Fishing festivals
Leisure and tourism not only bring many economic benefits to all regions but also increase the added values of local agricultural and fishing products in all regions. Therefore, many fishing festivals have spontaneously been set up. In order to celebrate fishing harvests and promote local fishing products of the season, many fishermen’s associations or county and municipal governments have developed unique fishing harvest seasons or festivals based on local fisheries. There are large and small fishing festivals all over Taiwan. Based on fishing harvests, a series of fishing festivals are held, such as Pingtung Bluefin Tuna Cultural Festival, Chiayi Dongshi Oyster Festival, Keelung Squid Festival, Taichung Wuqi Neritic Squid Festival, Nanfang’ao Mackerel Festival, Mituo Milkfish Cultural Festival, Yongan Grouper Cultural Festival, Taitung Sailfish Festival, and Yunlin Mullet Festival.
During the activities held at the festivals, the knowledge about fishing methods adopted by fishermen, cooking methods, and processed aquatic products is provided to the general public, so that people participating in them can understand local fishery culture and marine ecology. Activities include seafood cuisine, local fishing products marketing, street parades, artistic performances, fishery experiences, marine ecological education, and leisure tourism, in which people can watch, eat, and play just like a small fishing carnival. The marketing model of fishing festivals combining fishing festivals with themed tourism and industrial branding attracts outsiders to participate in local tourism and leisure fishing activities and increases marketing channels for fishermen, hence achieving the purpose of marketing promotion and industrial value improvement. These fishery seasons add fishery industry colors to various places, promote the strong connection between fishery and local areas, and subsequently become representatives of the indicative local festival activities.
