How to proactively market Laguna del Lagarto Lodge towards European Bird Watchers Travellers? This document was elaborated for the Laguna del Lagarto Lodge in Boca Tapada, Costa Rica, in a serie of works and studies allowing tourism professional to make their activity more sustainable.

1. Become Hopinoer Spread the awareness, get together and act for a responsible tourism.
Hopineo for Laguna del Lagarto, Costa Rica- October 2014

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→A fast growing nature-based tourism niche market.
→Traditional destinations: Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Uganda and Namibia.
→Emerging destinations: Morocco, Oman, Ecuador, Sri Lanka and Georgia.
→Main emitting markets: USA & UK
Birdwatching Eco-Tourism
Wildlife Hiking
Photography

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2. Hotel Website & SEO
3. Communication Revenue Management
4. Sales HOTEL
1. Clear Understanding of the Market
Trade Fairs
Travel Agencies
Companies
Events Agencies
Blogs / Magazines
Online Forums
Social Media
OTAs
Dynamic Rates
Guests Reviews
KPIs
Tour Operators

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40-70 years of age, likely to be members of local bird or nature organisations.
Use bird/nature books or magazines, organisations, national parks or recommendations from other birdwatchers when deciding where to go.
Travel more likely alone, in couples or in small groups.
•Fanatical birdwatchers, they want to see quickly as many birds as possible to add them to their checklist. Twitchers are a less attractive marketing segment to target as their decision-making is difficult to influence.
•Birds and nature lovers travelling slower than twitchers, as they also like to relax and do other activities. Focus primarily on enthusiastic birdwatchers, as they could be a high-volume tourism base that is responsive to marketing.
•Outdoor and nature-based travellers who could be persuaded to add birding as an extra activity. Market your birdwatching tours to casual tourists on the spot, for example by distributing flyers in your area.

5. Become Hopinoer
5 Birdlife Quality & Sustainability
Knowledgeable Guides Birder-friendly facilities & accommodation
Range of Other Activities Develop a list of local birds species and seasonality (http://avibase.bsc-eoc.org)
Emphasize especially on rare or endemic birds.
Link indigenous knowledge and heritage components to existing bird tours.
Guides listen carefully to the specific needs of each birdwatcher on arrival, to provide him good tips and personalized tours.
Invest in appropriate birding infrastructure such as trails, boardwalks, hides and observation towers.
Make sure you have more knowledge about local birds than your guest: varieties, behaviour, historical info, where to find them.
Train your guides in English language skills.
Inform on how you contribute to the conservation of birds and their habitats.
More comfortable accommodation for senior birdwatchers or groups, more basics for twitchers.
Adhere to, and insist on, ethical birdwatching behaviour, such as avoiding nests and young birds (Birds Directive).
Offer other nature-based and cultural activities.
Develop more small bird hideouts, provide nice light and backgrounds to enhance photographic opportunities.
Develop a special bird photography tour or add such optional modules to existing birdwatching tours.
Adapt your guests services to their specific needs: coffee very early at sunrise, WIFI to share pict, lunch boxes, books about local birds and wildlife…

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Your Website is your most important and central marketing tool, it has to be great!
My 10 tips for a great website: www.thehospitalitytour.com/10-tips-great-hotel-website
Have a professional, high quality website with quality photos and videos.
Show your Flickr Photos Gallery where past guests can also share their own pictures taken onsite.
Emphasize the different types of birds that can be seen at your destination, especially endemic ones.
Make your bird list easily accessible and visible.
Offer suggestion of birding routes within your country to help birdwatchers to organize their trip.
Enhance your Google Ranking on Google using specific keywords related to birdwatching in your destination and in the different language (use Google AdWords).
UK
Netherlands
Germany
France
Google:
www.google.co.uk
www.google.nl
www.google.de
www.google.fr
Keywords:
Birdwatching, Birding
Vogelreizen
Vogelbeobachtung
Observation d’Oiseaux

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As recommendations from other birdwatchers are one of the #1 key decision criteria to choose where to go to watch birds, using smartly social media is today crucial.
Ensure that customers have a great birdwatching experience and take advantage of their invaluable word-of- mouth marketing by inviting them to engage on social media.
Ask them to share their bird pictures and stories to enhance your message.
Set up Facebook Page linked to a Twitter Account “Bird Watching + Name of your region”.
Publish your guests’ bird pictures with interesting facts and geo-marking them at your lodge.
Once a month you can publish a picture of your lodge telling and showing how great is your hotel for birdwatchers.
These are the two most popular social media for photography.
Set you put an account for the hotel and start sharing your pictures.
Invite past guests to share their pictures.

