Whale watching boom: New IFAW report

23 June 2009

(Madeira, Portugal) - A new report released today by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW -- www.ifaw.org) documents massive growth in the global whale watching industry over the past decade. The new report, Whale Watching Worldwide, comes as more than 80 countries debate the future of whaling and whale conservation at the 61st annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Madeira, Portugal.

The new, country-by-country economic analysis shows more than 13 million people took whale watching tours last year in 119 countries worldwide, generating ticket fees and tourism expenditures of more than US$2.1 billion (more than AUD $2.8 billion) during 2008. The report also shows dramatic growth of the whale watching industry in Asia, the Pacific, South America, the Caribbean and Europe significantly outpacing global tourism growth rates over the past decade. More than 3,000 whale watching operations around the world now employ an estimated 13,200 people.

The Minister for the Environment, Peter Garrett, welcomed the new report and formally introduced it to government delegations attending the Madeira IWC meeting. “I commend IFAW for producing this very timely report. At a time when our global economy, our planet’s great whales and international whale conservation efforts are all under threat, it is encouraging to see coastal communities across Australia, the Asia Pacific region and worldwide reaping massive benefits from the dynamic growth of this form of ecotourism,” he said. “The bottom line is clear. Whales are worth much more alive than dead.”

“While governments debate what to do about whales, their citizens are pointing the way,” said Patrick Ramage, IFAW Global Whale Program Director. “Animals, people and the global economy all do better when whales are seen and not hurt. We should be conserving whales in 2009 and shooting them with cameras, not compromising conservation measures and expanding commercial whaling.”

Australia saw more than 1.6 million people go whale watching. This represents an annual growth rate of 8.3% since the last global report was compiled in 1998, generating almost AUD$264 million for our economy.

“Ten years ago the Million Watch Club for whales consisted of the USA, Canada and the Canary Islands—now Australia has pushed past the Canary Islands to join Canada and the United States to be a part of the exclusive club of three,” said IFAW Asia Pacific Director, Erica Martin.

The past decade shows continuing growth and redistribution of whale watching in Australia, with an expansion of activity into new locations as well as some areas seeing a maturing industry where tourist numbers have plateaued or even declined such as in Victoria (mainly due to fluctuations in annual visitation of both whales and tourists).

“A significant increase was seen in Tasmania with a staggering average annual growth rate of 37.6%, followed by New South Wales with 14.7% growth,” said Ms Martin.

Port Stephens attracts the largest annual number of boat-based whale watch tourists anywhere in Australia, receiving just over 270,000 tourists in 2008, more than 80% of whom were there for dolphin watching tours.

International research, data collection and analysis for the IFAW report were conducted over the past 18 months by Economists at Large and Associates of Melbourne, Australia.

The report can be downloaded at www.ifaw.org/whalewatchingworldwide

Executive summary is available at www.ifaw.org/wwwsummary

For media-related inquiries, contact:
Patrick Ramage (IFAW) at the IWC meeting
Tel: +1 508-776-0027
Email: pramage@ifaw.org

Erica Martin (IFAW Asia Pacific – Sydney)
Tel: +61 2 9288 4999
Email: emartin@ifaw.org

Simon O’Connor (Economists at Large – Melbourne)
Tel: +61 (0)401 360 500
Email: simon@ecolarge.com