Small sight—Big might: Economic impact of bird tourism shows opportunities for rural communities and biodiversity conservation

Abstract

Birdwatching is considered one of the fastest growing nature-based tourism sectors in the world. Tourists who identify as birdwatchers tend to be well-educated and wealthy travellers with a specific interest in the places they visit. Birdwatchers can bring economic resources to remote communities diversifying their economies and contribute to biodiversity conservation in areas of bird habitat with global significance. Alaska plays a critical role in understanding the link between bird conservation and bird tourism as it supports the world’s largest concentration of shorebirds and is a global breeding hotspot for hundreds of migratory species, including many species of conservation concern for their decline across their ranges. Alaska is also a global destination for birders due to the large congregations of birds that occur during the spring, summer and fall seasons. Despite its global importance, relatively little information exists on the significance of bird tourism in Alaska or on opportunities for community development that align with conservation. This study used ebird data to look at trends in Alaska birdwatching and applied existing information from the Alaska Visitor Statistics Program to estimate visitor expenditures and the impact of that spending on Alaska’s regional economies. In 2016, nearly 300,000 birdwatchers visited Alaska and spent $378 million, supporting approximately 4,000 jobs. The study describes bird tourism’s contributions to local jobs and income in remote rural and urban economies and discusses opportunities for developing and expanding the nature-based tourism sector. The study points toward the importance of partnering with rural communities and landowners to advance both economic opportunities and biodiversity conservation actions. The need for new data collection addressing niche market development and economic diversification is also discussed.

Promoting urban ecological resilience through the lens of avian biodiversity

“…For example, over one month in winter 2021-2022 thousands of people traveled to see a Steller's sea-eagle (Haliaeetus pelagicus) on the North American eastern seaboard, generating an estimated $584,373 -$731,809 (Pease et al, 2023). In 2016, over 300,000 birdwatchers visited Alaska, spending an approximately $378 million and supporting an estimated 4,000 jobs (Schwoerer and Dawson, 2022). Canadian birdwatchers prefer areas of high biodiversity, and in Canada are estimated to spend an additional $0.68 for every additional species on a birdwatching trip (Jayalath et al, 2023).…”

The Steller's Sea‐Eagle in North America: An economic assessment of birdwatchers travelling to see a vagrant raptor

“…Recent decades have seen considerable growth in birdwatcher interest in vagrant bird discovery and chasing, likely a result of increasingly rapid dissemination of vagrant bird information, heightened attention to biodiversity loss and a growing global community of birdwatchers (Howell et al, 2014; Lees & Gilroy, 2022). Continued studies of vagrancy are incrementally demystifying its biological drivers (Tonelli et al, 2023) and ecological implications, and we emphasize that understanding the socioeconomic effects of vagrancy can support decision‐making in land‐use planning (Elix & Lambert, 2007; Istomina et al, 2016; Underwood et al, 2011), improve local community ecotourism (Biggs et al, 2011; Schwoerer & Dawson, 2022; Sekercioglu, 2002; Wenny et al, 2011) and encourage species conservation (Ocampo‐Peñuela & Winton, 2017).…”

“…In comparison, general birdwatching trips (i.e. not targeting an individual bird) in Alaska, USA during 2016 resulted in average individual expenditures of $1694 (Schwoerer & Dawson, 2022). While this and some previous studies accounted for the opportunity cost of travel time from their home zip code to see the bird, additionally accounting for the length of trip and return travel time would have been needed to fully characterize this cost.…”

“…Additionally, birdwatching valuations often do not focus on specific geographic locations or species, and moreover fail to account for the ephemeral cultural services provided by vagrant species (species found outside of their typical geographic range; Lees & Gilroy, 2022). Travelling to see vagrant species is highly valued by birdwatchers, and recent evidence suggests that such activities generate considerable economic value that could be leveraged in land‐use planning decisions (Callaghan et al, 2020; Lees & Gilroy, 2022; Schwoerer & Dawson, 2022). Importantly, vagrant birds often appear in locations (e.g.…”

Characteristics and Experiences of Birdwatcher in Indonesia

“…This recreational activity is carried out in a very varied way from bird observation, discovery listing, until new species discovery competition; therefore, the experts specifically distinguish birdwatching or birding and twitching (Schaffner, 2009) to create a birdwatcher specialization (McFarlane, 1994;Hvenegaard, 2002). Nowadays, birdwatching is part of ecotourism activities that rapidly develops in economic sector (Cordell dan Herbert 2002;Sekercioglu, 2002;Nicolaides 2014;Szczepańska et al 2014;Callaghan et al, 2017;Schwoerer & Dawson, 2022). Birdwatching is closely related to environment, conservation, and biodiversity.…”