Ecotourism and potential of Bird Watching Tourism Case Study: Miankale Wetland

Laila Vossoughi ¹ ( department of rourism management, faculty of tourism, semnan uni )

Submited date : 2017-07-18 Accepted date : 2017-09-24

Keywords: Ecotourism, wetland, Miankale, Bird Watching tourism,

Abstract :

Tourism is an increasingly growing activitiy in the world, however is one of the important treatment about environment (both cultural & natural). Ecotourism as a new approach in nature based tourism, has essential importance in tourism development programs in many countries around the world. Wildlife watching tourism is an important part of ecoutourism. In relation, bird watching tourism as a considerable type of wildlife watching tourism has been transformed to a ecotourism growing markets. However Iran is a rich country in biodiversity and habitat diversity (about 530 type)but its proportion in birdwatching is very low in comparison with other countries. The present study aimed to introduce importance of bird watching tourism development as a method for maintaining the birds area, is determining the effective factors on attracting bird watchers in miankale wetland as one of the best important wetland in the country. In order to assessing effective factors marketing mix components (product, price, people, distribution, promotoion, planning, physical evidence) are used. The findings presented in this study are based on distributing questionnaires among 210 birdwatchers and interviews with 7 individuals in bird watching. t-test hypothesis and friedman test were used for data analysis. The results show that all marketing mix factors effect on attracting birdwatchers.