Tourists Are Flocking to the Great Barrier Reef Before It Dies, Which May Not Be a Good Thing

Tourists from all over the world are flocking to Australia to experience the wonders of Great Barrier Reef before it dies, but that might not be a good thing. 

According to a research paper titled "Last Chance Tourism and the Great Barrier Reef" published in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism, nearly 70 percent of people who visited the reef in 2015 said they specifically made the trip to Australia to experience the reef before it was too late.

Almost half of the reef's coral has disappeared over the past three decades, according to research conducted in 2012 by the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Katharina Fabricius, a coral reef ecologist, told Live Science that 3.4 percent of the reef is lost each year thanks to warming ocean temperatures, invasive species and coastal development.

The prognosis for the reef's health is grim, as it has suffered the worst coral bleaching in recorded history this year, with an estimated 93 percent of the reef affected, according to a study conducted by the Coral Reef Studies. 

At a Glance

• As the health of Australia's Great Barrier Reef continues to decline, tourists are flocking to see it before it's too late.
• Last chance tourism is a niche market for tourists who want to experience endangered sites before they are gone.
• Researchers say a paradox lies in the fact that the tourists are actually contributing to these sites' demise.

With many heritage sites around the world in similar dire straights for a variety of reasons, a new type of travel experience, known as last chance tourism, or LCT,  has become popular for people who want to see these magnificent sites before time runs out. 

"LCT is a niche tourism market focused on witnessing and experiencing a place before it disappears," co-authors Karen McNamara and Annah Piggott-McKellar said. "This tourism market can also be referred to as climate change, disappearing or vanishing, doom, dying, endangered or “see it before it's gone” tourism."

While the influx of visitors is good for Australia's $5.2 billion tourism industry, it's not necessarily a good thing for the reef.

Attention Leads to Paradox

Much has been made of the wasting reef's health in the scientific community and the media, leading to calls to action to save the reef. Paradoxically, the same marine lovers flocking to this beautiful site for one last glimpse are also contributing to its demise, according to the LCT research paper.

(MORE: Best Protected Great Barrier Reef Corals Are Now Dead)

"The paradox lies in tourists visiting a destination due to its perceived status of being in danger of disappearing forever, further deteriorating the destination through population pressure and on-site activities associated with tourism, as well as the carbon emissions associated with travel, adding to anthropogenic climate change," the authors said.

"Collectively, these impacts can further deteriorate the natural value of the place and raise the destination status of it being in danger, creating an even greater market demand for LCT, reinforcing the cycle further."

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