Birdwatching mecca Christmas Island was dealt a blow to its annual
Bird'n'Nature Week when Facebook refused to run the Tourism Boards Advert. The
social media site claimed the picture of a baby Brown Booby with the text
"Some gorgeous shots here of some juvenile boobies" breached
Facebook's Ad guidelines by 'addressing the age, gender or sexual orientation
of users on Facebook'.
This tiny Australian
territory located 360
miles south of Java has been labelled 'Australia's own
Galapagos' and David Attenborough called footage of him being overrun by red
crabs during Christmas Islands annual crab migration for 1990 'The Trials of
Life' one of his top 10 most memorable experiences.
With the imminent closure
of the island's Detention Centre the 1,350 permanent residents of the island
are turning to eco-tourism to secure their future livelihoods. One of the key
facets has been the islands 'Bird'n'Nature Week' every September that draws
birders from around the globe to see the islands endemic landbirds and 80,000 nesting
seabirds including the critically endangered Abbott's Booby.
Linda Cash, Marketing
Manager of the Christmas Island Tourism Association said in a recent visit to
the British Birdwatching Fair held annually at Rutland
Sam Collins, founder of London based Ethos Travel, the first company to offer
mainstream holidays to the island in the UK ,
says: "Christmas Island tourism is in its
infancy, but there are few places in the world where you can find such a
magical concentration of rare species of sea and land animals. Bird
Conservation Week is one of the best times to visit the island and the economy
there is becoming increasingly reliant on holiday makers from the UK and the rest of Europe .
By blocking the tourist boards campaign, one of the world's great eco-tourism
destinations is being deprived of its lifeline because someone at Facebook
cannot comprehend that a Booby is a bird. Dare I say it, but with so many Boobies
to see, it is like all your Christmases come at once" .
