Fishery tourism presents a valuable experience with opportunity for local economic growth

Combining tourism and fisheries development for a unique travel experience

Intrepid DMC (formally Peak DMC) is an international travel agency based in Melbourne, Australia. The company specializes in adventure tourism in a diverse range of countries and activities tailored to different customer groups. In Croatia the company partners with fishers to offer fishing tourism that benefits, fishers, tourists and the environment.

Tourism to Croatia is dominated by summer travel and demand to see Croatia’s extensive coastline and terrific views of the Adriatic Sea. Croatia also has a significant fishing industry comprising both commercial and hobby fishing. Small-scale fishermen usually own a single vessel and depend on their catches for their livelihoods. Intrepid offers a unique opportunity for tourists to experience and understand smallscale Croatian fishing, while at the same time supporting these small-scale fishermen.

A company focused on sustainable and adventure-based travel

Sonja Prvan, an Intrepid employee, explains that the company is a designation management company (DMC), which means that the company is the operational head of agencies that run trips in their own locations. The focus is sustainable travel which means small groups (trips with a maximum size of 12 people), staying and dining at as many local restaurants and hotels as possible, and using local transportation services. The company offers unique excursions and activities planning entire vacations, except for flights, ranging from seven days to 14 or more days. Many of the trips are point to point, so they have a mix of adventure, nature, culture, big cities, and remote scenery. They have specific types of trips based on food or culture depending on the destination. An important objective is to minimize the carbon footprint of all their trips so as to maintain the carbon neutral status that they have had since 2010, and they have been certified to the B Corp standard for social and environmental performance. This also means working to encourage other companies to become carbon neutral through guides and sharing their strategies.

Large demand from tourists of all ages

As a large international tourism company, Intrepid serves customers of all ages. A majority are Australian, especially before the pandemic, however, many Americans, British, and Canadians also travel with them. The average age of their customers is 50 years and the trips demand a lot of activity. Compared to other organized travel, the trips are also more expensive because

Zdenko Jakus, a Croatian sherman presents a trap he has developed. Mr Jakus supplements his income as a sher by offering shing tourism (archive photo).

the customers pay a premium to know where their money is going and to ensure a positive societal and environmental impact from their travel. As responsible tourism becomes more and more of a priority for visitors, the demand for opportunities such as the trips provided by Intrepid is increasing. Intrepid partners with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to ensure a positive impact from their tourism. The WWF recommends organizations or individuals for Intrepid to work with. This serves to uplift local industry and provides additional economic opportunity to individuals while offering unique travel opportunities for customers. In Croatia, with the help of the WWF, the company has started offering fishing-based tourism opportunities. The project started with a partnership between Intrepid and a fisherman in Lastovo, Croatia. The fisherman adapted his boat for tourism, and now supplementary to his fishing, he brings tourists on his boat and teaches them about fishing in Croatia. He explains the importance of sustainable travel, the challenges of running a small-scale fishing operation, the Adriatic Sea and the endangered species in it, and the general life and lifestyle of a fisherman. The fisherman then takes the group with him to fish and demonstrates how he catches fish using a net. One benefit of fishing tourism is that the fisher supplements his income and therefore can manage economically from catching fewer fish.

In 2019, one of the fishermen that the company partnered with was able to fish less because he gained enough additional money through hosting tourists. The partnership is an opportunity for fishermen to diversify their income and have more economic stability during poor or unstable fishing years. For the tourist,

Catches are sold on the market or also prepared for the tourists who accompany Mr Jakus on his boat (archive photo).

it provides an interesting local interaction as well an enhanced education on the region and genuine cultural exposure.

A growing opportunity across coastal regions in Europe

After the success of the first fishery tourism partnership in Lastovo, Croatia, the company has expanded the opportunities and is continuing to look for places and partnerships to add to their programme. Interested customers can now also partake in fishing tourism excursions in other part of Croatia as well as on Sicily, Italy. The implementation in other areas has been gradual to ensure quality control and to implement the feedback from the customers as well as the fishermen. However, given the observed success for the fishermen, there is significant motivation to implement the experience in other fishing communities.

As the fishery tourism expands to other parts of Europe, Intrepid has the added chance to educate fishermen and influence management of overfishing, bycatch, and marine waste. For example, in trying to expand the opportunity to Greece, Intrepid and the WWF hosted a workshop for Greek fishermen. The workshop aimed to include as many fishermen in the opportunity as possible and increase education on conservation tourism. The workshop celebrated the effect of fishing tourism on conservation as well as on participating fishermen’s profits. The fisherman who the WWF connects Intrepid with are often already involved in conservation efforts and practice sustainable fishing, however, this partnership provides a chance for mutual improvement. Communication of ideas, concerns, and criticisms allows both the tourism industry and fisheries to become more sustainable.

Maggie Liebich, maggie@eurofish.dk