Entitled travellers and bad influencers test outback hospitality

Entitled travellers and bad influencers take a toll on WA's outback hospitality West Australian sheep station owner and tourism operator Tim Meecham is used to dummy spits, but not from the flock of 10,000 Damaras he runs in the Gascoyne region. It's the tourists who complain — about flies, dirt, lack of mobile reception or the sand not being white enough on the 80-kilometre stretch of beach bordering the Indian Ocean. "I had an old fellow come up to me and he was so angry," Mr Meecham said. "There was spit coming out of his mouth and he was demanding his money back because we put him down on an ocean view campsite and the waves were too loud." Age of entitlement hits the outback Nitpicking customers are not new, but there was a time in the outback when it was considered a luxury to have a cold beer, a hot shower and an air-conditioned room. Isolated communities, roadhouses and tourist camps get food, fuel and furniture trucked in from hundreds of kilometres away and electricity, water, toilets and telecommunications can be fragile systems. But holiday-makers are demanding more creature comforts. "There's always 1 per cent of any group of people who're a bit cranky," said Mr Meecham, who has lived on Quobba Station for 50 years. "But there are more and more people coming, so that 1 per cent is getting bigger." Midway along the Kimberley's famous Gibb River Road, the small number of staff at Mount Barnett Roadhouse might be simultaneously juggling 50 vehicles queuing for fuel and people packed into the general store. "There's a few dummy spits, absolutely," said co-manager Matt Hawke. Mr Hawke said he had seen a change in tourists' attitudes in the 10 years since he arrived. "Every year people get about twice as difficult — a bit more demanding, a bit more in a rush — and this year has been 10 times that," he said. "There's a lot of people pushing rapid travel, getting the photo and glossing over the realities of living, working and travelling on this road." Mr Hawke puts part of it down to a reliance on social media for travel advice and expectations at unrealistic levels. "People are living this for the second time, even though they've never been here before," he said. "They used to be eyes wide open – 'This is wild!' – and they'd ask us for advice, you'd make friends and it was lovely. "These days they say, 'I've read this, I've seen this on the internet' and they're telling us how things are." Mr Meecham agreed that visitors' expectations were fuelled by what they'd seen online. "There is so much magnificent footage out there that you could almost blame it for a bit of false advertising, because the shots those drones take are just magnificent," he said. Mr Meecham said many travellers weren't prepared for basic or isolated camping conditions. "There's people leaving the city that are just so far disconnected from rural or outback Australia that when they turn up out here … they're actually put into shock. They get angry." Mr Hawke has also noticed a decline in courtesy from holiday-makers. This included ignoring bush traditions like leaving gates as you find them, helping stranded motorists or being able to change their own tyres. "People have taken a lot of liberties with other people's safety with speed, not concentrating behind the wheel or barrelling through blind with no lights in the dust," he said. Bad influencers lead travellers astray Mr Hawke's other concern is social media travel posts — both human and AI-generated — containing out of date or factually incorrect information. "No-one’s fact-checking them … it's potentially ruining people's trips," he said. "I think it's really starting to frustrate local operators and, I imagine, in other areas in Australia, with the inaccuracies." Mr Hawke recommended holiday-makers speak directly to local tourist bureaux, tour operators or businesses and residents. Mr Meecham said most Quobba visitors were "gobsmacked by the scenery" and appreciated its remoteness "It is just a small per cent of people that just aren't suited for this kind of holidaying," he said. "I would far rather have to deal with a mob of cranky ewes, trying to put them through a gate for half a day, than dealing with a cranky tourist. "The ewes are so much easier to deal with."