The Swedish government has a stated objective of developing the recreational fishing industry with a particular aim of improving employment opportunities in rural areas. In this paper we analyze the possibilities for governmental policies to enhance the industry's development. In a survey to the industry, companies are asked about what obstacles they view as problematic for running their business. Based on the responses, and on previous studies on the topic, we select and analyze four potential obstacles: lack of fish, lack of large fish, exclusive access to fishing waters, and marketing. We find that policies increasing the resource base are most efficient if concentrated on marine fisheries and salmon stocks and that guides and companies in urban areas are most likely to benefit. Exclusive access to the fish resource is a problem primarily for guides and companies in the northern parts of Sweden. Quality labelling has been promoted as a way forward in the debate, but our results indicate that this will only have small effects on industry development. Our results also indicate that marketing will impact the entire industry since few differences between companies with different characteristics are found.

Se Policy Brief 2010:1 för svensk sammanfattning