DIGITALISATION IN ANGLING TOURISM: INTRODUCING NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO A TRADITIONAL TOURISM PRODUCT

Abstract

In recent years, the use of digital solutions in tourism has accelerated and smart solutions are now used even in areas that are less technology-oriented, such as angling tourism. Angling itself and angling tourism seem rather traditional, definitely not tech-savvy activities, ones that can be categorised among the ecotourism or slow tourism products. It is not to say, however, that angling tourism does not evolve and is immune to the trends released in tourism. Re cently there were huge changes in the regulation and organisation of angling in Hungary (and further changes are expected to come), which brought about a surge in the number of anglers in Hungary and the development of angling tourism. By now angling has become by far the hobby in Hungary done by the largest number of people; after a steady growth for decades, the number of registered anglers has by now reached almost one million persons, i.e. approximately ten per cent of the Hungarian population are anglers (and so potential target group of angling tourism), which makes the investigation of the topic of angling tourism really important – not to mention the fact that not only domestic but also inbound angling tourism is characteristic of Hungary. Among the changes, in 2019 the electronic support of angling administration was launched through the so-called HORINFO system run by MOHOSZ, the Hungarian National Angling Association. This paper summarises the changes and their consequences, explores the current digitalisation of angling tourism, its benefits, and examines the acceptance of new technologies by anglers. The results of the research show that the digitalisation and the introduction of new technologies accelerated during the Covid -19 epidemic, but their adoption by angling tourism has been slower. The study shows the importance of digitalisation in monitoring the environmental pillar of sustainability and the interventions needed. The study also provides a thorough investigation of the Hungarian and international literature of angling tourism, rather deficient to date, and gives recommendations on the further development of the HORINFO system. The significance of the issue is enhanced by the fact that Hungary now has a National Angling Development Strategy to strategically found further angling tourism developments.

Keywords

• digitalisation
• angling tourism
• hungary
• sustainability
• monitoring