Travel Fair Tourest 2011

Estonian Nature Tours participated in the largest domestic travel fair, Tourest 2011, which was held in Tallinn for the 20th time. We carried out a small survey which was responded to by more than 300 people aged between 9-78 years. The questionnaire contained multiple-choice questions to assess Estonians knowledge of nature, while it also examined Estonians preferences of the nature tours in our programme. The visitors demonstrated a consensus of opinion that compared to other European countries, Estonia has managed to preserve a greater percentage of its natural habitats, to which all respondents answered in the affirmative. Estonians are quite well aware of the Estonian Fund for Nature heraldic animal - 90% of people thought that this is a flying squirrel.

The survey also showed that, our nature's great spectacles have been experienced by very few Estonians. To questions asking whether they had seen the wild Great Snipe, or Black Grouse, bear, wolves, more than 5 000 Cranes at the same time or 50 000 Barnacle Geese, less than a fifth answered yes. Also, less than half of the respondents had observed beavers in the wild. At the same time, the desire for nature experiences is very high among Estonians – 97% of people felt that they would participate in a paid nature trip.

Thanks to all who answered the questionnaire, and we hope to meet you in our trips this year!