Visit England ignoring wildlife tourism
07/06/2010 15:04:22
Visit England don't seem interested in promoting wildlife watching in England.
Promoting wildlife tourism in England - Forget Visit England
May 2010. I have just spent a day at a conference on "Wildlife Tourism in Britain". There were some interesting talks (and a few less interesting), but the most revealing was from Visit England. The upshot was that they weren't really interested in wildlife tourism, though they were keen on promoting shooting and fishing.
It is estimated that Scotland earns more than £200 million per year directly from wildlife tourism. England can't be far behind when you consider all the bird watching, nature reserve & National Park visits, and may well earn more than that. Sadly for the wildlife of the UK, and the people that make a living from it, wildlife is largely ignored. The Visit England website lists some 12000 places to stay, and several thousand visitor attractions, which, no doubt, are all commercial ventures, yet wildlife barely features.
Visit England website wildlife
Looking at the Visit England website(s), there seem to be at least 2 versions. The first version we looked at (found and accessed via Google) had many "Page not Found" messages, so we assume that this site is now redundant, although still accessible and ranking well in Google. The Enjoy England site is almost as unhelpful if you are interested in watching wildlife in the UK. I started by going to their rural escapes page, and clicked on "Wildlife" (which featured an image of a lemur from Madagascar).
The "wildlife" page has a few links, minimal information, and: - A link to the National Parks website - good
- A link to a beautiful Coastlines page on Visit England - Fairly useless
- A link to Kew Gardens website
- A link to the caravan website - Completely useless.
- A link to the Natural England page that tells you there are 4000+ SSSIs
- A link to "Practical info" which contains some flannel and a long warning about having the right gear followed by a link to a wildlife gear website!
- Plus links to 8 regions of England. Which contain links to 35 potential wildlife locations - From a choice of several thousand.
 | The regions - East Midlands, which has an image of a captive bird of prey, links to 2 wildlife sites, an eco-showhouse and beaches of Lincolnshire
- East of England does include links to 14 or so wildlife reserves (congratulations).
- England's North West, which offers you the chance to be a farmer for a day as well as a link the Lake District, and 3-4 wildlife sites as well as 2 Wildlife Trusts.
- Heart of England - 2 wildlife sites, a Wildlife Trust and somewhere to climb ropes.
- England's North East - Same photo as England's North West plus 3 links to other sites, one of which doesn't work (Farne Islands)
- South East England - 2 zoos, llama trekking, the Isle of Wight and the New Forest.
- South West England - Links to 2 wildlife sites, a farm stay and farm project.
- Yorkshire - Links to ten or so wildlife sites. (Hooray)
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To further illustrate how high up the pecking order Enjoy England place wildlife tourism, it appears on the same level as such large earners as zorbing, ballooning and taking your horse on holiday.
Wildlife Watching guide
One of the reasons for starting Wildlife Extra was to promote wildlife watching as a means to conservation; The more people that watch wildlife, the more valuable it becomes, the more that local communities are likely to want to protect their wildlife. We aim to promote wildlife watching worldwide, but especially within the UK as it is not necessary to travel overseas to see some fantastic wildlife spectacles.
To this end we have created a free wildlife watching guide to the UK (by no means complete) and we advertise this on Google, all at our own expense.
Come on Visit England, you can do a great deal more for a tourism industry probably worth more than £200 million.
Read the comments about this article and leave your own comment
The third national conference on wildlife tourism in Australia is coning up very soon (1-3 September, Gold Coast Australia) - visit www.wildllifetourism.org.au for details. There are day registrations and student registrations available.
Posted by: Ronda Green | 01 Aug 2010 03:43:23
In the research for a report I published for the Sustainable Tourism CRC (co-authored with Darryl Jones) earlier this year, I asked birdwatchers where they looked for information as to where to go birdwatching. Less than 4% mentioned travel agents, which is hardly surprising, but it does also contribute to the vicious circle of travel agents thinking only a small minority of travelers are interested in birds, therefore not considering it important to have any useful information, birdwatchers and other wildlife enthusiasts finding they don;t have much useful information and seeking it almost anywhere but travel agents, travel agents perceiving that no one asks them about it ... (the report was 'Practices, need and attitudes of bird-watching tourists in Australia', available as a free download from the Sustainable CRC website)
Posted by: Ronda Green | 01 Aug 2010 03:40:25
I'm not surprised that wildlife doesn't feature significantly on many sites. It doesn't generate income to a big company. It costs nothing to breathe in fresh air and admire the view. Of course wildlife tourism is highly beneficial financially to the region and to suppliers of binoculars, cameras, outdoor clothing but not the big "all in one package" fun providers like theme parks, hotel chains etc. I guess the typical wildlife holiday maker would choose to book independently staying at a farm or village pub b&b or campsite. Maybe this is cynical but being an average person who enjoys beautiful scenery and wildlife having recently returned from New Zealand I can see such a difference. New Zealand thrives on its wildlife and natural scenery promoting it at every opportunity, it needs to as its so far from foreign tourists and doesn't have a huge population of its own.
Posted by: Sandra Oxley | 12 Jun 2010 12:40:57
Well after reading this report i'am so glad that i live and breath the good, Auld Scottish air.
So come on what are you waiting for, if you want to see Wildlife head for Scotland.
Posted by: Ian Stewart | 06 Jun 2010 20:24:30
I'm never really surprised by the lack of information the government puts out about the UK's wildlife watching opportunities.
In the past I have been to the World Travel Market, which is a massive tourism event with stands from across the world - including many tourist departments from around the UK. I go mainly to get ideas and find opportunities for wildlife watching around the world but a coupe of years ago I thought I'd test the UK stands and virtually none had any information. I'm a diver, which is a multi-million pound industry in the UK - although mainly small operators, but again the tourist authorities had zero information. Cornwall had nothing on Basking sharks (and its one of the best places in the world to see them) Northumberland had nothing on its seals or seabirds.
I was disheartened, but I am old enough now to know what to expect so wasn't shocked.
Posted by: Gavin Parsons | 31 May 2010 13:08:51