The North Queensland tourism industry says there’s been a slump in the number of people visiting the Great Barrier Reef due to claims the reef is dying.

The Australian has revealed the tourism industry is near recession due to perceptions that the reef is dead.

Cruise operators say there’s been a slump in bookings, and Cathay Pacific has recently announced they will no longer run direct flights from Hong Kong to Cairns from October due to a lack of demand.

Environmental groups have long been claiming the reef has experienced mass coral bleaching due to climate change.

But former Cairns mayor Kevin Byrne says it’s a gross exaggeration that’s threatening peoples’ livelihoods.

“This is nothing but rubbish from rabid environmentalists who want to have an iconic place like the Great Barrier Reef as their poster child for their warped argument.

“It is not anywhere remotely as bad as people are claiming it to be.

“Sure, any living organism 2,200km long occasionally will undergo some bleaching event in small portions of it, but the wild exaggerations that it’s in decline, it is dead, it is almost buried is just rubbish.”

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