The table illustrates how many people paid a visit to six different World Heritage places in Australia every two years from 1996 to 2000.
Overall, the number of visitors to the Great Barrier Reef, Blue Mountains, Tasmania Wilderness, and Shark Bay increased to varying degrees over the given period, while Central Eastern Rainforest Reserve and Macquarie Island witnessed a slight decrease. Notably, the Great Barrier Reef consistently remained by far the most popular tourist destination and saw the most pronounced growth in its visitor number among the six surveyed sites.
The Great Barrier Reef, Blue Mountains, and Tasmania Wilderness witnessed their visitor counts increase over the given period. In 1996, the Great Barrier Reef welcomed the highest number of visitors, at 1670000. Thereafter, its visitor count surged to 2950000 in 1988, followed by a further rise to 3200000 at the conclusion of the period. This figure marks an almost twofold increase compared with the year 1996. (2) Similarly, Blue Mountains and Tasmania Wilderness also experienced an upward trend, though to a lesser extent. Their figures grew gradually from 526000 and 450000 in 1996 to 581000 and 483000 in 2000, respectively.
Moving on to the remaining regions, the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserve saw a gradual drop of 200000 visitors every two years, (declining) from 810000 in 1996 to 770000 in 2000. (3)Despite this decline, this area remained the second most popular among the six surveyed sites. (4) Commencing with 84000 in 1996, the number of travellers to Shark Bay rose to 102000 in 1998 before ending up / settling at 89000 in 2000. Finally, the figure for Macquarie Island was the lowest, consistently hovering 330 throughout the given timeframe.