80 |
P a g e
Reading Test 6
SECTION 1
Eco-Resort Management Practices
A
Ecotourism is often regarded as a form of nature-based tourism and has become an
important alternative source of tourists. In addition to providing
the traditional resort-
leisure product, it has been argued that ecotourism resort management should have a
particular focus on best-practice environmental management,
an educational and
interpretive component, and direct and indirect contributions to the conservation of the
natural and cultural environment (Ayala, 1996).
B
Couran Cove Island Resort is a large integrated ecotourism-based resort located south
of Brisbane on the Gold Coast, Queensland, and Australia. As the world's
population
becomes increasingly urbanised, the demand for tourist attractions which are
environmentally
friendly, serene and offer amenities of a unique nature, has grown
rapidly. Couran Cove Resort, which is one such tourist
attractions, is located on South
Stradbroke Island, occupying approximately 150 hectares of the island. South Stradbroke
Island is separated from the mainland by the Broadwater, a stretch of sea 3 kilometers
wide More than a century ago, there was only one Stradbroke Island, and there were at
least four aboriginal tribes living and hunting on the island. Regrettably, most of the
original island dwellers were eventually killed by diseases such as tuberculosis, smallpOx
and influenza by the end of the 19th century. The second
ship wreak on the island in
1894, and the subsequent destruction of the ship (the Cambus Wallace) because it
contained dynamite, caused a large crater in the sandhills on Stradbroke Island.
Eventually, the ocean broke through the weakened land form and Stradbroke became
two islands. Couran Cove Island Resort is built on one of the world's
few naturally-
occurring sand lands, which is home to a wide range of plant communities and one of the
largest remaining remnants of the rare livistona Rainforest left on the Gold Coast. Many