Assessing the economic impacts of nature based tourism in Scotland

5 WILDLIFE WATCHING
5.1 Wildlife tourism in Scotland
The report commissioned in 2009 by the Scottish Government on the Economic Impact
of Wildlife Tourism in Scotland from the International Centre for Tourism and
Hospitality Research at Bournemouth University was received just as we were
completing this report and we were not able to assess its findings in detail. The other
reports assessed below relate to specific bird species and to wildlife in the Highlands
and Islands.
The Bournemouth University study, through household survey, attempted to identify
those visitors for whom viewing wildlife was the prime purpose of their trip. In our view,
the methodology gave an upward bias to this total, although the survey helped us in
determining the relative importance of wildlife in people’s decisions to visit Scotland for
our overall analysis in Section 13.5 below.
The study’s impact methodology was unusual in how additionality and displacement
were applied; but, although we believe that the adjustments to reduce the benefits from
gross expenditure by wildlife visitors to derive net impact were severe, the net impact
calculated in the report from visitors to Scotland whose prime purpose was to see
wildlife – £65 million – was similar to the estimate we derive later in this Section from
other data.
The figures given in the report for the “Highlands and Islands” are not for the HIE area,
and exclude Moray, Argyll and Bute and the Clyde islands.
5.2 Bird species
Watched like never before… the local economic benefits of spectacular bird species
(Dickie et al, 2006).
Contractor: Ian Dickie, Julian Hughes and Aniol Esteban (RSPB)
Client: RSPB
Publication: 2006
Study Objectives:
• To summarise the existing reports on the economic benefits that are generated by
the public accessing charismatic bird species.
Research method:
The report is a summary of a number of UK studies on the value of bird watching
opportunities across Britain where a specific species has a high profile. Economic
activity (i.e. watching) generally relates to the main breeding period.
• White Tailed Sea Eagle - based on interviews of 400 parties – 1,381 people;
• Osprey - based on enhanced estimates from visitor levels and then projected onto
the conclusions of a 1996 study;
• Red Kites - methodology not known;
• Peregrine - rough numbers of visitors and no economic analysis;
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