Visiting birders in site
COLE BAY–St. Maarten recently hosted some 33 birding enthusiasts from Carefree Birding, a birding-based cruising group that travels throughout the Caribbean to engage in the growing birding tourism sector.
Nature Foundation Board Member and Birding Guide Binkie Van Es showed the enthusiasts St. Maarten’s unique bird habitat and species.
“It is exciting to be able to bring increased birding tourism to St. Maarten and put the island on the birding map. We often do not realize how unique and important birding tourism is for St. Maarten and how much potential the island has in tapping into a significant market,” Van Es said.
He showed the unique birding wildlife to Kevin Karlson and wife Dale, both celebrity birders and authors of multiple field guides including the famed The Shorebird Guide, who were part of the tour.
“This goes to show that nature tourism and birding in particular can be a very valuable addition to St. Maarten’s package and that under management of the Nature Foundation and its expertise in this matter this can and should be further developed for the destination, “ commented Van Es.
Reader’s Digest, an American monthly general-interest family magazine that reaches approximately 40 million people in more than 70 countries, named St. Maarten as one of the top 10 birding sites in the Americas, citing that conservation and efforts to increase eco-tourism are starting to pay off.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/63872-international-birders-tour-sint-maarten
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