Fly-fishing as ecotourism in South Africa: a case study

ABSTRACT

Fly-fishing, as a form of angling ecotourism, has seen limited investigation in the global South, and even less in Southern Africa. This paper makes a modest attempt at exploring the economic impacts, and conservation possibilities through fly-fishing ecotourism at South Africa’s premier fly-fishing destination, Sterkfontein Dam. The investigation draws from 115 online survey responses from fly-fishers who regularly visit Sterkfontein Dam. The paper highlights the profile of these fly-fishers, their economic impact on local tourism, and their views on conserving the angling resource as a fly-fishing ecotourism destination. Their responses highlight a number of tensions relating to the control and management of the angling resource at Sterkfontein Dam. This paper makes suggestions that are more closely aligned with the principles of ecotourism, incorporating community-based management as the prime objective in conserving fly-fishing ecotourism.

KEYWORDS:

• ecotourism
• fly-fishing
• economic impacts
• conservation
• community-based management

Acknowledgements

Wendy Job is acknowledged for preparing the map and Jennifer Fitchett and Julia Giddy for help with statistical analysis and language editing. Individuals and organisations are acknowledged for distributing the questionnaire on their online platforms.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.