The Beaumont Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) is releasing the Beaumont Birdie Passport for 2019, a fun tool for summer explorers to tour Beaumont and visit each of the Beaumont Birdies at area attractions and museums. The promotion will run throughout the summer, encouraging those in the community and visitors alike to explore Beaumont and the all the amazing things it has to offer.
Beaumont is a premiere birding destination located on the Upper Texas Gulf Coast, along two migratory flyways. Within a 40-mile radius, you will find the wild coastal shore of Sabine Pass and Sea Rim State Park, the meandering bayous of the Anahuac Wildlife Refuge, and the thick forests of the Big Thicket and Piney Woods. Cattail Marsh at Tyrrell Park offers 900 acres of wetlands and acts as a sanctuary for birds during migration and year-round activity. It is important to the Beaumont CVB that through this initiative, the community can get involved and become ambassadors for the city in both birding and general tourism.
The Passports are free and available at the CVB office and at each Birdie’s home attraction. Stamps for the passport may be collected at each Birdie location, where visitors are also encouraged to check-in and share their photos with @VisitBeaumontTX on social media. After passport holders collect ten stamps, they will earn their very own Beaumont Birdie plush toy from the Beaumont CVB.
Attractions and museums include Cattail Marsh Wetlands, Beaumont Botanical Gardens, Ben J. Rogers Regional Visitors Center, McFaddin-Ward House Museum, Clifton Steamboat Museum, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Texas Energy Museum, Beaumont Children’s Museum, Spindletop Gladys City Boomtown Museum, Gator Country, Fire Museum of Texas, Edison Museum, Chambers House Museum, Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum, Lamar University and John Jay French Museum.
Each Beaumont Birdie represents some of the area’s most sought-after species. The Beaumont Birdie plush toy comes with its own custom tag including the Birdie’s name, favorite local hangout, birth date and profile as well as its species unique birding call sound.
“We loved to see so many new visitors, from near and far, come to the Clifton Steamboat Museum to meet Clifton the Canada Goose,” stated Executive Director of the Clifton Steamboat Museum, Sarah Wells. “I also loved completing the passport with my 3-year-old son, Hank. It gave us the opportunity to go to all of the museums and attractions in Beaumont and vacation in our own town. Not only does my son love his birdie (he chose Mirabeau the cardinal), but he can now tell you about the museums of Beaumont and many of the birdies indigenous to the area. We are so glad the CVB created the Birdie Passport for increasing tourism to the city and creating memories with my son!”
The Beaumont Birdies are part of an eco-tourism marketing initiative designed to capture the interest of a broader audience in the birding community and increase awareness of Beaumont’s birding hot-spots. Typically, birders are a mature audience, however the younger generation has become fascinated with identifying birds and spending time outdoors. The Beaumont CVB’s Beaumont Birdies seek to bridge the demographic gap in the birdwatching market and find a new way to introduce birding to a new generation in a fun way.