• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Advice needed for birdwatcher farm (1 Viewer)

wahur

New member
Hi!

I am sorry for slightly offtopic post, but I need some advice from your community.
I am a business consultant from Estonia. Recently a client came to me who wants to build a small tourist farm oriented primarily for birdwatchers. I have to do the business plan for him.

Location is good for the purpose - on the territory of Matsalu reservate, which is really a bird paradise in a world scale. He is allowed to create a lodging for 10 people + stables for some horses. Because of reservate all movement and construction work is very much restricted.

I have been consulting local bird people and they say that from business point of view its a big no. Birdpeople barely sleep, buy nothing, eat little, care not for additional services like horse tours, require highly qualified guide to find rare birds for them and when they have seen all, they are gone in two days. Wow! and I thought computer freaks were strange! :eek!:
Must tell poor guy to drop the idea.

But maybe you have different opinion and have meet different birdwatchers as well? Has this guy some hope? I mean, not getting rich with this business, but at least surviving?

Wahur
 
Hi wahur,

On behalf of all the Moderators and Admin Staff let me welcome you to BirdForum.

To answer your question from my personal point of view, if I were to visit Estonia on a birding holiday, then a small farm or similar accomodation would be just the kind of thing I would be looking for.

Certainly here in the UK this kind of accommodation is widely sought after.

There would certainly be some birders who would perhaps make a short visit, but equally there would be others like myself who would prefer to stay longer.

In many countries there are professional guides, but I believe that this only caters for a certain number of birders, as many others like to do their own thing.

In fact, in my opinion, the kind of traveller who would seek out small scale accommodation, would probably also be happy with a friendly local rather than some high-priced professional guide.

I understand your comment about not necessarily speding a great deal on money when there, but in reality, whilst the birder might keep his wallet in his pocket - he might also bring his family who may be more inclined to contribute to the local economy.

I don't know exactly how much income your client would hope to make from such a venture - and I certainly wouldn't expect it to make him rich, but if it was to supplement an income from another source, then I can see some potential for this idea.
 
Last edited:
Hi Wahur

I'd have to agree in much of what you mention in your thread. But birders are a rather mixed group of people, all they really have in common is their love for birds! Well, I'll do a bit of (rather unfair) generalizing anyways:

Regarding the "travellling birders" who are the type of person's I assume you target. I have the possibility of seeing it from two angels; yes, I am myself a "travelling birder", and yes, I have guided other traveling birders. This group of people (thereby including myself) comes to places that are unique. Don't really know to much about birding in Estonia, but unless the area around the farm has something special (either some special birdspecies or very many), then birders will probably not go there! So, I'd think seriously about starting such a farm unless I know that there are some species there, that are hard to see elsewhere. If you found something that is unique in that term, birders are willing to spend big $$$. I do know that the following isn't exactly Estonia, but it's a good example of birders being willing to spend those money. Many lodges in South/Central America, Africa and a few in South East Asia, birders pay more than US$ 100 per night... You may think these places are very luxurious, but infact the birders pay for access. Access to those place with those unique species. The luxury usually consists of the place having hot water and serving a very early breakfast! Birders generally get up with the sun, not because they like it (well, I don't!), but because that's when the birds are most active. This type of lodges are very rare (almost non-existent) in Europe and the US. Why? Well, because these regions generally have rather good access (roads) to those good birding-spots. No need to live at some special lodge... you just live in the nearest city, get in your rented car early in the morning, and drive to the spot. Then you have a possibility to use the exact type of accommodations you prefer, be that expensive or cheap. - And yes, this group of "hardcore" birdwatcher often wouldn't care about horse-riding unless it gave them the possibility to see even more birds (and using binoculars from horseback is hard. I know from experiance)!

Guides. I really wouldn't say that this is a "must" on such a farm in Europe. There are two main groups of birders here. The first are on a trip that was completely arranged by some special birding-travel company, and they already bring a guide. The second group, that have arranged logistics themselves are likely not to wish for a birding-guide. This group often request guides in tropical countries, but the reason for this being, that the avifauna (=birds) is much more diverse, and often few (if any) good fieldguides (=books on the local birds) exist. There are many very good books for European birds, and the avifauna is much less diverse. You don't really need a guide, you can do it youself.

Also, if choosing to start such a farm, a lot of commercializing is needed in the beginning. Quite simply to make birders aware of the existence of the new farm. The internet may be the best way for doing this. Unless a birder is going on a pre-arranged trip by one of the numerous agencies out there, it is my experiance that most birders start here; finding info of the country they plan on visiting on the internet.

So, yet again, if you have found that unique birding spot, that is poorly accessed otherwise; go for it (but it's still unlikely to make you rich, at least in Europe). Otherwise it may be better to aim at a more generalized group: Naturelovers (which of course also includes birdwatchers). In Denmark (where I am) this group is bigger than ever, and still growing. It's a wide variety of people, but most just like walking around in the nature. But yet again there's two main groups: 1) Couples and similar who enjoy the peacefulness of the nature. 2) Young couples who have a child or two, and loves to see something different. These two groups can be rather hard to combine...

Anyways, good luck if you advice him to go for it.
 
Thank you very much! You have given me some encouragement.

Fortunately this guy does not expect to get rich. He said from the start, that most probably he will just break even, have fun living in beautiful place and doing what he likes. Looks like he might have chance for that.

This place is unique - some years ago Finnish group of birders broke some kind of record in the area, counting almost 200 species in 24 hours. RAMSAR area, mostly with rather strict protection regime. There is abandoned 40m lighthouse in the area, that he wants to make into birdwatch tower with absolutely commanding view on coastal wetlands and sea. So I guess he has something to offer.

Question of guides was big question mark for me - it would be difficult to arrange and probably costly as he cannot take in groups bigger than 10.
I will also tell him to forget the horses for a while - he will save on investment a lot.

Wahur, watched cranes behind his house just yesterday :)
 
Wahur, although I am not an often or widely travelling birder I get the impression that Estonia is becoming (or may well become) a "hotspot" for birding tours, certainly organised from UK.

One suggestion I can think of would be to visit web sites such as http://www.fatbirder.com/ and check out the travel section. You will be able to access the websites of companies that organise tours to Estonia and get contact details. Following upon that might generate some specific ideas that could be acted upon.

regards
Gordon
 
I have visited many locations in Europe. Sometimes when time is short (usually short of leave from work) I go with other like-minded birders only for a few days and spend most of the time in the field. We still need somewhere to stay overnight and well located accomodation like you mention might be OK. We wouldn't normally spend money much else other than food on trips like this.

Often I visit with my family when birding will only be a part of the trip and we will take things much slower and stay a week or so. We would include other activities - perhaps horse riding and would probably spend money on a rather wider range of goods and services. The sort of thing you suggest in Estonia would be about perfect for this sort of trip.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 20 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top