TERMS OF REFERENCE
Consulting Opportunity with the National Audubon Society
Bird-based Tourism Marketing Expert
A. OBJECTIVES AND CONTEXT
National Audubon Society (NAS) is working with the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and local conservation organizations, to carry out an IDB-funded regional ecotourism project ATN/ME-14117-RG, Strengthening Bird-Based Tourism as a Conservation and Sustainable Development Tool. Managed by Audubon’s International Alliances Program (IAP), the project’s objectives are to increase the market for bird-based tourism in Paraguay, Belize, Guatemala and the Bahamas by improving: capacity and the delivery of conservation in each country; support by governments and the private sector; marketing of this tourism sector; and, promotion of its value for local economies. The project is focused on 13 sites in four countries located adjacent to protected areas within key bird habitats (IBAs – Important Bird Areas), most of which are on or near existing tourism routes and have varying levels of visitation for bird-based tourism.
One of the major goals of the project is to increase visitation to these sites, taking advantage of Audubon’s large network and the millions of people who identify as birdwatchers as a potential market. In order to generate interest in travel to the project sites, there needs to be more visibility of the sites in print and social media. This consultancy aims to produce high quality and targeted marketing materials with the goal of promoting travel to project sites.
B. SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES
1. Identify a subset of project sites in each country to highlight for each marketing type.
2. Produce marketing materials (map, print or online brochure, video, social media), in English and Spanish for Guatemala and Paraguay and English only for The Bahamas and Belize, based on raw content provided by Audubon.
3. Adapt materials for 2 audiences:
a. Ministries of Tourism and tour industry entities or associations based in each of the 4 countries
b. Audubon network members with interest in international travel
C. PRODUCTS
1. 1 web article per country (4 total)
2. 6 social media posts per country (3 on birds and 3 on travel) (24 total)
3. 1 two minute video clip per country (4 total)
4. Birding trail material for 6 locations converted to marketing tools (6 total)
D. DURATION OF CONTRACT AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS
1. From April 15 to August 15, 2016
2. The consultant must have a suitable work environment to carry out the activities of this consultancy; no provision of work space is included.
E. RELATIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The contractor will be responsible for maintaining efficient and consistent communications during
implementation of the project that facilitates coordination and timely completion of activities and products.
Specifically, the contractor will:
1. Report to the Integrated Marketing Director based in Audubon’s NYC office
2. Coordinate closely and directly with the Bird Based Tourism Project Administrator based in
Audubon’s DC office, and communicate with other experts and staff within Audubon as needed.
3. Coordinate subcontractors for graphic design and translation as needed.
F. PAYMENT METHOD
Payments will be made based on the successful completion of each product to the satisfaction of Audubon
and payment schedule will be negotiated at time of contract signing.
G. CONSULTANT QUALIFICATIONS
-Ability to develop high quality audiovisual and graphic products in English and Spanish.
-Ability to gather, analyze, interpret and compile information from disparate sources and proven
capacity to write concisely and clearly.
-Entrepreneurial and creative, with innovative ideas on how to develop and improve bird based
tours, sites and routes.
-Highly organized and efficient to ensure timely, solid, high quality results.
-Experience and familiarity in the following areas a plus: bird-based tours and tourism routes,
especially in Latin America and the Caribbean; marketing or public relations in the tourism field;
working with or for tour operators; social media, TripAdvisor, and other online marketing strategies
for tourism.
-Pursuant to IDB policy GN-2350-9, only those who comply with the following condition will be
considered for the offered position: “A Consultant, and all parties constituting the Consultant, shall
be nationals of member countries of the Bank. Consultants from other countries shall be
disqualified from participating in contracts intended to be financed in whole or in part from Bank
loans. Eligible countries are listed in the following link: http://www.iadb.org/en/about-us/membercountries,
6291.html.”
Interested individuals should send a letter of interest, resume, bid, and examples of similar past work to
iapconsultancy@audubon.org. Application deadline: March 21, 2016.
H. PROJECT BACKGROUND
Limited income generation options are often a driver for local communities to engage in activities that degrade the natural resource base. Ecotourism is one economic alternative that can raise the income of people who live close to natural areas, while helping to conserve natural capital. Within the ecotourism market, there is potential to further develop markets for bird watching tourism, a growing niche sector, drawing from the estimated 48 million bird watchers in the United States, of which more than 17 million are willing to travel for birding activities. Since 1983 the number of bird watchers in the US has increased 332%. This project will capitalize on this growing demand to support rural economies and improve the overall context of conservation by focusing communities, MSMEs, local NGOs, and governments on bird-based tourism as a sustainable conservation and community-development tool.
To accomplish this goal, the MIF will partner with the National Audubon Society on a regional project, focused on Belize, Guatemala, Paraguay and Bahamas. On the supply side, this project will create a network of community-based birding destinations that offer skilled local birding guides, improved park interpretation (signage), and lodging, food services, and related goods and services tailored to the birding market. Development of this market in a sustainable way will generate income and encourage conservation. On the demand side, the partnership with Audubon will capitalize on the organization’s 450,000 members and 467 local chapters by promoting the selected sites through Audubon-owned content channels, and tourism fairs, among others. Project activities will help communities, local tour operators, and tourism boards develop targeted marketing to attract bird watching tourists to the selected destinations and associated businesses.
The objective of the marketing component is to develop and implement marketing strategies at different levels (local, national, international) to promote each country’s bird tourism (sites, routes/trails, and countries) in a strategic, coordinated, and consistent manner, with the view of increasing visitation. At the national level, the project will engage with public sector agencies and business associations to strengthen existing marketing efforts, further promoting the project sites. Internationally, this component will consist in leveraging, and capitalizing on, the direct access Audubon has to its chapter network.
