Sustainable tourism
Tourism Australia is the Australian Government agency responsible for influencing international visitors to travel to and through Australia for leisure and business events to foster a sustainable tourism industry. In striving to achieve this goal, Tourism Australia places great importance on respecting and protecting the cultures, landscapes and wildlife that are integral to Australia’s appeal as a destination.
Resources for industry
National Sustainability Framework and Sustainable Tourism Toolkit
Find out more about the National Sustainability Framework for the Visitor Economy and Sustainable Tourism Toolkit, which have been jointly developed by the Australian Government, and State and Territory governments.
National Sustainability Framework:
The Framework, the first of its kind for Australian tourism, provides a nationally agreed understanding of sustainable tourism and a vision for Australia to be a world leader in sustainable tourism. Learn more
Sustainable Tourism Toolkit:
The Sustainable Tourism Toolkit provides practical guidance to help tourism businesses implement sustainable practices across the four pillars of sustainability outlined in the Framework. Learn more
Sustainable Tourism Accreditation
Find out more about the Australian Tourism Industry Council’s Sustainable Tourism Accreditation program. Designed for small, medium, and regional tourism businesses to incorporate sustainability across their environmental, cultural, social and commercial business practices, the program has been updated to reflect the new National Sustainability Framework for the Visitor Economy.
Tourism Emissions Reduction Program
Learn how to manage carbon emissions with the Australian Tourism Industry Council’s Tourism Emissions Reduction program. Designed to assist small, medium, and regional tourism businesses, the online program provides businesses with an emissions estimate and a tailored reduction plan. Businesses can then demonstrate their commitment to enacting waste and emissions reductions measures to visitors via a unique link and QR code.
Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard
Learn more about Ecotourism Australia’s Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard pathway program. Designed for tourism businesses looking to embark on their sustainability journey, the scorecard measures where a business or tourism operator is at on their sustainability journey at a point in time and assesses the following four pillars: environmental, socio-economic, and cultural impacts and sustainable management.
Guides for Effective Sustainability Storytelling
Learn how to effectively communicate your sustainability efforts to global audiences with our guides for tourism and hospitality operators, and destinations. The guides, which are aimed at those who already have sustainability policies, commitments, or action plans in place, have been developed by EarthCheck in partnership with Tourism Australia.
Sustainability Storytellers
Read about some of Australia’s great tourism operators and storytellers who are committed to sustainability, with chapter three dedicated to navigating the path to Carbon Zero.
Tourism Australia's commitment to sustainable tourism
Driving awareness of, and capability for, a sustainable industry is a defined strategic priority for Tourism Australia and is enshrined within our corporate values.
Our approach is shaped by the following principles:
- We keep our own house in order in living by our employee value: We Do The Right Thing.
- We honour our First Nations people from whom we have much to learn.
- We support others in our industry in adopting practises to operate more sustainably, with positive impact on our land, people and culture.
- We provide a voice for sustainability in our industry: a voice of advocacy and education.
- We prioritise doing business with those in our industry who support sustainability.
- We promote and share tourism stories that inspire sustainability.
- We partner with like-minded organisations to increase our impact and reach.
Sustainable tourism includes protecting and restoring our natural environment, and helping to conserve Australia’s natural wonders and cultures, so they can be enjoyed today and by future generations. It also means fostering a profitable industry that delivers employment opportunities and economic benefits to communities, and in turn helps improve the tourism experience for our travellers and the quality of life for Australians.
As the National Tourism Organisation, Tourism Australia recognises it has an important role to play in championing and elevating the importance, and the appeal, of sustainable tourism, through our voice of advocacy and education. Our marketing platforms can help Australian tourism businesses to better communicate their sustainability success stories; and, by doing so, help encourage others to follow their lead.
Eight key areas of focus for Tourism Australia
- Advocacy: Showcasing sustainable and purpose driven tourism products, experiences and examples of best practice.
- Leadership: Educating and enabling greater capacity for sustainability in our industry.
- Brand: Integrating sustainability into Brand Australia to meet growing consumer demand and drive uptake of sustainable tourism experiences.
- Industry support: Highlighting and encouraging industry best practice and raising awareness of Australian tourism’s sustainability credentials.
- Office footprint: Reducing Tourism Australia's general footprint, including in the key areas of waste, energy, travel and procurement.
- Events footprint: Reducing Tourism Australia’s events footprint and encouraging others in the industry to do the same.
- Procurement and partnerships: Sourcing from sustainable suppliers and establishing sustainable credentials for our partners and suppliers.
- Culture: Embedding sustainability as a core value within Tourism Australia’s culture, actions and behaviour.
Modern Slavery Statement
To meet the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act 2018, Tourism Australia has developed and published a Modern Slavery Statement. This outlines our commitment to assessing the risks of modern slavery across our supply chain and putting in place appropriate controls, processes, and procedures to manage these risks across the business.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Tourism
Tourism helps to promote and preserve Australia’s Indigenous cultures by allowing travellers to share in the stories, traditions, art, music of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, while also educating them about Australia’s history, customs and values. This exchange benefits both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and visitors, making it an important pillar of our sustainability approach.
Read more about Tourism Australia’s commitment to reconciliation