More effort urged for ecotourism

KINGSVILLE - South Texas visitors are spending millions of dollars each year to see the region's rare birds, butterflies and wildlife, and cities need to take more steps to accommodate these "ecotourists," officials said Friday.

At an ecotourism summit at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Rio Grande Valley officials and environmental advocates said that more effort is needed to make environmentally aware tourists feel welcome. One step is to realize that many ecotourists want to travel "green," said Cate Ball, director of the not-yet-opened South Padre Island World Birding Center.

Ball drew a distinction between nature tourists and ecotourists.

"Ecotourists are looking at the whole experience and wanting it to be completely green," she said. Those tourists want to minimize car travel, recycle and reduce impact on the land, she said.

"If we want to be a key ecotourist location, I think we have some work ahead of us," Ball said.

Cities need to have stronger recycling programs available to tourists, said Dan Quandt, executive director of the South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"We need to have recycling, if we're going to walk the talk," Quandt said.

The region also should encourage more "catch-and-release" fishing tournaments and other steps that are environmentally friendly, he said.

More collaboration needs to exist among Valley cities and cities south of the border in promoting ecotourism, officials also said.

Many tourists might not realize, for example, that the Mexican state of Tamaulipas has a thriving, eco-friendly hunting industry, said Arturo
Morales, director of ecotourism for the municipality of Matamoros.

"We have great biodiversity and have conservation controls of our natural resources," Morales said.

Tourists will continue to flock to South Texas and Tamaulipas because of its unique flora and fauna, said Tom Langschied, research associate at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M-Kingsville.

The region has more than 525 bird species, the greatest diversity of butterfly species in the United States and ample hunting and fishing opportunities, Langschied said.

"There's a growing number of people who want to spend their time outdoors ... and they'll spend money to pursue their interest," he said.

Officials need to be attuned to those tourists' interests, while also protecting the region's habitat, speakers said.

"We have to remember that we are the stewards, and that we have to protect this very valuable resource we have," said Jeff George, curator for Sea Turtle Inc., a South Padre Island-based organization that rescues sea turtles.