Nature-based tourism can be defined as responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the welfare of local people. It is tourism based on the natural attractions of an area. Examples include hunting, fishing, birdwatching, photography, and visiting parks. These experiential tourists are interested in a variety of natural and cultural resources. They want what is real, and they want to be immersed in a rich natural, cultural, or historical experience.

Interest in nature tourism is growing in Texas as rural communities look for ways to diversify local economies and landowners look for ways to diversify ranch income. Texas rangelands comprise 59 percent of the total land area of the state. As a state that is 94 percent privately owned, the wildlife resources of Texas are entrusted to the stewardship of private landowners. A basic tenet of wildlife management in Texas has been to empower private land managers with information, technical assistance, and incentives to manage wildlife populations for the public good as well as for individual economic gain.
Many landowners in Texas currently derive substantial income from wildlife-associated recreation in the form of hunting and fishing on their private lands. The 1996 Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-associated Recreation showed that fishing contributed $2.9 billion to the state’s economy, while hunting contributed $1.4 billion, and wildlife watching $1.2 billion.

Interest in nature-based tourism is rooted in a growing understanding among landowners that providing recreational opportunities for emerging markets of experiential tourists is another important way to derive economic benefit from the natural resources found on private lands. Activities such as birdwatching, photography, backpacking, horseback riding, mountain biking, wildlife viewing, and canoeing are increasingly popular as urban residents and visitors strive to connect with the outdoors.

From the standpoint of conservation, nature-based tourism provides incentives for local communities and landowners to conserve wildlife habitats upon which the industry depends - it promotes conservation by placing an increased value on remaining natural areas. As nature tourism becomes more important to the local economy, communities have additional incentive to conserve their remaining natural areas for wildlife and wildlife enthusiasts.

Nature tourism development in rural communities can diversify local economies, while also providing benefits to the people who live there. Some benefits are economic. For example, every $78,085 spent in 2000 directly supported one job in Texas. Local tax revenues were $623 million and state tax revenues were $2 billion. Travel spending increased at an average annual rate of 6.1 percent since 1990. Other benefits have to do with instilling pride in community and providing jobs for residents.

From a state perspective, the goals of nature-based tourism in Texas are to promote habitat conservation, promote sustainable economic development, and build broad-based public support for wildlife conservation programs. Texas Parks and Wildlife has chosen to implement a nature-based tourism program that is uniquely suited to a private land state such as Texas. Our efforts are concentrated on providing a diversity of recreational opportunities to an increasingly urban population of Texans as well as to a growing number of visitors from other states and countries. We have done this by providing wildlife viewing driving trails such as the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail, and by increasing hunting and fishing opportunities. Our goal is to connect people with nature by making it easier for them to enjoy the natural resources of Texas and thus to care about conserving them.

For example, birdwatchers have always come to Texas. Our geographic location and diversity of habitats contributes to the highest avian diversity of any state, with 620 documented species of birds. The Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail was developed to make it easy for birders and wildlife watchers to find the best places to see wildlife on the coast. The trail serves as a marketing platform for coastal communities to attract nature-based tourists, and nature tourism has become an integral part of the local economies in many of the communities along the trail.

The trail consists of highway signs with individual sites numbered and referenced on maps of the upper, central, and lower sections of the Texas coast. Accompanying descriptions of wildlife and habitats at each site, interesting local history, contact and reservation information, and community contact information are included. There are 308 wildlife-viewing sites on the trail.

The maps are very popular with people from all over the world, and our requests continue to increase. By mapping the zip codes of birding trail users who sent in post cards asking to be on our mailing list, we have concluded that the trail is a national destination. In fact, the resulting map shows that birding trail visitors come from most of the major metropolitan areas of the United States.

The success of the Coastal Birding Trail has exceeded expectations. Because of the popularity and high level of public support, TPW has received funding to build two more wildlife-viewing trails. The Heart of Texas Trail adjoins the Coastal Birding Trail at the Rio Grande and runs through south and central Texas. The High Plains Trail will highlight the grasslands and wildlife of the Texas Panhandle. Both will focus on the diversity of habitats and wildlife characteristic of each region. The Heart of Texas and High Plains Trails encompass 115 counties. Communities and private landowners have eagerly supported the trails as they come to understand that nature-based tourism provides important opportunities to diversity agricultural economies, conserve remaining habitats, and maintain rural lifestyles.

The nature-based tourism efforts in Texas will continue to focus on achieving habitat conservation by providing information and assistance to private landowners, communities, businesses, and local community leaders wishing to make nature-based tourism an integral part of their business and community. By empowering people at the local level, we hope to build and provide guidance to a growing industry that holds great promise for sustainable economic development and conservation of wildlife habitat.

For more information, visit www.tpwd.state.tx.us/nature/tourism/yourbusiness Linda Campbell will be speaking at the Seabrook EcoTourism Symposium hosted by the Seabrook EcoTourism Committee on Saturday, November 10. The symposium, which is intended to identify the economic potential of ecotourism and enable Seabrook to capitalize on it, is open to all Seabrook residents and business owners. For more information and to reserve your spot, call 281-291-5600.