Tourism

While tourism has contributed much to the economic development of Queensland, it has also come at a cost (Sorensen  Epps, 2003 Turton, 2005). An important social cost associated with the development of dive tourism has been the displacement of ppeople living along the coast-line to create room for the development of restaurants, hotels and other facilities meant to cater for the tourists (Mograbi  Rogerson, 2007). The high number of divers touring the Gold Coast creates the need for sufficient facilities to cater for their needs. The development of these facilities has made many people living along or near the coast-line to sell their land to developers and relocate elsewhere.

Coral reefs were of great religious importance to Australias aboriginal communities which used the reefs and the coast-line for some of their rituals. With the advent of dive tourism, the remainining members of the aboriginal communities are unable to access the reefs, and even if they do, they cannot hold their religious functions in sites awash with tourists.

The most important environmental cost associated with dive tourism is the destruction of coral reefs (Worachananant, Carter  Reopanichkul, 2008). Physical contact with divers hands, fins and body equipment has been blamed for injuring corals and many other sessile benthic organisms (Rouphael  Hanafy, 2007). While the collisions are not violent enough to crush or kill large coral colonies, they are responsible for injuring and killing small colonies. When the corals are injured repeatedly, their healing or regenerative capacity is impaired seriously.

Another environmental cost is the deterioration of the water quality resulting from careless dumping of wastes by the tourists, wastes from the tourist facilities along the coast and pollution by oil from powerboats (The Economist, 2009). Recreational and accommodation facilities are necessary wherever tourists are visiting. However, not all tourists and facilities dispose of their wastes correctly so that some end up comprimising the quality of the water and the coastline.