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Corpus Christi Marketing Its Nature Tourism
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Corpus Christi Marketing Its Nature Tourism
Tourism officials have a plan to conserve and capitalize on the region's public and private natural elements as a premier destination for nature photography and outdoor recreation.
It's a fundamental shift in marketing focus -- dominated for years by the area's beaches, hotels and local attractions such as the Texas State Aquarium and the Lexington Museum on the Bay. Emphasizing nature travel and conservation, tourism officials say, would provide a distinct identity, or brand, to a city that has been soft on marketing focus.
Yellow Flags Signal Points Along
The Wildlife Watching Tour |
Tourism officials say they are encouraged by a growing national interest in nature travel, which is outpacing participation in fishing and hunting. And because more than 90 percent of Texas' wildlife habitat is privately owned, the nature photography or wildlife-watching aspects of this plan could satisfy landowners seeking to supplement profits from hunting and cattle ranching to offset the increasing cost of keeping their properties wild and intact.
Until now, marketing the city primarily has emphasized established tourist attractions and beaches. More recently, private developers and city leaders have promoted the possibilities of water parks, more shopping malls, beach resorts and a bayfront Ferris wheel to spur tourism and growth.
Keith Arnold, president and chief executive officer of the Corpus Christi Convention and Visitors Bureau, said a plan that highlights wildlife opportunities and outdoor recreation is a better fit for the Coastal Bend.
"This represents a blinding flash of the obvious," said Arnold, who is entering his second year with the tourism bureau. "We're marketing ourselves for the things we already have here. And part of the beauty is that it's equally driven by conservation and sound economics."
Arnold began touting this campaign about eight months ago. He introduced the bureau's Board of Directors to Ted Eubanks, president and chief operating officer of Fermata Inc., a Houston-based marketing, consulting and regional planning firm that specializes in the promotion of conservation-oriented nature travel. The board agreed to spend $50,000 on the first phase of a three-year contract with Eubanks, who had worked with Arnold on similar projects.
Campaign Kickoff
Arnold and Eubanks say they plan to kick off the bureau's campaign with the Images for Conservation Fund Pro Tour of Nature Photography, a big-money competition scheduled for April in the Coastal Bend. The pro tour pairs landowners with photographers to compete as teammates during the monthlong competition.
"The pro tour is a signature piece of this campaign," Arnold said. "The media coverage and outreach the pro tour would provide could spread our brand better than we could do it alone and at the same time it'll bring attention to our watchable wildlife."
John Trice, chairman-elect of the bureau's 11-member Board of Directors, said the benefit of marketing wildlife is at least twofold -- it promotes the preservation of wildlife habitat within area ranches and on public lands while broadcasting photographs of the region to nature travelers.
The bureau has signed on as a media partner with the pro tour, which will give Corpus Christi a presence on promotional material and allow the bureau to include photos taken during the event in advertising, on the Internet and at public places, such as the Corpus Christi International Airport.
"It's like free advertising," Trice said. "We've never really had the money to send our message to the world. So this is a very creative way to do that."
Arnold and Trice said the city must cast a wide net to attract a growing market of more mobile and affluent baby boomer travelers. National statistics reflect that position.
About 23 million people in the United States travel to photograph or view wildlife annually, according to the 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
Some 9.4 million photographers travel eight days or more on average each year in pursuit of nature photography, according to the survey, and nearly 70 percent of them earn at least $50,000 in annual income.
Nature tourism is the fastest-growing segment of the travel industry, according to the World Tourism Organization, an agency of the United Nations. Next to California, Texas enjoys the most diversity of wildlife in the United States, according to The Nature Conservancy.
The Coastal Bend has a lot working in its favor. It represents a rare convergence of three bird migration routes as well as three ecological regions -- gulf beaches, estuarine habitat and semi-arid brush country -- according to biologists with the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program.
 The area already is being recognized in conservation circles -- Corpus Christi has been named America's Birdiest City by the San Diego Audubon Society five years running.
By the time the American Birding Association brings its 2009 convention to Corpus Christi, Arnold said he expects Corpus Christi's brand will be established as word spreads because of the ICF Pro Tour of Nature Photography.
Examples of successful branding attempts by cities are easy to find -- Sante Fe, San Antonio and Las Vegas each has an effective branding campaign that has endured, said Kent Byus, associate professor of marketing at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
Though branding is a proven marketing method, Byus said, quick results are rare. That's OK with Trice and Arnold, who said the goal is to establish Corpus Christi nationally as a premier nature-outdoors destination within five years and internationally within 10 years.
