Page 126 - Clackamas County Watertourism Strategic Plan. Final.v3

STRATEGIC PLAN FOR WATER-BASED TOURISM IN CLACKAMAS COUNTY, OREGON THE OPPORTUNITIES
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Put Clackamas County “On the Map”

"Most people miss opportunity because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas A. Edison

Search the internet for the best fishing in Oregon and you will find almost no mention of Clackamas County. The Orvis Guide Network doesn’t
mention any Clackamas County rivers. Trails.com mentions the Clackamas River only but it received 0-star rating. DIYFlyFishing.com will send
uninformed anglers to the Deschutes, Owyhee, Chewaucan Rivers and Paulina Lake with no mention of any Clackamas County waterbody. The site
called OnlyinYourState.com lists the 10 best places to go fishing in Oregon and none are in Clackamas County. The web site, Best Fishing in
America.com, does mention Clackamas County rivers but it is difficult to find and only because they divide the state into regions. The best mention
of Clackamas County comes from Mt Hood Territory.com. The staff should take pride in knowing that a search for best fishing in Oregon puts Mt. Hood Territory on the first
page of a google search. This is good news that internally, the DMO is doing all that it can. Nonetheless, externally the world of anglers still doesn’t recognize Clackamas
County. Ask a random fly fisherman on the east coast, or even California, if he has ever heard of the Clackamas River and the answer will likely be no. The people who write
those web pages don’t know much about Clackamas waterbodies. The DMO should now focus away from its own web site and start raising awareness on other media to make
Clackamas, Willamette, and Sandy Rivers household names. A focused and carefully crafted strategy should be created to make these rivers as famous as the Deschutes. The
actions to implement this recommendation might include: submitting articles to the mentioned web sites; submitting articles to travel, fishing and outdoor sporting publications;
inviting outdoor sport writers to Clackamas County, social media campaigns, and similar public awareness raising activities. There are several fly-fishing blogs on the web today
and some of them are written by Clackamas County fishing guides and fly shop owners. The DMO should coordinate with them to assist their efforts with articles on Clackamas
County water bodies. The decision on which activities that the DMO will engage in should result from internal staff meetings.
Recommendation 37: Increase marketing efforts in high potential zip codes
Create two marketing campaigns that target the 7 markets segments identified in this report. The two campaigns should be focused on two different market segment groups:
Family Oriented fishing with 4 market segments and the Empty Nesters with three market segments. Creating these marketing campaigns is not a simple task. It is complicated
by:
• the diversity of market profiles. Each of the seven profiles has unique combinations of age, household incomes; household sizes, gender, race, and marital status;
• the location of markets. Maps showing the location of the seven market segments are in chapter 4 and display the wide geographic spread of each segment;
• the leisure habits and behaviors of each segment. There is little consistency between segments on how they spend their leisure budgets, the amount of their leisure
budgets, their length of stay, and their preferred ancillary activities.
The purpose of this research and report is to determine if there is a potential to capture visitor spending from water-based recreation and to identify the type and location of
these markets. The answer is an overwhelming “yes,” there is untapped market potential for fishing and other water-based recreation for Clackamas County. The market sizes
and locations are in the areas identified in Chapter 4. However, these findings also discover that the market is diverse and segmented geographically and demographically
across the United States. Attracting these market segments to Clackamas County requires a carefully conceived strategy, which is outside the scope of this work and remains in