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Abstract

Tourism is one of the world’s major economic sectors. Destinations worldwide largelycompete for the same tourists, and it is of crucial importance to offer popularattractions and activities. In this regard, the global tourism market is divided into anumber of segments. Examples are cultural tourism where visiting famous ancientsites is the main attraction, tourism directed towards physical activities like climbingand hiking, and of course marine tourism offering swimming and sunbathing. In thisreport, the focus is on tourist destinations in the Nordic countries that attractvisitors through some kind of fishing related activities. This could be eitherdestinations providing recreational fishing opportunities or coastal villages with agenuine fishing atmosphere provided by commercial fisheries. The report containscase studies from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.The Swedish and Danish case studies analyse if commercial fisheries attract touriststo local fishing communities. If such a relation can be proved, it provides managerswith an argument for supporting local fisheries in tourist harbours since too fewvessels might harm the tourism sector. The conclusion from the Swedish case studyis that harbours with high commercial fishing activity also have high tourism activitymeasured as restaurant turnover. The relation is strongest on the Swedish westcoast, which is a major tourism area that also has a strong fishing industryemploying a major part of the Swedish commercial fishers. However, it is notpossible to establish a causal relationship proving that fisheries attract tourists. Inthe Danish case study, on the other hand, it is shown that more fishing activity bycommercial fisheries leads to more overnight stays in Danish coastal areas. Theeffect is found for three of six investigated measures of fishing activity: the numberof vessels landing in a coastal area, the number of vessels with home harbour in acoastal area, and the landing value of fish for human consumption.The Finnish case study focuses on recreational fishing for salmon in the River Teno.The results emphasize the importance of the salmon stock in attracting fishingtourists. The amount of salmon caught on the most recent trip had a positive effecton the total number of visits. Further, tourists who find fishing services such asaccess to boats, guides, or a well-functioning fishing permit system particularlyimportant made more trips to Teno than others. The services for fishing touristscould be further developed by combining accommodation and fishing services in thesame market places instead of the tourist having to seek services from severalservice providers.The Norwegian case study focuses on tourists who visited Lofoten during2020–2021. Lofoten has both a famous recreational fishery and a large commercialfishery for cod. The main conclusion from a survey among the tourists is that theywould be willing to pay more for a visit to Lofoten if it included the opportunity tovisit a seafood market, and even more if it also gave the opportunity to participatein a seafood festival. Additional recreational catches and additional commercialfishing vessels are less valued.The results highlight the role of site-specific development of tourism. Differenttourists value different attributes, where some tourists want pristine nature andhigh recreational catches and others favour developed services and a localcommercial fishing culture. The Nordic countries might be able to attract moretourists by adapting tourist destinations to the respective countries’ competitiveadvantages where for example the role of nature, catch rates, closeness to majortravel hubs, restaurants, traditional fishing vessels in the harbour, etc. could playimportant roles in future development.

Published in

TemaNord
2023, number: 2023-518
Publisher: Nordic Council of Ministers

SLU Authors

Global goals (SDG)

SDG14 Life below water

UKÄ Subject classification

Fish and Aquacultural Science
Economic Geography

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/122632