Branding is working in many other areas with significantly fewer natural assets, consultant Eubanks said.
An effort Arnold and Eubanks spearheaded in Illinois pulled together 28 communities in a fractionalized region near Peoria along the Illinois River. They marketed the area for its bald eagles, wetlands, river recreation, hiking and biking. Within 18 months, the region became a site on the National Scenic Byway as the Illinois River Country.
This, in turn, helped secure hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants to enhance tourism, said Mike Quine, former chairman of the three-county chamber of commerce in central Illinois and current board chairman of the Illinois River Road National Scenic Byway nonprofit organization.
Quine said cooperation among communities within the region is essential to a successful campaign. Arnold said he's already talking to leaders of surrounding communities and he's encouraged by their willingness to participate.
Down the road
Ultimately, Arnold said, the benefits of marketing the region's outdoor recreation could go beyond conservation and tourism and into a broader goal involving economic growth for the city.
Attracting nature travelers will take a regional effort to make folks aware of the Coastal Bend's variety of outdoor opportunities, such as fishing, hunting, kayaking, sailing, wind surfing, beach recreation, kite-boarding, surfing and birding. Eubanks and Arnold are banking on the notion that outdoor recreational opportunities rank high as quality-of-life requirements sought by a growing number of companies searching for a home, and they believe Corpus Christi has the components necessary to satisfy.
"This is not just about attracting visitors," Eubanks said. "It's about showing people who might want to live here that we can offer them the kind of diverse outdoor recreational opportunities they're looking for in a home."
Roland Mower, president and chief operating officer with the Corpus Christi Economic Development Corp., said quality of life could be a deciding factor when companies or even individuals are looking to relocate.
"I'd say our area is ripe for this," Mower said. "Eco-tourism can bring in the kind of folks who could live wherever they want. Why not Corpus Christi? We should be going after them."
Important Dates | | September 30, 2007 | Landowner/Photographer
Applications Deadline | | November 15, 2007 | Landowner/Photographer
Participants Announced | | March 28, 2008 | 2008 Pro-Tour Launch Party
Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research
Center, Tío and Janell Kleberg
Wildlife Research Park,
TAMU Kingsville, TX | | March 28-29, 2008 | Landowner/Photographer
Symposium
Student Union Building,
TAMU Kingsville, TX | | April 1-30, 2008 | 2008 Pro-Tour Competition | | June 25-29, 2008 | Judging | | June 28, 2008 | "Meet the Judges" Party
Twin Oaks Ranch, Dinero, TX
hosted by Triple B Service Co. | | September 2008 | Awards Ceremony
Victoria, Texas | | April 4, 2009 | Book Dedication Party
Texas State Aquarium,
Corpus Christi, TX |
The ICF Pro-Tour of Nature Photography is coming to the Coastal Bend of Texas in April 2008!
This international professional photo contest offers an unprecedented $160,000 in total prize money and is the first competition of its kind in the world.FORMULA FOR CONSERVATION: 20 Photographers + 20 Ranchers = Astonishing Wildlife Images The Pro-Tour will select 20 landowners from applicants representing an 18-county area in the Coastal Bend of Texas, then randomly match those landowners with 20 international professional nature photographers for an intensive world-class tournament that will take place April 1 - April 30, 2008. Interested photographers and landowners should review the ICF Pro-Tour Rules .
ICF's goal is to create sustainable development of rural economies through the creation and prosperity of the Private Lands Nature Photo-Tourism Industry. Nature Photography has the unique ability to preserve habitat permanently by making it profitable.
Today, Americans overtly acknowledge the call of the wild by nearly a billion visits each year to national parks, state parks and recreation areas...
46 million birdwatchers come to parks and wildlands with binoculars, 28 million hikers explore trails, 46 million anglers cast a line, 17 million hunters prowl for game, and 18 million try to capture the essence of the wild through photography....all will admit they feel more alive out in the quickened air and raw energy of the outdoors. (Eugene Linden: noted author and environmental writer). |
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| Comments | |
ByJennifer @
Thursday, October 25, 2007 9:10 AM | |
I think this is a great idea. Instead of following the "bigger is better" philosophy, getting back to a more simple and relaxing time would appeal to a lot of persons I think. Some persons that live in cities, don't want more cities - they want to be able to relax and take it easy. |
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