Regionally, Aguas de Manizales S.A. E.S.P. and the Ecological FoundationGabriel Arango Restrepo, FUNDEGAR, have been working since 1997 in this field.
For that reason, on July 8th and 9th in the Aguas de Manizales S.A. E.S.P. auditorium, Ingrid Ayub, the consultant and expert on the subject with more than 10 years of experience in Costa Rica, working as guide and leader of U.S. and UK groups was present. Ayub sought to strengthen knowledge and to determine the ability of the country regarding bird watching, taking into account the excellent potential of Colombia for this discipline, since it is the country with the highest number of bird species in the world, approximately 1870.
The workshop had two modules: introduction to Bird-tourism and good management practices in tourism, including key issues for the development of this activity such as: relationships among wholesale agencies-receptive tourism agencies and tour operators, local tour operators, local guides, national guides, all terrain transport, boats, rural transport and handcrafts; introduction to sustainable tourism, Tourism Certification and the current Colombian situation, among others.
After her stay in Manizales, the expert visited the city of Cali, where she also developed key components to exploit and promote this type of specialized tourism.