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About Zootourism
In recent years, tourism has gone back on the rise, particularly in specialized forms. Ecotourism (tourism based on enjoyment of the environment and wildlife) and vititourism (tourism focused on wine, primarily tastings) have gone through the roof. Agritourism (tourism based on farm visits, farmers markets, working on farms, etc) has increased as well, especially with the increased awareness of local and organic. Boosted by Hurricane Katrina (but existing before as well), voluntourism (tourism based on volunteer work) has been on the rise. More and more, people want to get out there and not just passively view the world, but experience it as well. Zootourism (tourism based on viewing or interacting with animals) is simply another specialty field of things to see and do while traveling. Families have long used the zoo as a mainstay of activities in major cities. Ecotourists and others have watched animals in the environment during migrations and on nature cruises for some time. As great as the main zoos and wildlife viewing areas are though, there are a multitude of other places to see animals. Game parks, working farms, petting zoos, aquariums, museums. Animals are all over the place. While taking a road trip based solely on hopping from one zoo to another may not appeal to everyone, animal encounters can make for enjoyable destinations as well as quick roadside stops for even the jaded and weary. About Zootourism.com We're lovers of the open road, and lovers of the culture that we come across in the places we visit. Whenever we travel, we find ourselves gravitating to the zoos and to the farms on the road. Wanting to share that with the world, we've created Zootourism.com. Here, we hope to have the most complete and thorough listings of places to see and interact with animals. Not just in the US, not just in North America, but worldwide. We'll update fairly regularly with our own finds, but we're going to have to depend on everyone else out there to help us with the places we haven't been to or heard of yet. If we can be of aid in letting people enjoy animals on their trips, and more generally to enjoy travelling, we'll have done our job well. If we can help someone discover the joys of the animal world, even better. What makes this site unique (and we would argue also makes the site exceptional) is the attention to detail given to our information. We're not just putting adresses in a database - we're confirming details with zoos and local chambers, we're studying satellite imagery to find the very parking lots, not just some PO Box. Some might say we're anal retentive, and we would...well...probably have to agree. As the great sage Dr. Doolittle (the original, not Eddie Murphy) said: If we could walk with the animals, talk with the animals, what an achievement that would be. |
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