Bird-watching tourism has attracted attention in recent years as an apparently environmentally-friendly way of producing income for operators, local communities and whole countries.¹

Australia would appear to have more potential for bird-watching tourism than is currently being realized (Jones and Buckley 2001, QTTC 1998, SATC 2001). These reports and others show birdwatching to be a potentially lucrative and growing market.

Many travel agents and others in the mainstream tourism industry in Australia tend to see bird-watching as a relatively specialised niche sought after by very few tourists (QTTC 1998, R. Green unpublished data). A study by the Queensland Travel and Tourism Centre (QTTC: now known as Tourism Queensland), found that in Tropical North Queensland a major problem of tour operators was that Regional Tourism Associations (RTAs) frequently gave insufficient recognition to the legitimacy of bird-watching tourism for promotional purposes (QTTC 1998).

The study also found, however, that highly-specialised bird-watchers (termed both ‘fanatics' and ‘twitchers' in the report) comprised only about 5 - 10% of the bird-watching tourism market. Significantly, the reports authors concluded that "the majority of bird-watchers do not ... conform to the stereotypical image of a bird-watcher, and should not be marketed to as such." (QTTC 1998). This ‘stereotypical image' is however still alive in some areas, with keen bird-watchers regarded as typically having ‘tunnel vision,' wanting only to tick birds off lists with little interest in their behaviour, ecology or beauty, or in other wildlife or natural history, and seen also as of no real consequence to the tourism industry.

There are however many possible ways in which bird-watchers can engage in bird-watching tourism. They may stay at eco-lodges or farmstays, join commercial tours or excursions run by bird-watching organisations, do some bird-watching while travelling for business or family visits, or just ‘take off ‘alone or with friends for a day or a week of bird-watching activities.

Similarly, international visitors may also join in commercial activities, contact bird-watching organisations and join in their fieldtrips, or venture out alone with a bird book and a hired vehicle. This wide variety of practices and levels of engagement makes bird-watchers and bird-watching activities difficult to quantify, and probably contributed significantly to why so little reliable information has been available (Jones and Buckley 2000).

Our knowledge of the above comes chiefly from many informal interviews with bird-watchers, wildlife tourists, bird club members and tour guides, as well as our extensive knowledge and participation in bird-watching activities over several decades.

Bird-watching tourism world-wide appears to be growing rapidly amongst Western travelers, and numerous studies have confirmed that it can substantially enhance local economies (see references in Jones and Buckley 2000). In an Australian survey of visitors to Green Mountains, Lamington National Park, Queensland, Tisdell and Wilson (2004) found that birds (especially the diversity of birds and calls of birds) constituted a major components of visitor satisfaction, and estimated that visitors (including day-trippers and overnight visitors, both domestic and international) to this one eco-lodge were worth just under $15million annually to the region.

North Queensland tour operators (QTTC 1998) reported that their largest markets were associated with international travelers, but that interest by Australians seemed to be growing. There are many bird-watchers in Australia, as evidenced by the large numbers of members of bird-watching associations (SATC 2001 and websites such as www.ausbird.com, www.birdsaustralia.com.au and www.birdobservers.org.au ).

At present, however, virtually nothing is known about the rates of participation or practices of these people. Despite having an ostensibly ‘green' reputation, there is considerable potential for negative environmental impacts by bird-watching tourists, both on the birds being watched and on non-target species (including the less ‘interesting' birds and other animals) within the habitats being visited (Green and Higginbottom 2001 and references therein, Green and Giese in press, Mullner et al in press).

Although these are presumably very mild in comparison to the impacts of many other land uses such as clearing for agriculture or some other kinds of tourism (e.g. Watson and Moss 2002, Laiolo 2003,), there is a need to minimize risk, especially where vulnerable species or habitats are concerned (Ream 1979, Burger and Gochfield 1993, Burger et al 1995, Fowler 1999, Quan et al 2002)).

It would seem that bird-watching tourism is not a negligible activity in Australia, and has much potential for growth. For it to be truly sustainable form of nature-based tourism, both economically and environmentally, much more needs to be understood about the practices, requirements and opinions of traveling bird-watchers, both domestic and international, in Australia.

We were also concerned with the conservation ethics and behaviour of bird-watching tourists. Green and Higginbottom (2001) observe for instance: ‘Burger and Gochfeld (1993) observed that tourists often: get closer to nesting birds for identification regardless of their effect on the bird; intentionally flush a rare bird; and occur in large and noisy groups. Burger et al. (1995) note that bird-watchers visiting a new area want particularly to see the rare and shy species, which are likely to also be the most vulnerable'.

