Marine Fisheries-related Tourism in the EU

Tourism activities can offer fishermen a good way to diversify their activities. It can be done outside or along with the fisheries seasons all through the year as a potential means of earning additional income.

This economic aspect was taken into consideration in the European Fisheries Fund (EFF) which was used in the past period 2007-2013 through the network FARNET, with the Flags (Fisheries Local Action Groups) putting in place local strategies for improving economic fisheries activities. Under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) for the programming period 2014-2020 'funding is available in particular for cultural fisheries and maritime cultural heritage. This can cover tourism-related projects, such as eco-tourism, pesca tourism and fishing tourism, local gastronomy (fish and seafood restaurants), accommodation, tourist trails, diving, etc.', according to the Guide on EU funding for the tourism sector .

Tourism features also in Maritime Affairs, under the Blue Growth policy in the part dedicated to Coastal and maritime tourism . Fishing is included among other activities to be further developed. It is proposed to develop tourism activities to help the economic development of fisheries areas. Recreational fishing can also be included in this kind of tourism.

For the moment, there is no official definition dedicated to fishing tourism. It can cover a large amount of activities, including recreational fishing, excursions in professional fishing vessels; learning about fishing activity and fishing gear; game fishing; discovering the marine environment and its biodiversity.

Pesca tourism is understood to involve professional fishermen welcoming a certain number of tourists on to their boats in a tourism-recreation activity to discover the world of fishing. It can be seen as a complementary activity to a fisherman’s regular activity or it can be seen as a commercial tourist activity in its own right – conducted as a parallel activity to fishing.

This keysource is divided in four parts:

+ Overview
+ Analysis
+ EU programmes, projects and seminars
+ Country examples.

Written by Isabelle Gautier.