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Given the slow growth expected from most sectors of the Tuolumne County economy (except, hopefully, lumber) in the next couple of years, tourism could well be the sector that leads the county out of the recession.
Tuolumne County needs to develop its economy in several ways. It needs higher-value "family wage" jobs, and we can expect efforts to develop "knowledge based" jobs such as high technology and marketing in addition to the current plan to reopen the lumber mill. However, any efforts beyond the lumber mill will likely take years or even decades. Tourism is sometimes criticized for offering mostly low-wage jobs. But it does bring money into the county from outside--something expanding the retail sector does little of. It has few negative environmental effects. And it offers many people the opportunity to go into business for themselves and make a reasonable income. In a well-balanced economy, the lower-wage tourism jobs would help young people gain experience and education on their way to higher-paying jobs in another sector. Tourism is also the sector of the economy that can potentially expand the quickest, by an aggressive effort to improve tourism promotion. It already brings in $172.9 million and provides 2350 jobs, 8.6% of the workforce. To promote a tourism destination, you need a good name. Marketing people call this a "brand". It may seem like a gimmick, but the basic idea of a brand is anything but. It's simply a name that people recognize and that evokes a particular image. "Gillette" evokes images of razors and razor blades and also evokes quality. If you aren't familar with a name and see an ad for it you are likely to ignore it. And lack of a brand can be deadly in an age where the vast majority of tourists use the Internet to choose destinations and plan trips, and type names into search engines like Google to get information. "Tuolumne" isn't a good brand. Most tourists have no idea where counties are. You've probably heard of Pensacola, Florida. Do you know what county it is in? Probably not. (It's Escambria). Ten years ago, I called my brother in San Diego and told him that I was moving to Tuolumne County. He said, "Where's that?" And it's not something you want people typing into Google. Even people who live here have trouble spelling "Tuolumne". Alternatives aren't much better. Mention "Sonora" to someone in the Bay Area and they are likely to say, "Don't you mean Sonoma?" It's the name of a Mexican province and a desert in Arizona. We could make up a totally new name, like "Exxon" once was. With enough money and TV ads, we could make it a brand. Corporations spend tens of millions of dollars to create new names for products and implant them in people's minds. We don't have that kind of money. So we need to build on existing names. I think, in fact, that we need two brands, because we offer two different things. "Yosemite North" is my first suggestion. This is not a name for use here. It's a name (and logo) to put on anything a tourist might see. Or if a tourist on the phone asks where your B&B is, you say, "It's in the Yosemite North region". Say it to five tourists and it starts sounding natural. It makes use of Yosemite's ability to evoke the mountains and stunning beauty. The base name is one of the most recogizable names worldwide. It's an authentic name. Hetch Hetchy and Tuolumne Meadows are straight north of Yosemite Valley, and both are in Tuolumne County. Tourists take Hwy 120 to come here, where signs designate it as the "Northern Yosemite Highway". On a map, all of the high country on Hwy 108 that has terrain so similar to that in Yosemite and that we want to attract tourists to is directly north of Yosemite. Yosemite North would include everything in Tuolumne County higher than 2500 ft. It's about mountains, trees, outdoor sports and snow. "Gold Country South", the other brand, would refer to the foothills area, with its Gold Rush and Victorian era history, historic downtowns, Railtown, shopping, museums, and the casino. It's also authentic--this was once the Southern Mines. This area could include part of Calaveras County, and the marketing campaign be a partnershp with Calaveras County. Each brand would have its own logo, tourism booklet and web site. Such marketing material could be done much better because it would be more focused. The names I'm suggesting here are the best ones I've been able to come up with. Surely other people have ideas that might be better. How about putting them in a letter to the Editor of The Union Democrat? Craig A. Will is a software designer who lives in Mi Wuk Village, in the Yosemite North region of California. This article appeared in The Union Democrat (Sonora, California), July 20, 2010. |