Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Birds as tourism flagship species: a case study of tropical islands

Birds as tourism flagship species: a case study of tropical islands Species selected as flagships to promote conservation activities around the world are typically well known and charismatic mega‐fauna. Unfortunately this limits the scope for applying the concept as some critical areas for biodiversity conservation, such as tropical islands, lack such species. In this study, we explore the potential to apply the concept of ‘tourism flagship species’ to tropical island birds of the Seychelles, an archipelago of considerable importance for conservation that is highly dependent on international tourism. In particular we wish to identify which species attributes are most influential with regard to their potential for fundraising among international tourists. Using a choice experiment approach and using state‐of‐the‐art econometric methods, we found that conservation attributes and physical appearance of the bird species are both important in terms of raising funds for conservation. Nevertheless, conservation attributes ranked higher in the respondents preferences. Our results suggest that there is considerable potential for a variety of species to effectively act as flagships in developing nations that are dependent on international tourism and rich in biodiversity but lack charismatic fauna. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Animal Conservation Wiley

Birds as tourism flagship species: a case study of tropical islands

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/birds-as-tourism-flagship-species-a-case-study-of-tropical-islands-2xQ8s5Wbpe

References (74)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2009 The Zoological Society of London
ISSN
1367-9430
eISSN
1469-1795
DOI
10.1111/j.1469-1795.2009.00282.x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Species selected as flagships to promote conservation activities around the world are typically well known and charismatic mega‐fauna. Unfortunately this limits the scope for applying the concept as some critical areas for biodiversity conservation, such as tropical islands, lack such species. In this study, we explore the potential to apply the concept of ‘tourism flagship species’ to tropical island birds of the Seychelles, an archipelago of considerable importance for conservation that is highly dependent on international tourism. In particular we wish to identify which species attributes are most influential with regard to their potential for fundraising among international tourists. Using a choice experiment approach and using state‐of‐the‐art econometric methods, we found that conservation attributes and physical appearance of the bird species are both important in terms of raising funds for conservation. Nevertheless, conservation attributes ranked higher in the respondents preferences. Our results suggest that there is considerable potential for a variety of species to effectively act as flagships in developing nations that are dependent on international tourism and rich in biodiversity but lack charismatic fauna.

Journal

Animal ConservationWiley

Published: Dec 1, 2009

There are no references for this article.