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Doctoral thesis, 2014

On the conditions for developing hunting and fishing tourism in Sweden

Kagervall, Anders

Abstract

In many rural areas industrial development have reduced the number of available jobs in traditional industries such as agriculture and forestry. Areas that historically have been dependent on extraction of resources, experience a reduced need for labor. In some areas the result is high unemployment and depopulation. Nature tourism is often proposed as a way to create employment. Development of nature tourism must be environmental, economic and social sustainability to succeed. In this thesis, I examined social conditions that affect the development of hunting and fishing tourism in Sweden using data from mailed surveys. The data were assessed to determine (1) the change in the general public's attitudes toward hunting from 1980 to 2012, (2) the general public's attitudes toward different types of recreational fishing, (3) local residents' perceptions of increased use of game and fish by visiting tourists, and (4) the views among anglers toward catch and release fishing. The results showed that support for both hunting and fishing as recreation was high, which should not restrict the development of hunting and fishing tourism. However, support was lower if the activities were done purely for recreation. This means that those who develop tourism should monitor the attitudes and norms in society and adapt the activities so they continue to be accepted by the general public. Local residents who were hunters or anglers did express a wish to limit the number of visitors. This indicates that local residents who live in the areas where new development is most needed can be skeptical of tourism development. The support for catch and release fishing varied among Swedish anglers. For example, pike specialists were very positive about catch and release, but those fishing for perch were not. The varied opinions of anglers give insight on which types of fish would be acceptable to catch and release.

Keywords

rural development; tourism; attitudes; hunting; recreational fishing

Published in

Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae
2014, number: 2014:34
ISBN: 978-91-576-8016-7, eISBN: 978-91-576-8017-4
Publisher: Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences,