Page 45 - Clackamas County Watertourism Strategic Plan. Final.v3

STRATEGIC PLAN FOR WATER-BASED TOURISM IN CLACKAMAS COUNTY, OREGON THE PEOPLE
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respondents who completed the entire survey entered the drawing to win the $50. This indicates that they cared more about the survey than the money and the incentive was
not too high to create biased results. Other open-ended responses also showed that they were generally interested in providing the information and cared enough to clarify their
opinions.

The same questionnaire was distributed to all three groups. The average time to complete the questionnaire
was between 14 and 16 minutes and the completion rate was between 75% and 82% (depending on the
group). Since several questions were designed to be skipped when they didn’t apply, and other questions
were optional, a 100% completion rate would be impossible.

Confidence Level
The confidence level determines how sure we can be with the results we gather. It is expressed as a
percentage and represents how often the true percentage of the population who would pick the same if the
survey was administered to all of them. The answer lies within a confidence interval. The confidence
interval is commonly referred to as the margin of error and in opinion poll results commonly stated as plus-
or-minus X percent. It is the researcher who chooses these levels of error and the choice depends on the
type of worked being performed. A 95% confidence level with an interval of 5% is industry standard for
many public opinion polls and social survey research. This means that if 40% of the sample responded “yes”
to a question, then we can be 95% sure that if we asked the entire population the same question, then the
response would lie between 35% and 45% (40% +/- 5). This is theoretically true based on the assumption
that the sample was randomly selected.

Total population that this survey represents is 1,068,869 people. As described above, they represent 2016 fishing licenses holders, registered motor boat owners, and invasive
species permit holders. Because they actively made purchases to lawfully engage in their sport, they are considered “water recreation enthusiasts.” If we assume that Oregon has
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approximately 1,068,869 water sport enthusiasts, then this survey captured the opinions of 1708 of this population . To gain a confidence Level of 95% with an interval of %5 we
need only 385 respondents. The results here use 4 ½ times the required level of respondents. However, the respondents were self-selected through a web-based survey only,
which typically results in random sampling error. The overly large sample helps adjust and correct for sampling errors that likely exist, yet are difficult to quantify, in this study.

3 Undoubtedly, there are many who would consider themselves water recreation enthusiasts but who are not on any of these three mailing lists.