Covering an area of about 350,000 sq km along Australia’s Queensland coastline, the Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system and living structure – so vast that it’s visible from space. I first learned to dive here in my 20s and it’s an experience that stays with me to this day. It might have been poorly captured by our disposable underwater cameras, but the memories are all the more precious in the absence of anything tangible. Returning to dive in the years since has never eroded that sense of wonder and humbling privilege.
The reef is also the only Unesco world heritage site that sits directly alongside another: the Wet Tropics of Queensland, which includes the Daintree rainforest and Daintree national park. This fact isn’t only remarkable in terms of diversity and richness, but means that travellers can access marine and rainforest experiences with ease.
The area is, additionally, home to two of the world’s oldest living cultures – the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Their connection to these special landscapes gives the locations a significance far beyond their aesthetic or ecological value, and makes them places of reverence that visitors can’t fail to be moved by.
Why should tourists visit the Great Barrier Reef?
The Great Barrier Reef has been something of a bucket list destination for well over 50 years, yet increased awareness of climate change issues and coral bleaching events have affected traveller expectations. Some travellers now worry they’ll encounter bleached or damaged coral, while others avoid visiting altogether out of concern for the reef’s fragility. Others have been propelled by “last chance tourism”, heading there to “see it before it’s gone”.
It can’t be denied that globally, coral bleaching events have occurred in quick succession in recent years, but the Great Barrier Reef is actually surprisingly resilient – and visiting it is one of the best ways to witness this first-hand.
Dr Eric Fisher, marine biologist and master reef guide with the education and research company GBR Biology, notes that the reef has survived for millions of years and “has not lost its ecosystem … [it’s] still able to recover from … disturbances”.
Additionally, says Fiona Merida, director for reef education and engagement at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, “when people experience the Great Barrier Reef first-hand, it stops being an abstract environment and becomes something personal. Every meaningful reef experience creates ambassadors for the ocean. People leave with a deeper understanding of why the reef matters globally and why protecting it matters locally. That connection is incredibly powerful because people protect what they care about, so every visitor has the potential to give something back to the environment, community and future generations.”
Why is the Great Barrier Reef so special?
Its sheer size and world heritage status is just the beginning: the Great Barrier Reef is a richly biodiverse ecosystem and home to a staggering array of marine life. According to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, over 600 species of coral can be found here, plus more than 1,600 species of fish and a variety of other creatures, including 136 types of sharks and rays, and six of the world’s seven species of sea turtle. Its existence isn’t only vital in its own right; it’s also of immense scientific importance, acting as a marine laboratory that helps researchers better understand ocean life and the threats it faces.
For the visitor, it offers a glimpse into a rarely seen world: one where busyness and activity are accompanied by silence, rather than noise; where myriad life forms support one another in complex ways and where coral fronds sway hypnotically in the currents.
While the financial importance of the Great Barrier Reef can’t be overstated – it contributes around AU$9bn (£4.8bn) annually to the national economy – this aspect of it pales in the face of its significance to its Traditional Owners. This is the official term for people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who have spiritual or cultural affiliations with the area or hold native title to a site. Their connections with the reef date back more than 60,000 years and are deeply entwined with ideology, belonging and sense of self. The reef and the life it sustains are woven into First Nation creation stories and today more than 60 Traditional Owner groups combine modern scientific knowledge with ancient wisdom to monitor and manage this incredible ecosystem. Visiting the reef is far more than a tourist experience: it’s an opportunity to connect with another world and other belief systems.
How does tourism support the Great Barrier Reef?
Every visitor to the reef contributes a levy via the cost of their tour, and this goes directly to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to fund coral replanting, research and reef management geared towards long-term health. In practical terms, less tourism means less funding for conservation.
“Tourism plays a very important role in supporting conservation outcomes on the Great Barrier Reef,” says Merida. “Research partnerships, education initiatives, reef monitoring programmes and environmental management charges are all boosted by visitors. Many tourism operators also contribute their vessels, expertise and time to support reef health monitoring.”
