Tasmania’s peak tourism body said hard-line conservationists were now applying the same tried and true tactics towards tourism activities as has been successful for them in their campaigns against the forest industry.
Tourism Industry Council Tasmania CEO, Luke Martin, today accused conservation groups of selectively releasing images of the Three Capes Track project to mislead UNESCO representatives in the State last week about tourism in wilderness areas.
‘The image in the Sunday Tasmanian of the huts on Three Capes shows the short-term impact of fuel reduction burns, and clearly has been released for maximum shock value.’
‘These are the kind of tactics we’re used to seeing play our against forestry – not bushwalks’.
“The fact is the track is now open so people can visit the Three Capes huts and see for themselves that they have been sensitively designed into the natural environment with minimal interruption to natural vegetation.’
‘Funnily enough, it seems no photos of the completed hut sites have been released with this image.’
Mr Martin said Tasmanians should be proud of the fact Three Capes represents the most significant public investment in nature tourism in Australia in two decades.
‘The entire footprint of the Three Capes track and huts infrastructure represents less than 0.2% of Tasman National Park.
‘But this infrastructure means this park is now truly open to walker from across the globe, generating jobs in regional Tasmania while raising the profile of Tasmania’s natural environment.’
‘To suggest a 1 metre-wide track and small huts are trashing the wilderness value of the National Park is baseless scaremongering designed to further a hard-line anti-development agenda from conservationists who seemingly just want these areas locked up and off limits to everyone but themselves.
Luke Martin, Tourism Industry Council Tasmania
