The World Meteorological Organisation declared an El Niño weather event last week with increased sea surface temperatures expected to follow suit.

The seasonal weather event, coupled with higher global temperatures caused by the impacts of global warming, could lead to bleaching for the Great Barrier Reef’s coral; a region characterised by its vibrant colours.

The Great Barrier Reef is no stranger to these natural events. There have been five mass-bleaching events on the reef: 2002, 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2022. Alarmingly, there was bleaching last year during a La Niña phase – the first time in recorded history.

And as many travel industry businesses rely heavily on the $6.4 billion that tourism from the Reef brings in, continued episodes of coral bleaching have impacted the nature of tourism in the region.

Mark Olsen, the CEO of Tourism Tropical North Queensland (TTNQ), said an emphasis on research, education and management can impact real change for the tourism providers on the Reef as bleaching has occurred and continues. 

“(There’s) great voluntourism opportunities like the Great Barrier Reef Census where we’ve got global conservation individuals, organisations and the tourism industry getting out to go beyond looking at this ecosystem from an aeroplane, (but) down to looking at it in the water,” Olsen told Travel Weekly.

Aerial view of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia

The Great Barrier Reef Census, a citizen science effort involving over 100 tourism operators to survey the reef, is one of many scientific voluntourism projects looking to alternate methods of tourism. 

This reflects the changing nature of the modern tourist, according to Olsen, who said that today’s visitor to the reef wants to do more than just see it.

“They want to leave something in the place that they visit and take something with them in terms of a sense of contribution,” he said.

“Every visitor who goes to the Great Barrier Reef is directly contributing towards conservation through the environmental management charge (EMC) on every tour operator that takes you out to the barrier reef. That goes into research and conservation efforts.”

While projects of this nature contribute something beneficial to the reef, there remains a general concern about the impacts that overtourism have on the reef. University of Queensland Tourism Professor Lisa Ruhanen said that if overtourism continues, there will be a need to “put further controls over visitation onto the reef.”

However, Olsen argues that the visitor experience is not what’s impacting the reef, rather the weather events themselves are the issue and tourism is the hand needed for the reef’s conservation.

“What we know from the last events is that in the water at the tourism sites – now recognising that visitors go to less than 7 per cent of the Great Barrier Reef – the in-water experience and the impact on the reef was negligible. So the visitor experience is not what’s impacted. What is impacted is ecosystem stability and that’s where tourism can make a direct contribution.”

Reef Snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef

Despite the efforts of voluntourism projects, there is the bleak reality that the reef could not be saved. Charlie Veron, the former chief scientist for the Australian Institute of Marine Science told the Sydney Morning Herald that, “We’re not going to be able to save the Great Barrier Reef… there’s not a chance in heaven.”

Bleaching is forecast to reduce global coral cover by 95 per cent if the pre-industrial average temperature is kept below 2 degrees celsius below, and would be reduced by 70 per cent if warming is kept under 1.5 degrees, which is likely to happen by 2027, scientists at the World Meteorological Organisation have warned.

Following the bleaching events in 2016 and 2017, the number of international travellers to the Great Barrier Reef dropped as the term ‘mass bleaching’ permeated across global media. But other areas of QLD’s tourism weren’t so impacted.

“I know after the bleaching events in 2016 and 2017, the Whitsundays didn’t seem to be as heavily impacted because they have the resort style and offerings where people will still go, even if there isn’t a reef experience on offer,” Ruhanen said.

“For places like Cairns, Port Douglas and Townsville, it would be about looking to diversify their offerings and highlighting that there’s more to do in Cairns and Port Douglas, for example, than going to the reef.”

An alternative that applies not only to Northern Queensland, but across Australia is the emphasis on Indigenous tourism.

“In that Cairns region, there’s so much happening in terms of Indigenous tourism product development. We’d hope to see that become an attraction in its own right over the next 10 years or so,” Ruhanen said.

“With fantastic offerings taking place through the region, that becomes another reason for people to want to go to North Far North Queensland.”

Indigenous Australians perform ancestral ritual of starting a fire in Cairns, Queensland, Australia (iStock/Lux Blue)

However, Olsen is dedicated to the Reef. In response to Veron’s belief that there’s “not a chance in heaven” to save the reef, Olsen said: “I don’t know that hopelessness has ever motivated change.”

“We’ve had quite a number of senior diplomats, bureaucrats and scientists who have said, ‘We don’t see that there’s a future for the Great Barrier Reef,’ until they put their face in the water and they say, ‘This is incredible. How do we keep this going? How do we make sure that this is here for future generations?’”

A question that many on the Great Barrier Reef continue to tackle amid this incoming warmer season.