The British Birdwatching Fair is held in August on the shores of Rutland Waters in the county of Rutland. The annual event is described as the Birdwatchers ‘Glaston-bury’ (world’s largest music festival) and attracts over 20,000 visitors over three days. It is a far cry from its humble beginnings in 1989 and the aim of the fair was to get birdwatchers together to celebrate birds, to develop a commercial fair for the birdwatching industry and to support international conservation projects.
The British Birdwatching Fair is jointly organised by the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and encompasses the whole spectrum of the birdwatching industry whilst at the same time supporting global bird conservation. A wide range of fantastic conservation projects have been supported by Birdfair. There are over 300 exhibitors selling the latest products for wildlife enthusiasts, everything from scopes to sculptures, binoculars to bird food, eGuides to eco-holidays!
How important is bird watching
Birdwatching is often described as a niche market. But the raw numbers indicate it is perhaps a bigger market than expected. The value of birdwatching to the American economy alone was calculated in a US government report at $36 billion a year. In the UK, there are more than one million members of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
With a vast untouched rainforest and around 850 species Guyana is well positioned to take advantage of this growing market and has been actively positioning itself as a birding destination.
Birding in Guyana
For Guyana, birdwatching provides an industry that is non-consumptive and puts minimal pressure on the environment. It encourages local communities to preserve and conserve their natural resources and provides an income through this passive exploitation of the birds and their environment.
Naturally most birdwatching takes place in the interior but birders are happy to bird anywhere, as long as they can see their target birds. Even urban areas can provide exciting birding opportunities and the Georgetown Botanical Gardens is home to over 200 species of birds including the regional endemic, the Blood-coloured Woodpecker. The community of Karasabai has what is the last healthy population of Sun Parakeet left in the world and birders will make the arduous journey just to see this one species.
Whilst Guyana has no endemics of its own we do have 60 to 70 endemics only found within the Guiana Shield. It is these specialist birds that attract the birdwatchers to Guyana as we offer some of the best opportunities to find them in the region. Guyana’s birding guides are recognised as some of the best in the region and this coupled with comfortable lodges allows for excellent birding itineraries.
Guyana at the bird fair
For destination Guyana, the British Birdwatching Fair it has become one of the most important trade and consumer events that we attend as a destination. As the name implies the show caters to birdwatchers but it has developed to encompass natural history in general. The show is an obvious marketplace for Guyana as it allows us to leverage our marketing advantages as an excellent birding and wildlife destination.
Guyana first attended the fair in 2002 in a joint marketing effort by Wilderness Explorers and Iwokrama and from 2008 has had a destination Guyana booth first funded by USAID and now THAG.
Attendance is a collaboration of the private and public sector with the booth itself funded by the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana and attendance supported and funded by the Guyana Tourism Authority. This year the booth was manned by Carl Browne from the Guyana High Commission in London, Wally Prince a freelance guide (supported by GTA) and Tony Thorne and Claire Antell from Wilderness Explorers.
Guyana has become reasonably well known in birding circles now and the booth attracted many visitors, many who had already booked tours and were looking for additional information on the destination plus those looking for their next birding holiday.
Browne was enthusiastic about the reception for Guyana at the show. He said, “I must say that the excitement was so great that one customer shouted out that she is already convinced and is ready to visit Guyana without hesitation, and was surprised when she returned in less than an hour to say she had booked to travel early next year with one of the operators that was selling destination Guyana.”
Each year Guyana delivers a presentation as part of the extensive series of lectures offered over the three days. Six venues offer lectures concurrently throughout the day with 234 lectures presented. This year, Thorne and Ian Lloyd (from Reef and Rainforest, a UK tour operator) presented a lecture titled ‘How and where to best see Guyana’s birds and wildlife’. Ninety-eight people attended the lecture which is an excellent turnout.
This year during the course of the fair the Guyana team also co-hosted two ‘Guyana hours’ on the Reef and Rainforest and Naturetrek booths, where we met their clients and promoted the destination.
