Neil Matterson, Byron Bay
Your article, Death by tourism: how can Byron survive by Michael Murray (January 31), poses some worrying signs for Byron Bay.
Murray wrote ‘… we are relatively powerless to stop or resist the onslaught of modern tourism. Local government is not sufficiently armed with enough buttons and levers.’
When a country is threatened by another it creates the necessary means to defend itself in a timely fashion. How hard would it be to create (dare I say innovate) some defensive buttons and levers to counteract the negative aspects of excessive tourism?
The ‘lie down and die’ attitude beggars belief in relation to our existence. It suggests we have to bend to whomever deems it their right to occupy our space.
Tourist requirements are different from locals’. When they ‘trash’ the place and stop coming they won’t be investing anything in rejuvenating it back to its original condition. Byron Bye Bye!
