Press Release Continued

 

 Ø  Marketing and advertising directed toward tourists and potential business appears to feature the community’s fishing heritage.  When asked if the brochures or websites feature photographs of fishing activities or fishing boats, 74% of all respondents indicated that they do; only 9% reported that the brochures or websites do not feature photographs of fishing activities or fishing boats. 

 

Ø   Tourism professionals were asked to rate the importance of three factors influencing their community’s identity: local history, commercial fishing, and recreational fishing.  All three factors were rated highly by each community as having an important influence on their community’s identity.  Using a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is not at all important and 10 is extremely important, the overall mean rating for local history’s importance to community identity was 8.54, commercial fishing activities was 8.53, and recreational fishing activities was 8.44.  This similarity in the rating of these factors highlights the relative importance of all of these factors on establishing community identity in California’s coastal communities. 

 

Ø   In identifying the things that make their community unique, 74% of all tourism professionals cited some form of recreational opportunities or tourism attractions.  The specific recreational opportunities and tourism attractions that were cited included fishing and fishing heritage (39%); oceans, bays, and beaches (32%); specific area landmarks and wildlife (26%); harbor and working waterfront (20%); and lodging and dining opportunities (6%).

 

Ø   Tourism professionals were asked to rate the importance six factors influencing their community’s economy, using a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is not at all important and 10 is extremely important; these factors included manufacturing, commercial fishing, recreational fishing, tourism, the availability of local seafood, and tourism generated by having the public be able to see a working waterfront.  Tourism was the most important, having the highest mean rating (9.53) and having the highest percentage of professionals giving it a rating of 10 (73% rated it 10).  Local seafood for purchase (mean rating 8.85, with 57% rating it 10) and tourism from having an active waterfront (mean rating of 8.82, with 50% rating it 10) were the next most important factors.  These were followed by two factors grouped together with slightly lower ratings, relative to those just mentioned, although still well above the mid point of the scale: commercial fishing (7.98 mean rating; 37% rating it 10) and recreational fishing (7.87 mean rating; 29% rating it 10).  The lowest rated factor was manufacturing.

 

Ø   Overall, 58% of tourism professionals indicated that the number of jobs directly created by fishing activities was of great importance to their community’s economy (rated 8 or above on a scale of 0 to 10); 29% gave a moderate rating (from 3-7); and 3% indicated that the actual number of jobs directly created by fishing activities was of low importance to the community’s economy (rated 0-2).  Nearly identical results were reported for the importance of the number of jobs indirectly created by fishing activities

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