Are you a fly fishing guide or do you run deep sea fishing charter boat? Do you run a sport fishing lodge, fishing park or sport fishing resort? Perhaps you organize sport fishing holidays, trout fishing & fly fishing adventures, carp fishing holidays or flats fishing vacations? Whether you run a small sport fishing lodge or whole fishing destination we can help you with your cost effective marketing, promotion, training, public relations, PR and development!

HDC – Helping You Catch More Visitors!

HDC has an enviable network of international fishing and sport fishing contacts including some of the worlds best known fishing and sport fishing writers, journalists and TV fishing celebrities. We maintain a database of over 12,000 adventure tourism, fishing and sport fishing suppliers, travel trade and retail contacts and access to over 300,000 media contacts – if you are in to recreational fishing or sport fishing and need to get promote your product to the international fishing and international sport fishing community – then you need to talk to us!

The Boom in Fishing Tourism

According to ATTA, “adventure travel” is any tourist activity that includes any two of the following three components: a physical activity, a cultural exchange or interaction, and engagement with nature –International sport fishing is all that!

International sport fishing is adventure tourism involving exploration or travel to remote areas, where the traveler expects the unexpected. Fishing and sport fishing tourism is rapidly growing in popularity as fishermen seek adventure holidays, as an alternative to the typical beach vacation.

For some reason (probably because some of us at HDC are madly into international sport fishing!), HDC has been involved in developing and promoting a whole bunch of international fishing and sport fishing destinations around the world. We have delivered projectsfor sport fishing lodges in the Bahamas, Florida & Patagonia and sport fishing guides in the Bahamas, Belize & Antigua. Sport fishing resorts in Costa Rica & the Maldives, sport fishing clubs in Africa, the UK and Canada and trout fishing lakes and salmon fishing rivers in Canada, Chile and the UK, Sport fishing guides and deep sea charter fishing boats in the Bahamas, Gambia, Canada, Belize, Antigua, Mexico, Senegal, the UK and in the in Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, Louisiana and Michigan in the USA.

Fishing holidays & sport fishing tourism is a booming international business opportunity. According the American Sport Fishing Association, there are over 40 million anglers in the USA worth $45 billion in retail sales, employing over 1 million people with a $125 billion impact on the nation’s economy! Fishing holidays & sport fishing tourism is booming!

In Europe angling, fishing & sport fishing remains one of the leading participant sports stimulating a massive increase in the number of internationally itinerant anglers traveling the world in search of big fish, thrilling sport fishing adventures in unspoilt fishing destinations.

If you have an international sport fishing business or a fishing destination that needs help promoting to international audiences, you want to getting more business from tour operators, you need publicity to drive new inquiries or you have development needs to help grow or set up a sport fishing business contact us at and see how we can help.

HDC is a member of the International Game Fish Association (IGFA).

Recreational Fishing, Fishing Holidays & Sport Fishing Tourism Facts & Figures

Did You Know that according to UK Sports Council the total spend by anglers on fishing retail & recreational fishing trips in the UK in 1991 was calculated at £2.41 billion per annum.

Did You Know that according to an NRA survey there were 2.9 million freshwater anglers and sea anglers in England & Wales and that their total annual spend was £3.3 billion per annum.

Did You Know that in its ‘Charter for Angling’ (1996), the UK’s Labour Party estimated that the total annual spend on recreational fishing activity by British anglers was £5 billion. In 2008 annual spend by British anglers is estimated at between £7.0 and £7.5 billion per annum.

Did You Know that according to the UK Environment Agency’s report in 2001 there were 3.8 million freshwater anglers in the UK which represented 9% of the adult population (a further 8% were ‘very’ or ‘quite’ interested in fishing).

Did You Know that the Drew Report into sea angling in 2004 established that around 1.1 million people undertook recreational sea fishing. The total number of UK recreational fishermen of all types in 2007 is estimated between 5 and 6 million people.

Did You Know that there are at least 25 million recreational fishermen in Europe (6.5% of the population), and they spend more than €30 billion on fishing and sport fishing.

Did You Know that according to the European Anglers’ Alliance (EAA) and the European Fishing Tackle Trade Association (EFTTA) there are 2,900 companies manufacturing or trading fishing tackle within the EU and this activity supports some 60,000 jobs. In addition there are 12,900 fishing tackle shops in the EU employing a further 39,000 people.

Did You Know that according the American Sportfishing Association around 44 million people in the USA go fishing each year which generates $45 billion in retail sales with a further $125 billion impact on the nation’s economy which sustains employment for over one million people.

Did You Know that economic activity associated with recreational fishing trips, fishing holidays and sport fishing tourism is of particular benefit to incoming tourism in rural areas. According to a recent report prepared for the National Assembly for Wales, sea in Wales alone generates tourism expenditure of £28 million per annum for species that commercially are worth just £3 million!

Did You Know that according UK’s Salmon & Trout Association the average sum spent by an angler to catch a single Scottish salmon is approximately £500, whereas the same salmon is worth just £20 to a commercial fisherman!

Did You Know that freshwater fishing (coarse and game) in Scotland brings £113 million annually to the Scottish economy. In a study of salmon fishing on the River Spey in Scotland in 2004 it was discovered that salmon fishing was worth £11.8 million per annum and supported 367 FTE jobs.

Did You Know that a report commissioned by the Nordic Council of Ministers looking at the economic value of recreational fishing in the Nordic countries demonstrated that in 1998 Finland landed a total commercial catch of 48 million kg of fish which was worth FIM 320 million whereas the same catch taken by recreational fishing would have been worth FIM 1,220 million. In Sweden the variance was even greater, with a commercial fish catch of 79 million kg in 1995 being worth SEK 240 million and a smaller recreational fishing catch of 58 million kg in 1999 being worth SEK 2,730 million.