Take advantage New Jersey’s nature tourism potential. Attend this FREE workshop and learn how the latest trend in tourism is helping rural communities prosper.

Why attend this workshop?

• New Jersey ranks sixth among the top ten states in the nation for generating economic impact based on wildlife watching!
• Nature tourism is one of the fastest growing segments of the tourism industry. Studies have shown that New Jersey’s natural areas and wildlife are enjoyed by millions of people from all income brackets and races and from rural to urban settings.
• More than 2.8 million residents and visitors participate in wildlife-related recreation in New Jersey each year, generating $4.1 billion and creating 33,657 jobs.
• If New Jersey’s outdoor recreation were an industry, it would be a Fortune 500 company.

Workshop Agenda

1 – 1:30	Registration
1:30 – 1:45	Introductions
1:45 – 3	The Economics Behind Wildlife Tourism: What is it, who are the tourists and why now? This session provides an overview of what is happening in nature tourism nationwide. It also explores the impact on state and local economies in areas that promote nature tourism and how shifting demographics have impacted tourism trends.
3 – 3:15	Break
3:15 – 4:30	Building Community Support: Why would you want to promote wildlife tourism? This session explains the reasons for promoting nature tourism. Wildlife watching is big business, generating billions of dollars and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs.
4:30 - 5	Building a Planning Team Good planning requires that action be taken. This session deals with the process of building a successful, dynamic planning team to ensure that plans can and will be implemented.
5 – 5:30	Refreshments
5:30 – 6:15	Conducting Site Assessments This session deals with identifying your community’s assets and those within the surrounding 60 miles, from a visitor’s point of view. It also covers how to prioritize where best to spend your time and money.
6:15 – 6:45	Providing a Positive Wildlife Viewing Experience As wildlife watching clientele grows and habitats do not, providers of the wildlife experience need tools to keep the wild in wildlife. Also, they must meet the needs of people from all walks of life and levels of outdoor experience while. This session offers tools to make a positive experience happen.
6:45 – 7	Questions and Answers/Wrap up/Where do We Go From Here?

The workshop is free but you must register to so that we can order refreshments. You can register via e-mail by sending your name, address, phone number and affiliation to laurie.pettigrew@dep.state.nj.us.

A founding board member and president of Watchable Wildlife Inc., Jim Mallman has 28 years of experience in commodities trading and sales and marketing management. An experience with a bird seed company in the 1990s opened Jim’s eyes to the economic power of wildlife watching and altered his career. Jim soon began working with state and federal agencies and communities across the country to help promote wildlife conservation and awareness through economic stability.

Watchable Wildlife Inc. is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to help communities and wildlife prosper. The organization has a track record of helping communities capitalize on their natural assets to improve the local economy.

The workshop Jim is presenting is designed to help local communities assess their strengths and weakness and develop plans that incorporate the desires of a community while capitalizing on natural assets. It has been conducted in communities from Iowa to Russia with positive results.

Jim has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and is currently working on a master’s in Wildlife Tourism and Sustainable Development in a program he helped develop.

Directions: Cumberland County College is located 1 mile from Route 55. Take Route 55 to Exit 29 (CR 552-Bridgeton/South Vineland); take CR 552 East to 2nd traffic light at College Drive, turn right; the college is about one-half mile on the right. Follow signs to the Conference Center.