Tourism: Moving forward together

Tourism contributes about 5% towards Tasmania’s economy. Tourism is not just about visitor numbers, showcasing our nature, revenues and hotels. Tourism is part of Tasmanian society. This collection of chapters presents a picture of tourism in Tasmania in its glory as well as its warts. It does not address all aspects of tourism in Tasmania but there is plenty of material here to further the tourism conversation, and to start new ones. Contributors to this volume are mainly researchers at UTAS who are affiliated with TRENd. Our first goal with this book was to engage with the industry and the community and broaden current debates by bringing recent research into the debate. We are all concerned with the sustainability of the industry. As scholars, we have taken a step back to evaluate the situation in Tasmania. Our academic distance offers the opportunity for longer-term assessment, acknowledging various interests and agendas of diverse groups and reflecting on scenarios. A further goal of this book was to provide a range of academic perspectives to the public. In academia, debates often anchor what we do. We often challenge each other and disagree with each other. But robust debate and academic freedom underpins what we do at UTAS; it is accepted and indeed expected that people have differing perspectives. Consequently, we have not tried to have a cohesive viewpoint. Rather we aim to present the diversity in opinions that exist amongst tourism researchers at UTAS. Together we present and celebrate the good, the bad and the ugly of tourism.