Page 120 - Clackamas County Watertourism Strategic Plan. Final.v3

STRATEGIC PLAN FOR WATER-BASED TOURISM IN CLACKAMAS COUNTY, OREGON THE OPPORTUNITIES
Improving the Experience 6-17

Improving the
Experience
“If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.” Milton Berle

“Improving the Experience” is an umbrella term for a group of recommendations aimed at expanding the market size for water-based recreation in Clackamas
County. Expanding the market base is necessary for Clackamas County to compete against famous water destinations like the Columbia Deschutes, and Rogue.
It involves creating new types of water-based recreation products and services, increasing the quality of the experience, and rebranding existing activities.
Expanding the market size for Clackamas County also requires capturing a percentage of recreationist who are visiting other destinations by attracting them here through
targeted marketing campaigns. These types of actions are described in the proceeding section “Putting Clackamas County on the Map.” This section is all about improving the
experience for anglers and paddlers.
Recommendation 28: Improve the Fishing Experience
The future of fishing is evolving, and Oregon needs to recognize and attract new markets of anglers. Clackamas County is well positioned to take the lead by creating new
tourism products to appeal to these new markets. Market data in chapters 3 and 4 show that angling is not a dying sport. Instead there is a large untapped angler market that
Oregon is missing but has amazing potential to capture it. There is a future in fishing. Fishing is an old tradition that is rooted deep into American culture and these roots are
not going anywhere. The reason fishing appears to be dying is because fishing has a steady and stable market with a rapidly changing world around it. America’s traditional
family structure is evolving; American’s attitude toward the environment is changing; America’s preferences for leisure travel is changing. What has not changed is our passion
for the great outdoors and our desire to spend time with our families. These are the core motivations that get people on the water’s edge with a fishing rod in hand. It is not to
catch a fish. The marketing of fishing tourism has mostly ignored these core motivations and instead focused on skill and the kill. Enticing would-be fishing customers with
words like “the big boys” or “monsters”; highlighting the “fight” and using highly technical terms like “4.3-inch Keitech swimbait on a ½-ounce jig”, or a “green pumpkin tube on
a ¼-ounce jig” may attract the existing market who already plans on going fishing somewhere, but it does nothing to attract a wider audience. The existing marketing efforts to
attract angler tourism today is only rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. As the marketing of fishing becomes more focused on technique it becomes more intimidating
and less inviting to newcomers. As the marketing of fishing makes the kill a central goal it forgets the core motivations of why families go camping and fishing in the first place.

The second most common reason people stop fishing, or have lowered their preference for fishing, is that is takes time away from families. The most common reason is lack of
time. Eight out of ten former anglers said they would go again if they were invited by a friend or family member xxxiv . The future of fishing lies in those households who rarely go,
stopped going, or have never gone fishing. It lies in families who like spending time together outdoors, who have children, and who care about the environment and are curious
about nature. These market segments were highlighted in the previous chapter. The recommendations presented here are intended to expand the existing angler market while
also retaining the existing market. The recommendations are not mutually exclusive; in other words, implementation of some recommendations to increase a new market does
not result in decreasing the base. The existing angler base market will remain and some of the following recommendations are intended to strengthen and grow the traditional
angler market. Clackamas County has an uphill battle to compete for the traditional angler market. The Clackamas, Willamette and Sandy rivers are excellent fisheries in their
own right, but when a high-tech, high-end experienced angler has the opportunity to choose between these rivers and the Deschutes only 84 miles away, they most often go