RETROUT – Hållbar öringsfisketurism i Östersjöregionen

DEVELOPMENT, PROMOTION AND SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF THE BALTIC SEA REGION AS A COASTAL FISHING TOURISM DESTINATION (RETROUT)

Duration: October 2017 – September 2020

Partners: County Administrative Board in Stockholm, Royal Institute of Technology and Haninge municipality in Sweden, Baltic Environmental Forum Estonia, University of Tartu and NGO Estonian Fishing Tourism in Estonia, Kurzeme Planning Region, Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment – "BIOR" and Ventspils Regional Municipality in Latvia, Klaipeda University and Fishery service under the ministry of Agriculture of the republic of Lithuania in Lithuania, National Marine Fisheries Research Institute and Tourist Association "Northern Kashubia" Local Tourist Organisation in Poland and Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission HELCOM in Finland

Total budget: 3,221,337 €
European Regional Development Fund: 2,620,136 €
Project no.: #R065

The coastal fishing tourism industry in the BSR has been identified as a sector with great potential for growth and sustainable jobs. It offers opportunities for rural jobs, diversification of the fishery sector and prolonged tourism season. However, in order to fully exploit the economic potential, there is need to address the key challenges currently limiting the development of the sector, explicitly:

1. Weak capacity of the fishing tourism sector to meet the customers' demand.

2. Weak governance framework that in many cases are counter-productive for fishing tourism.

3. Weak management of ecosystem services, to underpin the fishing tourism industry.

The project aims at enabling the target groups to develop and promote sustainable coastal fishing tourism and simultaneously advance integrated implementation of CFP, WFD, MSFD and HELCOM recommendations, by addressing these key challenges. The target groups, identified as instrumental to leverage this tourism sector, are SMEs (sport fishing service providers, fishing guides) and their associations, regional authorities, coastal municipalities, and tourist boards. These target groups will benefit from the main project outputs i.e:

1. STRATEGICDEVELOPMENTPLANSFORNEWTOURISMPRODUCTAT5 DEMONSTRATIONSITES, to be used as planning documents for post-project activities and to attract new financial resources by the local clusters.

2. MODEL PROCESSFORDESTINATIONDEVELOPMENTFORCOASTAL FISHINGTOURISM, to be used as educational product by key target groups - fishing/fisheries associations and coastal municipalities.

3. THEBALTICTROUTDESTINATION MANAGEMENTSERVICE. The joint eco-branding and web-portal for on-line marketing and booking services will improve market access and performance of the transnational network of fishing guides, tourist boards and coastal municipalities.

4. TRANSNATIONAL ACTIONPLAN FOR FISHING TOURISM, which will provide guidance to the national authorities to foster sustainable growth and jobs through appropriate policy and regulatory adjustments.

5."BESTPRACTICE" SOLUTIONS FOR EFFICIENT RIVER RESTORATION MEASURES FOR SEA TROUT, disseminated through the demonstration projects and the Baltic Toolbox on River Restoration, which will provide guidance to national and regional authorities, on best practice (e.g. on communication)