Tourism Indicators Survey, Rounds 1 and 2

ROUND 1 SURVEY

OMB Control No. 0648-xxxx

Expiration Date: __ / __ / 2017

Project Overview

Thank you for taking the time to participate in this voluntary study! NOAA will be using the information you provide to develop measures of tourism resiliency for {AREA} and to, potentially, inform development of broader national-level measures of tourism resiliency.

As we discussed during our initial conversation with you, this survey will be conducted in two parts with the opportunity for each of you to review and alter what you said after each round. Over the next 2 months, you’ll be getting a total of four “survey requests” from us, including this one:

• Round 1 – this survey

• Round 1 review – you will be provided with the opportunity to see what others said in Round 1 (in aggregate) and alter or explain your responses in more detail

• Round 2 – the second round will take the results from round 1 and ask more in-depth questions

• Round 2 review – once again, you will have the opportunity to see what others said in the round and alter or explain in more detail.

Following these two rounds, a webinar will be held to review the results with all of the participants in {AREA} and allow for group discussion on what the results mean and how they can be used.

Your responses to this survey will be kept anonymous and any published results of the survey will be summarized in a manner that does not allow identification of individuals. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 25 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other suggestions for reducing this burden to Chris Ellis, NOAA Coastal Services Center, 2234 South Hobson Avenue, Charleston, 29405-2413.

Notwithstanding any other provisions of the law, no person is required to respond to, nor shall any person be subjected to a penalty for failure to comply with, a collection of information subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act, unless that collection of information displays a currently valid OMB Control Number.

[NEXT SCREEN]

ROUND 1 PURPOSE

The purpose of this first round of questions is to determine the types of things that would measure the resiliency of tourism in {AREA}. Once we have compiled this information, the second round of questions will ask more specific questions about the information that you provide in this first round.

For purpose of this project, we’d like you think of tourism sector resiliency as the capacity of the tourism industry, when exposed to external shocks, to adapt to or recover from the shock and to reach and maintain an acceptable level of functioning.

We certainly understand that resiliency may differ by type of business. Therefore, we ask some questions about tourism as a whole in {AREA}, and we also ask about a few key business types:

• Lodging

• Restaurants

• Charter boats

• Marinas

• Golf

• Fishing

We recognize that you may not be knowledgeable about all of these types of businesses and we provide an opportunity for you to tell us which ones you do know something about.

[NAVIGATION INSTRUCTIONS]

Questions: If you have trouble navigating through the survey or understanding the questions, please contact Melanie Sands at 781-674-7321 or melanie.sands@erg.com.

Round I Questions

1. Please rate how knowledgeable you consider yourself to be about each of the following types of tourism and recreation businesses in {AREA}.

Type of Tourism Business	Expert Level of Knowledge 5	More Knowledge than Most 4	Average Level of Knowledge 3	Less Knowledge than Most 2	No Knowledge of this Business Type 1
Lodging
Restaurants
Charter boats
Marinas
Golf
Fishing
Other: {open-ended}

2. Please rate how knowledgeable you consider yourself to be in each of the following subject categories.

Category	Expert Level of Knowledge 5	More Knowledge than Most 4	Average Level of Knowledge 4	Less Knowledge than Most 2	No Knowledge of this Subject 1
Sea level rise
Natural disaster preparedness
Economic shocks (e.g., recessions/ downturns) that impact the tourism industry

3. How often do you typically think about the each of the following topics?

Subject Area	Extremely Often 5	Often 4	Occasionally 3	Rarely 2	Never 1
Sea level rise
Natural disaster preparedness
Economic shocks (e.g., recessions/downturns) that impact the tourism industry

4. On a scale of 1 (not at all) to 5 (extremely), how would you rate the vulnerability of the tourism sector as a whole in {AREA} to the following types of external shocks?

Type of External Shock	Extremely Vulnerable	More Vulnerable than Most	Average Vulnerability	Less Vulnerable than Most	Not At All Vulnerable
	5	4	3	2	1
Sea level rise
A natural disaster such as a hurricane
Economic recessions or downturns
Shock #4

5. On a scale of 1 (not at all) to 5 (extremely), how would you rate the vulnerability of overall tourism industry and the different types of tourism businesses in {AREA} to a natural disaster such as a hurricane?

Category of tourism in {AREA}	Extremely vulnerable	Highly Vulnerable	Moderately Vulnerable	Somewhat Vulnerable	Not vulnerable at all	Not a Sector I Know Well
	5	4	3	2	1	-
Overall tourism sector
Lodging
Restaurants
Charter boats
Marinas
Golf
Fishing

6. On a scale of 1 (not at all) to 5 (extremely), how would you rate the vulnerability of overall tourism industry and the different types of tourism businesses in {AREA} to climate change (e.g., rising sea level, global warming)?

