ECO-TOURISM SHOULD RETAIN TOP BILLING ON KANGAROO ISLAND IN THE EYES OF THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN TOURIST COMMISSION AND MICHELLE ROWE

Occasionally I get an urge to go out on a tangent and write something on here a bit left of centre which has nothing to do with music or film, just a topic which personally takes my fancy and that does not quite fit into the scope of Badrick Unadulterated, my other website. 

The Australian Newspaper now has a glossy magazine in its weekend addition called WISH, and last weekend there was an article in there titled GREAT SOUTHERN LAND, by journalist Michelle Rowe. 

The article is about Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia, and you cant help
but think that it`s nothing more than a piece of pay for comment journalism promoting the cause of tourist operators who are based on the island.

There is nothing untoward about Michelle`s observations, although it is obvious she is biased in favour of Kangaroo Island becoming a haven for food tourism in the future in place of eco-tourism, which considering how much of a rare wildlife sanctuary it really is, does make her article appear to be more of an advertisment than anything else. 

Michelle`s whole agenda here is to tag Kangaroo Island as a food destination, she makes a brief mention of wallabies and echidnas and how it is abundant with wildlife in general but she goes on to say that Kangaroo Island is now hoping to attract tourists of a more gastronomic bent. 

Her article is huge, I wont try and decipher the whole lot but the crux of the article is based around her personal desire to place the importance of a culinary style tourist trade above the environmental eco-tourist trade, because to the Kangaroo Island economy, this means a lot more dollar signs.

No doubt about that, the island can certainly benefit from a moderate increase in an alternative form of tourism.

But environmentally speaking it houses some of the most endangered animals in Australia and to my reckoning eco-tourism must continue to receive top billing by the South Australian Tourist Commission, the mob who Michelle undoubtedly was helping indirectly here.