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To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-5871.2009.00614.x Byline: CATHERINE MARINA PICKERING (1), J. GUY CASTLEY (1), MICHELLE BURTT (1) Keywords: climate change; snow tourism; Australian Alps; ski resorts; environmental sustainability Abstract: Abstract Climate change will affect tourism destinations that are dependent on natural resources, such as snow. Currently there is limited research into attitudes, intentions and actual visitation patterns of skiers in response to reduced snow cover. Therefore the awareness of, and attitudes towards, climate change of 351 ski tourists were assessed in the largest ski resort in Australia in 2007, repeating a survey conducted in 1996. Ninety percent of skiers in 2007 would ski less often in Australian resorts if the next five years had low natural snow, up from 75% of skiers surveyed in 1996: 69% would ski less often, 5% would give up and 16% would ski at the same levels but overseas. Nearly all skiers thought that climate change would affect the ski industry (87% compared with 78% in 1996), and that this would occur sooner than in the 1996 survey. Visitation in a poor snow year (2006, +0.85[degrees]C average annual temperature, 54% less natural snow) was -13.6% of the long-term average, indicating poor natural snow resulted in decreased visitation, despite extensive use of snow making. The implications of changes in climate conditions and tourist attitudes for Australian ski resorts are assessed including for snow making and summer tourism. Author Affiliation: (1)School of Environment, Griffith University, Queensland 4222, Australia. Email:c.pickering@griffith.edu.au Article History: Received 30 March 2009; Revised 13 August 2009; Accepted 26 August 2009

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2006.11.021 Byline: Catherine Marina Pickering, Wendy Hill Keywords: Australia; Conservation; Plant biodiversity; Protected areas Abstract: This paper reviews recent research into the impact of recreation and tourism in protected areas on plant biodiversity and vegetation communities in Australia. Despite the international significance of the Australian flora and increasing visitation to protected areas there has been limited research on recreational and tourism impacts in Australia. As overseas, there are obvious direct impacts of recreation and tourism such as clearing of vegetation for infrastructure or damage from trampling, horse riding, mountain biking and off road vehicles. As well, there are less obvious but potentially more severe indirect impacts. This includes self-propagating impacts associated with the spread of some weeds from trails and roads. It also includes the severe impact on native vegetation, including many rare and threatened plants, from spread of the root rot fungus Phytopthora cinnamomi. This review highlights the need for more recreational ecology research in Australia. Author Affiliation: International Centre for Ecotourism Research, Griffith University, PMB 50 Gold Coast Mail Centre, Gold Coast, Qld. 9726, Australia Article History: Received 23 March 2006; Revised 30 October 2006; Accepted 12 November 2006

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2005.04.007 Byline: Wendy Hill, Catherine Marina Pickering Abstract: Tourism infrastructure such as walking tracks can have negative effects on vegetation including in mountain regions. In the alpine area around continental Australia's highest mountain, Mt Kosciuszko (2228m), there is a range of walking tracks (paved, gravel and raised steel mesh surfaces) in addition to an extensive network of informal/non-hardened tracks. Vegetation characteristics were compared between track types on/under tracks, on the track verge, and in the adjacent native vegetation. For a raised steel mesh walkway there was no difference in vegetation under the walkway, on the verge, and 3m away. In contrast, for a non-hardened track there was 35% bare ground on the track surface but no other detectable impacts. Gravel and paved tracks had distinct verges largely comprising bare ground and exotic species. For non-hardened tracks there was an estimated 270m.sup.2 of disturbance per km of track. For wide gravel tracks the combined area of bare ground, exotic plants and gravel was estimated as 4290m.sup.2 per km, while for narrow gravel tracks it was estimated as 2940m.sup.2 per km. For paved tracks there was around 2680m.sup.2 per km of damage. In contrast, there was no detectable effect of raised steel mesh walkway on vegetation highlighting some of the benefits of this surface over other track types. Author Affiliation: School of Environmental and Applied Sciences, Griffith University, PMB 50 Gold Coast Mail Centre, Queensland 9726, Australia Article History: Received 6 August 2004; Revised 3 March 2005; Accepted 12 April 2005