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Advertise or try to get articles published in magazines or websites of birding associations/clubs.
Engage and join existing conversations in birding forums / communities to recommend your destination, region and hotel.
English
Dutch
German
French
www.wheretowatchbirdsandotherwildlifeintheworld.co.uk
www.birdpix.nl
www.birdnet-cms.de
www.ornithomedia.com
www.birdforum.net
http://vogelaar.beginthier.nl
www.voegel-magazin.de
oiseaulibre.vraiforum.com
www.surfbirds.com
www.dutchbirding.nl
www.vogelundnatur.de
www.fatbirder.com
www.vogelbescherming.nl/
www.birdingtours.de
http://forum.biggonline.co.uk
www.birdtours.co.uk
www.birding.uk.com
www.chatterbirds.com
www.birdlife.org
www.uk400clubonline.co.uk
www.birdwatch.co.uk

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Design a specific PowerPoint presentation personalized to underline how well your lodge knows about bidwatchers expectations and answers them.
Contact local tour operators and DMCs, and you can try to rach also foreigner specialized tour operators.
Look for them on Google, or using the following links: UK:
www.surfbirds.com/mb/tours/tour-directory.html
www.aito.com/wildlife-holidays/
www.birding.uk.com/directory/tour-operators
www.birdwatch.co.uk/trade-directory/default.asp?cate=388
www.travel-lists.co.uk/travel/listings/categories/holiday-types/special-interest-holidays/wildlife-tours
http://www.neotropicalbirdclub.org/pages/club.asp?ClubID=19 The Netherlands:
www.anvr.nl/bestemmingen/
www.vogelbescherming.nl/vogels_kijken/vogelreizen France:
http://annuaire.oiseau-libre.net/Nature/Tours-operateurs-nature.html

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Take part or be represented at special birdwatching trade fairs, or at least, go on their website to find out about tour operators specialized in birdwatching tours and holidays packages.
Name
Website
Location
Date
Birdfair
www.birdfair.org.uk
UK, Rutland
August
Dutch Bird Fair
www.dutchbirdfair.nl
Netherlands, Lelystad
August
Birdtours
www.vakantiebeursamsterdam.nl
Netherlands, Amsterdam
January

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11 This presentation was mainly documented by one of the Dutch CBI study: « Product Factsheet Birdwatching Tourism by EU Residents » Find all CBI market studies online (in english and spanish) following this link: http://www.cbi.eu/marketintel_platform/tourism/136109/factsheet A few additional interesting links:
•http://www.crctourism.com.au/wms/upload/resources/31003%20Green%20Birdwatching%20Tourism%20WEB.pdf
•http://news.co.cr/why-costa-rica-needs-to-attract-more-birdwatchers/33187/
•http://www.4hoteliers.com/features/article/4991
•http://www.agmrc.org/media/cms/birding_23ab74513640a.pdf
•http://avibase.bsc-eoc.org: Lists of birds per country.
•http://www.neotropicalbirdclub.org: UK club for birdwatchers interested in Latin America.

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Contact :
Florie Thielin
floriethielin@gmail.com
www.hopineo.org
www.thehospitalitytour.com
www.facebook.com/thehospitalitytour
This document was elaborated for the Laguna del Lagarto Lodge in Boca Tapada, Costa Rica,
in a serie of works and studies allowing tourism professional to make their activity more sustainable.
What is missing? Which improvments could be done?
Please, feel to free to share with us your feedback to continue
building together a better future for Hopineo, its partners, and more globally
for a more responsible tourism.
« The recognition of tourism as an economic powerhouse and contributor to all three pillars of sustainable development – economic, environmental and social – underlined the enduring relevance of UNWTO’s mission to promote responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. »
World Tourism Organization, 2013