Social Science Assignment
Australian Tourism 2002

Introduction
International tourists spend over $13 billion annually in Australia. On average overseas tourists visit Australia 9 to 11 days. Most likely to visit Australia are between the ages of 25 and 34 years.
Tourism in Australia brings economic benefits to communities and wealth to our nation. Future tourist's developments must be sustainable developments that will protect the environment and our culture but not jeopardize the future growth of the industry.

Argument 1
Tourism brings wealth to our nation. Tourism is important to Australia. Firstly tourism is Australia's leading export earner. It has contributed $16 billion to Australia's economy alone in 1996 compared to the $9.9 billion in 1989. It has steadily increased over those 7 years from 1989 to 1996. All brings wealth to our nation.

Argument 2
Domestic tourists bring economic benefits to communities around Australia. Domestic tourists around Australia go to the following states, 34% go to N.S.W, 29% go to V.I.C, 17% go to Q.L.D, 8% go to W.A, 7% go to S.A, 3% go to T.A.S, And 1% go to both N.T and A.C.T. According to the Bureau of Tourism in 1998 52% of domestic tourists did leisure activities spending $5,795 million and 30% visited friends and relatives spending $2,216 million and the overall money spent was $10 million. All brings economic benefits to our nation.

Argument 3
International tourists bring economic benefits to communities around Australia. There were 2 300 000 visitors to Australia in 1998. Most visited n.s.w and Sydney, 21-30% visited Melbourne, v.i.c, and the gold coast while the rest visited w.a, Perth, the Great Barrier Reef and Brisbane in 1999. The activities they engaged in were going to Restaurants, zoos, national parks, botanical gardens, historical building sites and more in 1996. The tourists spent $1695 on package tours, $626 on food, drink and accommodation, $489 on shopping, $202 on transport in 1998. Bringing economic benefits to our nation

Argument 4
Sustainability means there is a balance between 3 key elements: the place, visitor and the environment is maintained.
Future developments should be sustainable, protecting our environment. Past developments haven't been sustainable. For instance look at the gold coast. / It's been overbuilt cutting out the natural features such as mangroves being important habitats for marine life, canal estates have been replaced sandy soak areas leaving fewer flood soak areas, canal estates have also created an artificial environment causing salutation, low lying areas have been build on that could bring future flood problems and the nearing river is dead. Future developments should be sustainable protecting the environment.

Argument 5
Future developments should be sustainable, protecting our indigenous culture. Past tourist developments have been sustainable. For instance look at Uluru. The aboriginal Uluru-Kata Tjuta people own the land and they lease to the government under conditions, which bring s wealth and finical independence to the local community. 400 000 people visit the site each year which also brings wealth to the local community. Finally it gives the aboriginal people opportunities for work.
Future developments are sustainable protecting the indigenous culture.