About WTA
What is Wildlife Tourism?
Wildlife Tourism is tourism based on free-ranging or captive wildlife.It can include specialized wildlife tours (including birdwacthing), general tours which include a wildlife-watching compnoent, wildlife parks, national parks, zoos, ecolodges and farmstays in natural areas. Associated with wildlife tourism are other products such as wildlife art, natural history museums, wildlife, botanic gardens and nature travel publications.
What is Wildlife Tourism Australia Inc.?
Wildlife Tourism Australia (WTA) is an Incorporated Association. It has an elected committee consisting of a chair, two vice chairs, secretary and treasurer. Similar organisations have been formed in USA and Scotland, and are starting to make a big difference.
Our Mission
"To promote the sustainable development of a diverse wildlife tourism industry that supports conservation."
The Role of WTA
WTA ....
- plays a leading role within Australia in promoting the sustainable development of a diverse wildlife tourism industry that supports conservation of native wildlife.
- works towards its mission proactively through collation of information; facilitation of research; education; liaison with governments and contributing to development of guidelines, policies and legislation for the benefit of wildlife tourism operators and conservation.
- promotes communication and cooperation between wildlife tourism stakeholders; including operators, tourism industry organisations, government tourism and conservation staff, local communities involved in wildlife tourism, academics and wildlife-related NGOs.
- focuses principally on viewing and interpretation of native Australian animals bothin the wild and in captivity (but also involves native plants and captive exotic animals.
Objectives
1. Communication
Provide
a forum for collation and dissemination of knowledge, and communication between
wildlife tourism stakeholders.
2. High Standards
Support
development of high standards in wildlife tourism product design and
interpretation.
3. Low Environmental Impacts
Promote
appropriate management and monitoring to minimise negative environmental impacts
of wildlife tourism.
4. Conservation
Promote
enhanced links between wildlife tourism and conservation of native Australian
wildlife.
5.
Promotion and
Awareness"
Promote
sustainable wildlife tourism and raise awareness of the benefits and costs of
wildlife tourism.
History of WTA
A pioneering research program studying Wildlife Tourism in Australia was conducted from 1998-2004 at the Co-operative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism based at Griffith University, Queensland. This led to a joint initiative with the CRC and Tourism Tasmania to jointly host a Sustainable Wildlife Tourism Convention in Hobart in October 2001. Planning was soon underway to create a national organisation to represent zoos, sanctuaries, wildlife parks and other wildlife operators around Australia to further the recommendations of the conference.
In December 2002, the inaugural meeting of the "Australian Wildlife Tourism Action Group" was held. Soon after, committee positions were in place and the name was officially changed to "Wildlife Tourism Australia". It was mooted that a national workshop of this new industry association be held in November 2003 to directly precede the Ecotourism Australia conference due to many common operator linkages. The inaugural workshop was a resounding success at Warrawong Earth Sanctuary and Cleland Wildlife Park. Proceedings of the 2001 Hobart Convention and 2003 Adelaide Workshop are available online. A further WTA workshop was subsequently held at Binna Burra and O'Reilly's guest houses in Queensland, during which the Southern Queensland Wildlife Trail was launched by Bradley Trevor Grieve. A joint initiative of WTA and FACET led to the holding of a major national workshop in Fremantle, WA in 2006. A strong Tasmanian subgroup has formed, and a series of wildlife workshops are currently being held in Queensland.