Fishing the 'big rivers' in Australia's Northern Territory: market diversification for the Daly River

Abstract

The destination marketing organization of Australia's Northern territory (Tourism NT) has made a strategic decision to increase the diversity of its product mix and to focus its attention more on the development of niche or special interest tourism (SIT) markets (AEC Group, 2007). Recent research into tourism in the Northern Territory indicates a decline in value received from more general interest markets such as backpackers (Carson et aI., 2007) and increase in value from SIT markets focusing on nature, culture and soft adventure (McKercher and Chan, 2005), including four-wheel drive tourism (Carson and Taylor, 2007), heritage tourism (Carson et al., 2006b) and birdwatching tourism (Carson and Harwood, 2007). Other potentially valuable special interest markets may be fossicking, trekking or fishing (Carson et al., 2006a). This chapter is interested in innovation in the fishing tourism marketplace, which is largely centred on the 'big rivers' in the Top End of the Northern Territory.