Of course, reef operators have a vested interest in bolstering reef health: if tourists stop coming, their businesses will fail. But there’s more to it than this: many operators have worked on the Great Barrier Reef for decades and have a genuine love for it, transcending economics.
Take Alan Wallish, the founder and managing director of reef tour operator Passions of Paradise. At the start of the pandemic, the company replaced tourism with science, sending vessels and staff out to plant corals on the reef. Since then, the business has expanded the standard reef day trip to include clients in meaningful regenerative actions, such as the Be a Marine Bio for a day experience. This is part of the marine park authority’s Eye on the Reef programme that allows divers and snorkellers to become citizen scientists, monitoring reef activity and health. Initially available on a weekly basis, Passions has since upped the offering to daily in response to demand.
For visitors keen on the idea of citizen science, there are more than 40 ways to get involved in initiatives from turtle rehabilitation to reef recovery days, provided by more than 140 operators.
What’s the best way to explore the Great Barrier Reef?
For a truly immersive experience, nothing beats snorkelling or scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef: face to face with marine life, you’re witnessing the activity of the underwater world at close range. Fish perform synchronised dances in ripples of colour, and sea turtles and manta rays seem to fly past in a watery sky. Giant clams, frilled by purple mantles wink pulpy, eye-like siphones and, beneath the coral, the head of a ray advances, and then recedes with the surge and suck of the tide.
If life below the surface has you captivated, diving takes the experience to the next level. You get longer underwater than when you’re snorkelling, access to different reef environments and marine life, a greater sense of scale and immersion, and the opportunity to better understand the reef ecosystem.
What’s more, diving experiences cater to all different levels, whether you’re just starting out or ready for live aboard trips and full certification experiences, which can become a meaningful part of a traveller’s connection to the Great Barrier Reef.
But if being in the water is not for you, you don’t need to miss out on the marvels of the reef. Alternatives, ranging from semi-submarines to glass-bottomed boats are available – or you can fly overhead in a seaplane or helicopter to appreciate the incredible blue of the water and the reef formations from above. You may even spot manta rays and whales.
What’s the closest city to the Great Barrier Reef?
As well as being the closest major city to the Great Barrier Reef, Cairns has an international airport and is the main hub for reef experience operators. It’s also home to many lively bars and restaurants, plus hotels across various price points.
In recent years, there’s even more reason to spend some time in this laid-back tropical city: 2017 saw the opening of the Cairns Aquarium, which has an exclusive regional focus, showcasing only the biodiversity found in Tropical North Queensland. Whatever activities you’re undertaking on your visit, the aquarium offers valuable context before or after time spent on the reef, or in the rainforest.
What’s special about the Daintree rainforest?
More than 180m years old, the Wet Tropics of Queensland, which includes the Daintree rainforest, are older than even the Amazon, with a complex ecosystem that’s home to astonishing biodiversity and some of the world’s most primitive – even dinosaur-era – plants.
The Daintree rainforest is also the ancestral home of the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people, to whom title of the land has been largely returned. They now manage it in partnership with the Queensland government. One of the most meaningful ways to explore the rainforest is with a 100% First Nations-owned tour operator, as this brings the landscape to life in myriad ways.
Its proximity to the Great Barrier Reef is also key, as each environment nurtures and sustains the other. For instance, the vast green lung of the Daintree captures huge amounts of CO2 – one of the greatest threats to the reef – while the reef, a natural breakwater, protects the rainforest’s delicate, low-level coast from erosion.
An appreciation and understanding of one of these world heritage-listed sites is greatly enhanced by a visit to the other.
The Great Barrier Reef is one of the world’s great natural wonders – “but it’s also one of the world’s great teaching tools”, says Merida. “Done well, reef tourism can inspire millions of people to value and protect marine ecosystems long after they return home. Ultimately, that may be one of the most important contributions it can make.”
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