how best to manage the use of protected areas, such as national parks, for commercial tourism operations. 

This is important as parks around the world are increasingly required to provide tourism and recreation opportunities and achieve economic benefits from these activities. But how can commercial businesses best work alongside our park agencies? And what commercial activity is considered appropriate by communities? We should answer these questions. 

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