Your Eden example is a great one too David.
2 years ago my family, (wife , first daughter and all the
grandparents) stayed for 3 nights at the Lighthouse Cottage at Green
Cape. We couldn't book it the same weekend as the Eden pelagic the
first year but made sure we booked early for the second year so that i
could. Whilst I might be classified as the only "proper" birder
amongst the 5 adults, my wife knows more than she lets on, my Mother-
in-law owns both Pizzey & Morcombe and enjoys any bird she sees, and
my Dad came along on the pelagic with me. That second year we extended
our stay to 4 nights and bought even more food etc at Eden.
Eating breakfast on the balcony of the lighthouse cottage watching Shy
Albatross cruise past is an experience that we will no doubt do
again,..and probably again!
Another comment on your last point - I have photographed a number of
weddings at the Taronga Centre (Taronga Zoo) where they often have 3
animals brought around during drinks by keepers. Often an Echidna,
baby Croc, and a Snake. The time they brought out a Powerful Owl as
one of the 'attractions', was by far the most admired and interesting
to the guests. Letting people get up close and personal with birds I
think is a massive way to increase people's interest/awareness of
birds/nature. This is so obviously evidenced by the bird feeding
phenomenon in other countries.
Cheers
Dave
On 21/07/2009, at 1:10 PM, David Adams wrote:
I think you would get similar results (and debate!) if you asked about
cricket (although obviously not in the US!) - many people would be
interested to the extent of wanting to know if we won or lost the
Ashes. A
smaller number would read the reports in the paper or watch
highlights on
TV. An even smaller number would watch it live on TV (especially
when it is
in the UK and involves staying up late) and a smaller number again
would go
to matches in Aus - and finally a few "hard core" types (like 700+
birders)
would attend all of their team's matches no matter where they are.
The last
group would probably dismiss most of the previous categories as not
being
really interested!
Cricket is a great example! The question is, how many of these closet
cricket fans spend any money on their interest? The same goes for
closet birders - they may be keenly interested at home but if they
don't spend any money, they're of no more value to birding-based
tourist initiative than anyone else.
As I've been saying the reports cited here (and on other lists over
the year) are wildly exaggerating the number of birds out there, I
don't want to seem like I'm against more birders! Far from it. I
really think there are big opportunities on a community level in a lot
of places. Those bird-route circulars that are being more and more
common are fantastic as are the regional site guides.
I'd guess that there are lots of ways that birding can be used to
increase tourism to a specific area. Either by going after
general-interest tourists, families, or more dedicated birders. As an
example close to home, I've talked with Barbara Jones several times
about the Eden pelagic trips she first organized some years ago
(despite never being able to go herself!) From what Barbara's said:
* These trips brought in people from around the country and overseas
_specifically_ with the goal of going on one of the trips.
* Some people - again some from overseas - came repeatedly for the
trips.
So, the Eden area got tourist dollars that wouldn't have otherwise
because a local created an opportunity. There are lots of
opportunities of this sort around. Heck, Green Cape is probably one of
the single best land-based places for deep sea birds on the continent
but I don't remember ever seeing any marketing along those lines. Eden
could have a "Albatross Week" or what have you. [I've been told by a
geologist that Green Cape is unusually close to the continental shelf,
hence the bill fish and Albatross coming so close to land.]
Aussies clearly love to be outside, to look at animals, and to have a
fry up at the end of it ;-) Given how popular zoos and 'nature
reserves' (small zoos) are, it seems like birding-based festivals
could work out really well. The hardest part about getting people into
birding is helping them over the initial hump. It's pretty hard to get
interested when you can't tell what is what. With a festival (or local
club), people can ideally see presentations, slide shows, real birds,
etc. in a fun setting. The best time to get people is when they're
kids or teenagers - it seems like that's the age when people can get
hooked most obsessively. Festivals and events are a great way to do
this!
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