FAQs

Sustainable tourism takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities. This is an essential component of effective destination and visitor management, integral to success and not an additional facet. 

 A plan is a shared statement of intent to manage a destination over a stated period of time, articulating the roles of the different stakeholders and identifying clear actions that they will take and the apportionment of resources. 

Visitor Management is the physical process of influencing, directing and accommodating the flow of visitors to and within a destination.

Sustainable tourism looks at the visitor economy for the destinations and its implications for the quality of life of residents and for the wider local economy: 

• By strengthening the visitor economy, services enjoyed by local people, such as restaurants, attractions, arts and entertainment will benefit. 
• Looked at the other way, actions directly aimed at making somewhere a better place to live and work will also make it a more appealing place to visit. 
• Strengthening and promoting the image and awareness of a destination and the services available can be highly important in attracting new business and investment across all sectors. 
• Tourism has demonstrated its ability to stimulate growth in jobs and is a relatively accessible sector in which to start a new business 
• The health of tourism related businesses can be very important to other parts of the local economy who supply them, such as food producers, maintenance services etc. 

The sustainable tourism plan will state a clear vision and form an action plan for future development and investment in the Shire, this means the information within the plan will have direct impact on the appearance and function of the place you may live, work or holiday within.

For the purpose of this plan, a visitor includes all those travelling to the Shire, either for a day trip or staying overnight, for a variety of reasons, including for leisure/holiday purposes (including the Alpine resort visitors who visit Mansfield); events; business-based travel; visiting friends and relatives (VFR); medical tourism (MASS); educational purposes; and employment purposes.

The visitor economy accounts for the fact that visitor activity does not occur in isolation, but rather, contributes to investment in jobs across a broad range of industry sectors. This includes all industries that directly and indirectly serve visitors, ranging from accommodation and tourism operators and attractions to broader goods and services such as retail and food and beverage industries.

As tourism is not a defined industry sector on its own, but rather the amalgamation of a variety of industry sectors including accommodation, food and beverage etc., the full extent of what comprises the visitor economy and its reach across many elements of the broader economy is often not fully understood.

Yes you may complete both surveys. The business survey is focused on getting to know your business needs in relation to destination management when the community survey focuses more on a shared vision and brand.