Page 17 - Clackamas County Watertourism Strategic Plan. Final.v3

STRATEGIC PLAN FOR WATER-BASED TOURISM IN CLACKAMAS COUNTY, OREGON INTRODUCTION
2-2

Chapter 2: The Water. This is a detailed inventory of the top-tier water recreation assets in the county. These are the assets that have the highest level of opportunity for
generating water-recreation tourism and overnight stays. These assets were visited and experienced by the author on several occasions including related accommodations
and travel services.
Chapter 3: The People. This chapter describes the statewide survey of 1700 water recreationist in Oregon. These data result in a statistically robust set of conclusions on:
Oregon’s favorite and more frequently visited water bodies; water recreation travel patterns; preferences of activities; demand for services; frequency of visitation, length
of stay and distance travelled; and various demographic factors that influence preferences. Regression analysis was applied to these data to determine statistical
significance on the factors that influence overnight stays, and visitation to Clackamas County.
Chapter 4: The Market. This chapter relies on a wide range of past research and secondary data to understand the national and regional water-recreation markets. These
studies were analyzed for their applicability to Clackamas County. The results of this work are combined with the primary data from Chapter 3 to provide Mt Hood
Territory with target market profiles and their locations. This chapter also identifies the untapped market potential and gives reasonable target market goals.
Chapter 5: The Opportunities. This Chapter provides detailed recommendations on how to capture additional market share that the county is currently missing. There are
49 recommendations within 5 overarching groups called Physical Improvements; Improving the Experience; Putting Clackamas County on the Map; Community
Involvement; and Institutional and Organizational recommendations.
Chapter 6: Chapter 6 gives a recommended implementation, monitoring and evaluation framework through which the implementation actions should follow. The
framework suggests a lead entity for the recommendation, a budget with resources, and a timeline with performance indicators to monitor progress. Many of the
recommendations have not be vetted by the responsible parties, therefore, these are only preliminary. While the recommendations are well researched and solid in terms
of their market feasibility and potential for capturing additional share, the implementation of the recommendation requires buy-in and cooperation from the responsible
parties. Unfortunately, building up this level of extensive interagency cooperation was beyond the scope of this work and therefore it becomes the first-step
recommendation of next phase of this project.

The results from this study show that Clackamas County has a long way to go “The results from this study show that Clackamas County has a long way
before maximizing its market potential from its water assets. The county is not to go before maximizing its market potential from its water assets. The
receiving its proportional share of visitors relative to the quantity and quality of county is not receiving its proportional share of visitors relative to the
its recreational waters. The County has a potential world class fishing
destination but national fishing guide books don’t mention it; it has some of the quantity and quality of its recreational waters. ”
best whitewater in the state but receives only 9% of the market while its
nd
neighbor gets 48%; its flatwater is paddled by only 8% of the state while its neighbor receives 30%; it has the single most important waterfall to the history of Oregon, and the 2
largest in the country, but most people in neighboring Portland have never seen it. The county receives only 2% of Oregon’s total overnight stays that are generated by water
tourism. The difference between the county’s current revenue from water recreation and its potential is immense. Capturing this revenue is possible through strategic marketing,
unique product development, interagency coordination, municipal cooperation, and some physical improvements.