Demand for ‘off-road’
experiences in desert Australia is growing. But very little is
known about how desert people can translate the potential of this
market into sustainable livelihoods. Desert people want to know how
to balance the benefits and consequences of increasing visitor
numbers to remote, and to culturally and environmentally sensitive
places.
This first stage of the project will
develop an understanding of 4WD tourism markets, their motivations,
trip preferences and behaviour. A geographic information system
called Visualising Relatively Unpredictable Movement (VRUM™)
is being developed to map out the flows of 4WD travellers across
desert Australia and describe the interactions between visitors,
settlements, infrastructure and natural and cultural resources. The
framework will be immediately useful for identifying where such
interactions may occur and facilitating community, business and
government engagement in managed 4WD tourism development. The
framework will lead to the development of knowledge products to
address specific management issues.
These may include product development
guides for communities, ‘safe travel’ protocols for
visitors and settlements, impact assessment and forecasting models,
and education and training resources which will be addressed in
stage 2.
You can also have a look at what we're doing with Google
Maps in the project.
