Workshop 2012

Marking the 10th Anniversary of Wildlife Tourism Australia

Using wildlife for tourism can mean either

• providing specialised wildlife experiences in birding, diving and other wildlife tours or in wildlife parks and zoos, or 
• using wildlife experiences for value-adding to general tourism (including tours, accommodation and attractions). 

Using wildlife also brings with it  a responsibility for helping to protect our wildlife

O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat: photo courtesy of Araucaria Ecotours

Call for abstracts has closed, but there may still be limited opportunity for poster papers.

Deadline for Registration : 8th May

Venue: Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Gold Coast, Queensland

Date:  Wednesday – Friday 16-18th May 2012 (opening cocktails Tuesday evening at Vikings, Currumbin Beach)

This will be an important event for the industry, as there has been no national  conference or  workshop  focussing on wildlife tourism for some years now.

See also:

• 

  Viewing wild koala: photo Araucaria Ecotours

  workshop themes (“The economics of wildlife tourism”, “Providing world-class wildlife experiences”, “Wildlife tourism supporting conservation”, and “Emerging threats to wildlife and tourism”)

• venue (Currumbin WIldlife Sanctuary, Gold Coast, Queensland)
• program
• registration
• accommodation (ranges from backpacker hostels to luxury hotels)
• district 
• social events and tours
• keynote speakers
• sponsorship

Feathertail gliders by Vivienne Bowen, in pastels

There will also be a wonderful display of wildlife art during the workshop:

Caldera Art at Currumbin WTA workshop

“The Caldera Art group is excited to be part of the forthcoming  WTA workshop at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. Selected world-class original artworks will be displayed in the sanctuary restaurant area to complement the ambience of this space and the conference themes. Artists exhibiting work at Currumbin will include Andy Reimanis, Lesley Doherty, Vivienne Bowen, Regina Rossdeutcher, and Mark Comport. Caldera Art promotes the biodiversity and landscapes of the Green Cauldron region, and is based at the World Heritage Rainforest Centre, Murwillumbah. www.calderaart.org.au“

Many thanks to our sponsors:

• Southern Gold Coast
• Denise Goodfellow and Michael Stott
• Gondwana Guides
• Araucaria Ecotours
• Binna Burra Mountain Lodge
• InternationalPark Tours

About our sponsors:

• The Southern Gold Coast is the quieter, less developed end of the Gold Coast. Visit their link for ideas on what you might do and see before and after the Workshop. Gondwana Guides and Araucaria Ecotours will also be offering tours pre- and post-workshop.
• InterNATIONAL PARKtours offer 1-3 week group tours to the national parks & wild places of Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Asia, North and South America. While walking is always an integral part of our journeys, we also highlight special interests that are appropriate to a country or region. In Australia and New Zealand, many of our tours include a birding, wildlife or botanical focus
• Binna Burra Mountain Lodge is one of Australia’s earliest Eco-Lodges, adjacent to the Lamington National Park with its wonderful system of walking tracks through Australia’s most extensive tract of subtropical rainforest
• Gondwana Guides offers birdwatching and other nature tours with a very experienced guide in Australia and New Guinea
• Denise Goodfellow runs birding tours and Indigenous culture tours in Northern Territory
• Araucaria Ecotours offers zoologist-designed wildlife, birding and other nature tours, all with advanced eco-accreditation, in southern Queensland and northernNew South Wales.

Thorny Devil, photo Gondwana Guides

Australia may well boast lovely white beaches and fine hotels, but so do other countries.

Nowhere else  however do you find wild koalas, kangaroos,  wombats, numbats, platypus, lyrebirds and many other unique and intriguing creatures. Australia also offers  the world’s largest coral reef, miles of safe walking tracks through rainforests and eucalypt forests,  swimming with the world’s largest fish or the strange leafy sea-dragon, wide open spaces roamed by the world’s largest marsupial and second-largest bird…

How important is our wildlife to international and domestic  tourism, and thus to both the Australian economy and the livelihood of individual tourism businesses? Are we realizing its potential? Some tour operations focus almost exclusively on wildlife (e.g. birdwatching tours, kayaking with dolphins, penguin parade) while other more general tours and accommodations use one or more wildlife experiences to value-add (e.g. farmstays that promote watching for kangaroos coming to graze in the paddocks or good birdwatching along the creek, tours that call in to see a koala park or glow worm cave amidst other attractions.

Come along and join the discussions on the economics of wildlife tourism and the value of wildlife to tourism.

The importance of quality guiding

For many travellers from overseas, their guide is their main contact with Australian people, so good guiding has an important diplomatic role. It also offers great opportunity to impart knowledge, understanding and appreciation of our wildlife to both international and domestic visitors. This is a role many tour operations take very seriously, but we have heard a few horror stories as well, and of course some simply don;t make much of an effort.

How do Australian guides measure up to those of other countries, some of which have offer extensive training in wildlife? What are the prime factors that go to make great guiding and high-quality, memorable interpretation?

Tourism, conservation and research

Tourism can assist wildlife conservation by direct donations by operators and tourists to conservation projects, volunteer tourism, good interpretation of conservation issues, enhancing appreciation of wildlife and their habitats, contributing to research and monitoring of species and habitats, conservation breeding of rare species and habitat restoration.

The coordination of tourism operators and conservation research will be one of the special discussion topics at the workshop.

Tourism can also pose threats  - disturbing animals from favoured feeding or breeding areas, separating mother and young, driving birds from their nests, trampling habitats etc. There are also external threats looking – climate change, expanding human populations, an explosion of mining leases … so we will also be discussing how best to tackle threats imposed by our industry and from other sources.

Join our discussions on ideas for assisting wildlife conservation and avoiding negative effects.

Keynote speakers for the workshop:

Meeting wild black swans with Araucaria Ecotours

Professor Clem Tisdell – One of Australia’s most prolific authors on economics, Clem is well-known as a pioneer in the field of ecological economics and Australia’s leading expert on the economics of wildlife tourism.

Associate Professor Darryl Jones – Darryl is an entertaining and highly informative speaker. He and his team of students and assistants have been researching human-wildlife connections for many years, including wildlife tourism.

Shane O’Reilley, Managing Director, O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat and associated businesses.  O’Reilly’s was one of the pioneers of Australian ecotourism lomg before the word was coined, and is now one of the laergest and oldest operations, with regular bird week, frog week and other specialized events. Shane – who has worked in tourism in both South Africa and Australia –   is also a board member of both Tourism Queensland and the Gondwana World Heritage Committee.

See also:

• workshop themes
• venue
• program
• registration
• accommodation
• district
• social events and tours
• keynote speakers
• sponsorship

 Our Sponsors: