Turning wilderness into theme parks: the great national parks debate

Governments hail nature-based tourism as a win-win but conservationists say Australia’s wild places belong to everyone and shouldn’t be sold out

The development planned for Cradle Mountain in Tasmania’s north-west is arguably the most high profile example of the dilemma faced by governments dealing with the growing popularity of nature-based tourism in national parks.

Visited by more than 268,000 tourists in 2017, and with visits growing at 12% a year, the facilities at Cradle Mountain were stretched to the limit. So the Tasmanian government pledged $160m to build a new visitor centre and tourism village on the edge of the heritage area.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2R2mqDd
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