Why Nature Tourism?

Benefits:
If nature tourism is a good match for your community, it can preserve or improve your quality of life and natural resources while providing jobs and increased local revenues, and enhancing community cohesion and pride. Many nature tourists also travel to participate in hunting, fishing and/or some combination of fish and wildlife recreation and tourism. For more information of the business of nature tourism in Washington go to: Adding It Up.

Who are Nature Tourists?

Meet Jane Tourist. She represents the statistically average nature tourist in Washington and the kind of person most likely to show up in your town. She’s 45, has a college degree, lives in a big city and earns around $60,000 a year. She took her last vacation within her home state, spent 17 days bird watching in public forests and spent $738 on trip expenses and equipment.

Jane’s not the only person who’ll be coming to your town. One of the great things about nature tourism is the diversity of its participants. They represent a wide range of incomes, ages and education, and are almost evenly split between male and female. Click here for nature tourists demographics.

Nature Tourism Business Resources

A wealth of websites exist to help guide you through the process of starting a nature tourism business. We've provided links to sites that reflect our intent to encourage local, sustainable, community-based tourism enhancement: The Business of Nature Tourism: Resources

Plan for Success!
For sustainable nature tourism to be a successful part of your community it depends on:

• sustainability for both the visited community, and the visitors.
  
• the natural and cultural resources (community values and local flavor, and pleasant surroundings today and in the future)
  
• careful planning and management necessary to make sure that nature tourism doesn't damage the very resources on which it depends.

  Resources to Plan for Success

Lessons other communities have learned
about the development of Nature Tourism
The WDFW and WDFW Watchable Wildlife Program do not intend to express or endorse any opinion about the communities discussed in these stories.

Coulee Corridor Down East Maine Rethinking Florida Integrating Conservation and Tourism in the Great Smoky Mountains

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