Virgilio Beltrán and Luis Frechilla – Improving Birding, Photography and Wildlife Art Services. Birdeo and Untamed Spain

BIRDEO is a network of experiences rooted in the landscapes we inhabit. A platform that allows you to take part in activities, getaways and trips for all audiences, connecting nature, observation and local culture, while contributing to a positive impact. Through nature tourism, awareness-raising, the recovery of rural memory and respect for biodiversity, BIRDEO offers unique and transformative experiences that allow visitors not only to observe the landscape, but also to understand it and become part of the way it is lived.

This project will be presented by Virgilio Beltrán, birder, trained biologist, official tourism guide and communicator. In 2013, he created ACTIO Birding, a birdwatching tourism project through which he has developed and led numerous “tailor-made birding” experiences across Spain for European and American clients, later transformed in 2021 into NUMENIUS TOURS. In this field, he has been a pioneer in developing combined experiences of birdwatching and wine tourism (“Birds & Wines”), in collaboration with local producers of high-quality wines crafted in natural areas. He is also a regular contributor to the program SER Viajeros Comunitat Valenciana, where he talks about everything related to birds and birdwatching tourism in the Valencian Community.

Untamed Spain (“España Salvaje”) is a tourism initiative that links nature with art and ecotourism, funded by the Spanish Government and the EU. Its goals include promoting wildlife observation tourism activities, improving observation, painting and photography facilities, fostering rural development, and contributing to gender equality in these activities, as well as ensuring accessibility for people with different levels of mobility. The project also seeks to create a competitive tourism product by bringing together the offers of different companies.

This project will be presented by Luis Frechilla, a biologist specialized in science communication and ecotourism. He directs the environmental consultancy DABOECIA Art and Nature, through which he develops content for projects in science outreach, nature interpretation, environmental education, public use planning, and ecotourism development. He is co-organizer of natureWatch, the Spanish National Nature Tourism Meeting. At the same time, he runs the nature observation company Aveshide, specialized in creating ecotourism and bird photography products at the El Taray estate, as well as wildlife observation and photography in the Riaño Mountains, the Cantabrian Range and the Picos de Europa.