Pre-departure Destination Brief: Milford Sound Shuo Yang (3940194) Brock University Milford Sound, New Zealand Instructor: Dr. Dave Brown Course: TREN3F94 Ecological Regions and Tourism Destinations in New Zealand Due: Feb, 18 th , 2010 Introduction Milford Sound ( Piopiotahi in Māori) is a fjord on the south west coast of the South Island within Fiordland National Park and the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage site in New Zealand (Inglis, Gust, Kospartov, Peacock, 2008). It has been described by Rudyard Kipling as the ‘eighth wonder of the world’ (Transit New Zealand, 2007). The valley walls drop steeply to water depths, especially Mitre Peak, has been one of the most well-known tourism icons (Becken, 2005). Its unique natural attractions, many wildlife, and marine biota attract a huge number of tourists to visit Milford Sound on annual basis. For example, Visitor numbers to Milford Sound / Piopiotahi have grown from 247,000 in 1992 to approximately 470,000 in the 2004 /2005 season (Fiordland National Park Management Plan, 2007). The rate of growth continues over the life of management plan (Fiordland National Park Management Plan, 2007). Indeed, economically, the large influx of tourists can definitely contribute to the increment of local revenue. Nevertheless, the increase in commercial and tourists activity in Milford Sound has put ever greater pressure on its natural character and landscape, wildlife and marine biota (Sirota, 2006). Sirota (2006) has also pointed out that perceptions of natural landscape and wilderness values are attenuated when synergies are formed between commercial tourist vessels, air traffic, high road usage and large influxes of visitors within a confined area. A vast number of researches pertaining to the sustainability of tourism in Milford Sound have shown that at present unsustainable indicators appear to outweigh those sustainable ones for the destination. The current carrying capacity for Milford Sound appears to have been reached, if not slightly exceeded (Sirota, 2006, p.10). In this report, the environmental impacts of tourism development on Milford Sound will be examined, in the backdrop of the tension between the commercialization of its abundant tourism resources for economic values and the conservation of its local ecology and biodiversity. Environmental Impacts of Tourism Development on Milford Sound Milford Sound as the “focal point for tourism in Fiordland National Park” was to be the blueprint by which tourism could move ahead (Department of Conservation, 2002), as it was presumed to be clean, green and most importantly natural (Riddell, 2004). However, these great expectations in an economic sense do not mean Milford Sound has managed to escape a wide range of environmental effects associated with tourism and large influxes of tourists. For example, there are more than 50 buses and 4,000 visitors in Milford Sound on daily basis (Becken, 2005). It has been estimated that among all travelers visiting New Zealand, 35% of them tend to choose Milford Sound as one of their destination as it has been successfully promoted as a sightseeing attraction in a commercial sense (Carey, 2003). Thus, the issue of carrying capacity of the number of travellers at Milford Sound has been put forward (Carey, 2003; Becken, 2005; Sirota, 2006). The congestion and the great intensity of tourists in Milford Sound not only bring environmental concerns, but also may negatively influence the perceptions held by tourists towards this popular sightseeing destination and therefore its commercial values. Moreover, in addition to the economic benefits and environmental concerns, the impacts of tourism on local communities should also draw wide attention. On one hand, the increasing number of tourists can definitely generate more revenue for local economy. For instance, The Helicopter Line (THL) announced in 2008 that Milford sales and the sale of an Auckland coach line will generate proceeds of $26 million and one-off gains of about $9 million (Hartley, 2008). On the other hand, an ever increasing flow of tourists to Milford Sound causes congestion and overcrowding not only at Milford Sound and but also its road corridors (Riddell, 2004; Becken, 2005). The congestion issues are plaguing many key localities of Milford Sound and surrounding areas such as water ways, terminus, and road access (Department of Conservation, 2002). While the primary reason that account for the congestion on the waterways has been identified by some researchers as the lack of limit put on the number of vessels in Milford Sound, others argue that the reasons lie in the excessive number of tourists on a boat (Riddell, 2004). Particularly, large international cruise ships which use the waterways on a regular basis, in