Three industry professionals - University of Tasmania Associate professor Anne Hardy, Tasmanian Tourism Industry Council chief executive Luke Martin and Tourism Northern Tasmania chief executive Chris Griffin - raise their concerns. 

Mr Martin says Tasmania needs to grow as a yield-based destination. He believes the state is too demand-driven and needed to shift to a high-value, high-yield industry.  

"I think all Tasmanians broadly agree it would be great to have world-class destinations where people pay a premium price on Tasmania as an experience. That doesn't have to mean they pay a lot of money to come here, but they come here for a lengthy time," he said. 

Mr Martin said there needed to be a number of conversations about how to achieve that yield. 

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Mr Martin said Tasmania needs to make finding the resources to invest in infrastructure its biggest priority.

"What is the right model, and how do we get governments to make money available and how do we make sure the industry is playing its part?" he said. 

Mr Martin said the state has an issue with a number of its key sites.

 "Particularly our national parks, they have had complete underinvestment for a long time while visitation has grown substantially," he said.

"Freycinet and Cradle Mountain still have the same infrastructure as they did 30 years ago and their visitation has tripled. Now we’re paying the price of lack of investment."

He said this isn't a reflection of any one political party, or strategy, as it had happened over a number of successive years. 

Transport to the state was an infrastructure concern of Dr Hardy's. 

Mr Martin said the biggest issue for the industry is a lack of skills. 

“We’ve got three hotels going up in Hobart as we speak and Launceston has the same issue. Each of them requires 100-150 staff in the next two to three years and I don't know where they are," he said. 

“Drysdale has been a train smash for about a decade and we're trying to resolve that, but it's very slow and basically have this time bomb problem. Tasmanians are not addressing the skills training anywhere near the level we need to be."

He said the industry does not address skill shortages well. 

“If there was someone proposing to build a mine or pulp mill, that was going to create 600 jobs in the next three years that are currently unavailable, then there would be a major skills crisis and you’d be throwing any resource you can at it." 

Mr Griffin believes whether it's environmental, economic or community driven, the state needs to continue to be attentive on what it wants forms the visitor economy.  

"As a state, we are a very small destination that’s exposed to very large market-driven factors like the airline industry, the value of the Australia dollar and disruptions like the rise of Airbnb through the global sharing economy," he said.

Dr Hardy said the industry is not only having a big environmental impact but a psychological one as well. 

"We know communities on the East Coast are feeling stressed and crowded at times. We can also see some people are parking on the side of the road down from the car park [at Freycinet] because they can't get a spot, that is going to detract from their satisfaction," she said. 

She said not all communities need or want tourism, so monitoring numbers to get a clearer understanding was important. 

"Compared to other destinations, we're not that bad. We're still able to have more growth, but we just have to be careful how we do it."

Mr Martin said he doesn't think for one minute Tasmania is suffering from over tourism. 

Dr Hardy's main issue is with how the "traditional industry" embraces Airbnb and the challenges it's bringing to the state. 

"I don't think it's going to go away and I do think there is a lot for the industry to gain from it if they do embrace it," she said. 

"But at the moment it's them and us. It's a traditional industry versus the new industry and I think that's a massive challenge the state is facing and there are a lot of opportunities to creatively deal with it."

She said the state's tourism strategy was about attracting high-yielding, expensive tourists, but Airbnb was showing people want cheaper accommodation.

"We need regulation to keep people safe… but I think Airbnb is really rattling the industry and they need to work it out. I don't think a ban, and excessive regulation is going to help tourists have a better experience," she said. 

However, Mr Martin said the industry was welcoming of Airbnb, with 60 per cent of its members on the site. 

"What it's disrupted is the way people sell and book accommodation. What Airbnb has done that is great is provided more Tasmanians to participate in the visitor economy and it's expanded accommodation offering in the state," he said.

“We've been critical about how the government has handled some parts of this, but at least they're trying. I was in WA a couple of weeks ago, we’ve tried about three different models, and WA is still headless and is trying to figure out how to deal with it. At least as a state, we’re being proactive about the issues and the opportunities."

Mr Griffin said it was not the industry's first hurdle, overcoming budget airlines, online travel agents and consumer review websites.

"The challenge... is that it reduces the investment burden for anyone wanting to enter the tourism industry," he said. 

"I’d like to think the Airbnb disruption will stimulate new ways for our industry to evolve. I’m confident... we’ll continue to be resilient in how we adapt. And we’ll need to, as we’ve only scratched the surface of the future impacts sharing economy, and other market-driven disruptions."

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