Follow the link below to read the entire article by Ronda J Green and Darryl N Jones in a new window (PDF):

www.crctourism.com.au/BookShop/BookDetail.aspx?d=687

¹ - see references in Jones and Buckley 2001, SATC 2001

Objectives of Study

• Investigate the diversity and common features amongst bird-watching tourists
• Determine what bird-watchers, and sub-groupings of bird-watchers, most wish to see and do in Australia
• Investigate the role of the tourism industry in bird-watching, especially relating to information on birding sites, willingness to join commercial tours and preferred accommodation
• Investigate bird-watchers' opinions and practices in relation to conservation aspects

Methodology

• Questionnaire distributed throughout Australia for bird-watching tourists
• Questionnaire distributed to guides of bird-walks
• Preliminary direct observations of tourists watching birds

Key Findings

• The bird-watching tourist community tended to be dominated by well-educated middle-age to elderly men and women
• Bird-watching tourists as a whole were likely to be pet-owners (but not bird-owners), to grow birdattracting plants in their gardens (but not provide other feed) and able to identify most birds around theirhome
• Most bird-watchers were interested in seeing wildlife other than birds and expected to do some birdwatching next time they travel
• Most bird-watchers were against hunting for sport and disturbing nesting birds while trying to identify them
• Slightly less than half kept life-lists of birds seen or named birds as their favourite animals
• Some groupings of bird-watchers and features of bird-watchers were identified, but there was much variation within the groupings
• The major features of birds that bird-watchers desired to see were species they have not previously seen and birds unique to Australia or the part of Australia being visited, followed by rare and vulnerable species: least important (although still selected by between 10 and 20 per cent of respondents) were birds interacting with the observer, birds readily photographed and large birds
• The ‘dedicated birders' were more likely than others to want to see endemic or rare birds and birds their friends had not seen, and less likely to regard ‘brightly-coloured' or interacting with me' as important features
• There was no apparent difference between Australian and visiting bird-watchers in desire to see birds endemic to Australia
• Travel agents and travel books were the least used of sources of information on where to go birdwatching, respondents being far more likely to do bird-watching in places they were visiting for other reasons or to seek information from books other than travel books or from national parks: ‘dedicated bird-watchers were far more likely than others to use books other than travel books or information from natural history organisations (including bird-watching organisations)
• The most common preferences of bird-watching tourists on bird-walks were liking to identify all birds and to see what birds are doing, and enjoyment of social contact
• 'Dedicated birders' and ‘thrill-seekers' (those who wanted to see the more spectacular species, such as big and colourful birds) were more likely than others to want to join commercial tours for a variety of reasons, although the ‘thrill-seekers' were more inclined to consider bird-watching tours too specialised
• Approximately a quarter of respondents said they would go bird-watching alone or with a small group but not in Africa, Latin America or Asia
• Those most likely to join commercial bird-watching tours tend to enjoy social contact, get information on where to watch birds from natural history organisations, name bird-watching as their favourite activity, like to see birds they have read about but do not often photograph birds
• 'Dedicated birders' were more likely than others to camp or to stay in lodges and less likely to stay in hotels, but frequency of camping generally declined after the age of 65
• Many bird-watchers felt their enjoyment of bird-watching in Australia would be most improved by factors beyond the control of the tourism industry (better health, more time and money). The other most common responses were to conserve bird habitat and provide better information on where to see birds
• There was a general concern for conservation issues relating to bird-watching: more than 50% of respondents wanted to see threatened species, and had either belonged to a conservation organisation had attended a meeting on bird conservation in the past ten years: less than 5% had positive attitudes towards hunting for sport or disturbing nesting birds in attempts to identify them, and less than 10% thought it acceptable to disturb any birds while trying to identify them or to feed birds in national parks
• Observations of bird-watching tourists by tour guides and one of the authors of this paper suggest that serious disturbance to birds is generally a rare event but that the potential for harm is there, especiallyfor vulnerable species or fragile habitats

Future Action

• Further investigation of some aspects looked at in this study, but using shorter questionnaires to encourage a much higher return: these would include further comparison of domestic and international bird-watchers, and further delineation of categories of bird-watching tourists and their respectivepreferences and practices
• Behavioural studies of bird-watchers using direct observation
• Assistance to information centres and tourism bodies to provide good information on where to watch birds in local districts (but not enticing unsupervised crowds to fragile habitats or territories of vulnerable species)
• Encouragement of tourism operators to identify and make known threats to bird habitats which may impact both on bird conservation and bird-watching tourism
• Promotion of better communication between bird-watching tourism operators and bird-watching tourists and the tourism industry

Reprinted with permission