I'm just back from the Central American Republic
of Guatemala where I've been on a nine-night familiarisation tour. It's a country that I've long wanted to visit
and at last the opportunity came following an invitation received from Bitty
Ramirez-Portilla of Guatemala Nature Tours.
I first talked to Bitty about Guatemala at the British Birdwatching Fair
back in 2008; it’s taken a while for me to get there but I’m pleased to say
that it was well worth the wait.
The main purpose of the visit was to research the possibility of AvianAdventures offering a birding tour to a country that is comparatively
little-known to UK birders and one that is trying very hard to develop its
tourism industry. Research of this kind
involves looking at all aspects of a potential tour including such things as
accommodation and transport as well as sampling some of the main birding sites
and meeting and birding with local guides.
When I take a group of birders on a tour anywhere in the world I want to
know as much as possible about what I can expect!
Pink-headed Warbler
On this trip I was one of a small group that comprised Carole Sevilla Brown
from Philadelphia, PA, Eduardo Ormaeche of Lima, Peru and Mike Nelson of
Knoxville, TN. Together with Bitty, their
company and good humour helped greatly to make the trip the success that it
was.
I have been involved in similar situations in the past in several other
countries that have been trying to develop the potentially lucrative birding
tourism market or break into it for the first time. Amongst them, Uganda and Colombia come to
mind as examples of countries that have had to overcome a negative image that
has resulted from serious long-term security issues. Both of those countries are now very much
open for business and it is to be hoped that over the next few years Guatemala
can follow suit.
Ocellated Turkey
Another important aspect of these trips is the opportunity to give help,
advice and sometimes training to the people who are involved in trying to
attract visiting birders and those who will be guiding them and catering for
them. Birders have a few particular
needs that make them different from most other tourists. For instance, we keep unsocial hours and want
to have breakfast when other tourists are still on their way back from
partying! The fact that INGUAT, the
Guatemalan Tourism Ministry, covered the cost of my return flights from
Portugal is an indication of the value placed on this advice and wherever I
have travelled in this capacity I have found people extremely keen to learn.
Just as a very simple example, one piece of advice that we gave
to the Guatemalans was to focus in their advertising on the important bird
species that are likely to attract visitors.
In other words, to give people a really good reason to visit their
country as opposed to Costa Rica or Panama for instance, which are their two main regional competitors
in the birding market. Examples would be
range-restricted birds such as Pink-headed Warbler, Fulvous Owl, Ocellated
Turkey, Orange-breasted Falcon, Horned Guan and Belted Flycatcher. If these featured birds can also be
brightly-coloured and easily recognisable, so much the better. There is little point in highlighting widely
distributed species that can be seen in many other countries. It's obvious if you're a birder but maybe not if you simply own a hotel or lodge.
Portugal and particularly the Algarve is also looking to further develop
birding tourism but it's disappointing that, in complete contrast to what I
have seen elsewhere, the tourism people here don’t seem to be getting, or at
least acting on, advice from anyone who knows about birding. The result is that we have recently seen plans
that will waste scarce financial resources on erecting hides, boardwalks and
information panels that are mostly unnecessary and in some cases wholly
undesirable. Their advertisement last
year in the UK's Bird Watching magazine attempted to entice people here with
promises of "kingfishers, chickadees, herons, bee-eaters and elusive
otters". One protected area in the Algarve
already has a sign at its entrance telling visitors to look out for "Capped
Herons and Blue Hummingbirds" and some time ago information leaflets were
on display in tourist offices that featured species that have never
been recorded in Portugal! As for the
hides in the Algarve, there is scarcely one that is well-designed and most are
also very poorly located. I could go on
but by now you will have the picture!
And, of course, it isn't that we haven't offered help.
Every country is different but there are aspects of birding tourism that
are common to all. At the moment, the
main difference between Guatemala and Portugal is that one of them realises
they need advice and is prepared to go out and get it.
More about Guatemala very soon...
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