conjunction with local tourist boat cruises, constitute another form of commercial boating activity in Milford Sound ( Sirota , 2006). Therefore, when the issue of the carrying capacities of the sightseeing attractions are examined, it is highly suggested that neither aspects should be neglected, namely, the lack of limit put on its infrastructural facilities, as in this case, the total number of its vessels, and the excessive number of tourists. In addition to its waterways, around the peak time the terminal area becomes over-crowded when tourists arrive en-mass to meet boat departures (Riddell, 2004). Besides, during the peak times, buses which frequently drive by to drop off passengers are unable to find a parking space at the terminal (Riddell, 2004, p.80). The situation of crowdedness is further compounded by “the one way single egress” (Riddell, 2004, p.83) leading to the popular attraction. The only road for ground transportation to get to Milford Sound is an alpine traffic corridor that provides the only road access for a growing number of tourists, operators, workers and suppliers to Milford Sound (Riddell, 2004). All these issues may lead to the negative perceptions amongst visitors towards Milford Sound. As a result, in recent years, the Milford Sound’s initial target groups including New Zealand and Australian Free and Independent Travelers (FIT’s) have been considerably reduced partly due to the negative visitor perceptions (Riddell, 2004). The revenue that can be generated from the local tourism industry would decrease because tourists may choose other sightseeing destinations such as Doubtful Sound instead of Milford Sound as the result of their negative images towards Milford Sound. Consequently, the negative perceptions of stakeholders towards Milford Sound would also decrease the interest in investment (Riddell, 2004) . Interestingly, possibly due to the cultural differences among tourist from different backgrounds, Asian tourists who tend to move and travel in large tour groups tend to have greater tolerance towards the intensity of people at tourism attraction as in the case of Milford Sound, to which most tourists from European, Australian, American and New Zealand markets, on the contrary, dislike (Riddell, 2004). For instance, one of the major groups visiting Milford Sound is Japanese (Riddell, 2004). Nevertheless, in Milford Sound, the noise from the aircraft (Becken, 2005) and the commercial vessels and cruise ships (Sirota, 2006) would affect the perceptions of natural quiet, visitor enjoyment and safety concerns (National Park Service, 1994, cited in Cessford, 2000). Although tourists from different backgrounds may demonstrate disparities in their perception towards certain attraction with great intensity of tourists, there is less possibility that any tourist for the purpose of sightseeing will favor places which are environmentally contaminated or have other ecological problems due to overcrowding and congestion. However, it is also worth noticing that the ever increasing number of tourists may put greater pressure on local infrastructure (e.g. toilets and sewage disposal system) (Riddell, 2004; Becken, 2005). To make the matter worse, despite the relatively greater tolerance towards the high tourist intensity at certain tourism attraction among Asian tourists, they tend to move in large tour groups so that the effects are massive on the infrastructure, water supply, effluent disposal and so on (McIntyre, 1998). Indeed, some improvements to infrastructure have been carried out by local government including an upgrading of the wharves at Freshwater Basin more recently. Nevertheless, these measures do not substantially benefit the local people for them to have a quality life (Riddell, 2004). According to Nitsch and Straaten (1995), any changes necessary to accommodate tourists should not be detrimental to community needs. Therefore, the influx of tourists not only puts stress on the environment at Milford Sound, but also brings socio-economic concerns and the sustainability of Milford Sound would be considerably threatened. Environmental Impacts of Tourism Development on Wildlife and Marine Biota in Milford Sound Aside from the negative environmental impacts on Milford Sound, the increase in commercial and tourists’ activities have put pressure on wildlife and marine biota in Milford Sound (Sirota, 2006). Higham, Kearsley and Kliskey (2000) also point out that increasing waterborne traffic in the fiords of Fiordland National Park may threaten the wilderness status of this area. More specifically, first of all, the presence of high intensity of tourist boats operating in the fiord influences the dolphins that visit Milford Sound directly ( Fairbairn, 2003). For example, high speed vessels would harm