Category of tourism in {AREA}	Extremely vulnerable	Highly Vulnerable	Moderately Vulnerable	Somewhat Vulnerable	Not vulnerable at all	Not a Sector I Know Well
	5	4	3	2	1	-
Overall tourism sector
Lodging
Restaurants
Charter boats
Marinas
Golf
Fishing

7. On a scale of 1 (not at all) to 5 (extremely), how would you rate the vulnerability of overall tourism industry and the different types of tourism businesses in {AREA} to an economic downturn such as the one experienced in 2008?

Category of tourism in {AREA}	Extremely vulnerable	Highly Vulnerable	Moderately Vulnerable	Somewhat Vulnerable	Not vulnerable at all	Not a Sector I Know Well
	5	4	3	2	1	-
Overall tourism sector
Lodging
Restaurants
Charter boats
Marinas
Golf
Fishing

8. To what extent do you agree that the following factors make an important contribution to the resiliency of the tourism industry as a whole in {AREA} to natural disasters?

Factor	Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
Community engagement (e.g., Membership in a CVB or COC)
Business located in a strong, cohesive community
Business/Business owners have a strong connection to the natural resource(s) upon which it relies
Locally owned and operated businesses
Economically stable or successful years prior to the disaster
Strong existing marketing effort by tourism bureau, CVB, or other group to attract tourists to the area
Access to emergency capital or alternative sources of income
Business provides unique tourism opportunities
Diverse set of tourism options in the area
Previous shocks have prepared the sector
Disaster communication planning
Strong disaster/recovery planning by tourism businesses
Strong disaster/recovery planning by local municipalities
Critical facilities (e.g., local government buildings, fire department, evacuation shelter)
Portable technology in place
Critical infrastructure (e.g., power grid, evacuation routes)
Transportation (e.g., accessibility and operability following the disaster/shock)

9. Are there other factors that we missed (i.e. not included in Question 8) that you feel make an important contribution to the resiliency of the tourism industry in {AREA} to natural disasters?

1. Factor_______________________ and rate

2. Factor _______________________ and rate

3. Factor _______________________ and rate

10. To what extent do you agree that the following factors make an important contribution to the resiliency of the tourism industry as a whole in {AREA} to climate change?

Factor	Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
Community engagement (e.g., Membership in a CVB or COC)
Business located in a strong, cohesive community
Business/Business owners have a strong connection to the natural resource(s) upon which it relies
Locally owned and operated
Economically stable or successful years prior to the disaster
Strong existing marketing effort by tourism bureau, CVB, or other group to attract tourists to the area
Access to emergency capital or alternative sources of income
Business provides unique tourism opportunities
Diverse set of tourism options in the area
Previous shocks have prepared the sector
Disaster communication planning
Strong disaster/recovery planning by tourism businesses
Strong disaster/recovery planning by local municipalities
Critical facilities (e.g., local government buildings, fire department, evacuation shelter)
Portable technology in place
Critical infrastructure (e.g., power grid, evacuation routes)
Transportation (e.g., accessibility and operability following the disaster/shock)

11. Are there other factors that we missed (i.e. not included in Question 10) that you feel make an important contribution to the resiliency of the tourism industry in {AREA} to climate change?

1. Factor_______________________ and rate

2. Factor _______________________ and rate

3. Factor _______________________ and rate

12. To what extent do you agree that the following factors make an important contribution to the resiliency of the tourism industry as a whole in {AREA} to economic downturns?

Factor	Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
Community engagement (e.g., Membership in a CVB or COC)
Business located in a strong, cohesive community
Business/Business owners have a strong connection to the natural resource(s) upon which it relies
Locally owned and operated
Economically stable or successful years prior to the disaster
Strong existing marketing effort by tourism bureau, CVB, or other group to attract tourists to the area
Access to emergency capital or alternative sources of income
Business provides unique tourism opportunities
Diverse set of tourism options in the area
Previous shocks have prepared the sector
Disaster communication planning
Strong disaster/recovery planning by tourism businesses
Strong disaster/recovery planning by local municipalities
Critical facilities (e.g., local government buildings, fire department, evacuation shelter)
Portable technology in place
Critical infrastructure (e.g., power grid, evacuation routes)
Transportation (e.g., accessibility and operability following the disaster/shock)

13. Are there other factors that we missed (i.e. not included in Question 12) that you feel make an important contribution to the resiliency of the tourism industry in {AREA} to economic downturns?

1. Factor_______________________ and rate

2. Factor _______________________ and rate

3. Factor _______________________ and rate

14. On a scale of 1 (not at all) to 5 (extremely), how HELPUL would it be for tourism industry professionals such as yourself to have information on the factors we’ve asked about above?

Factor	Extremely Helpful	Very helpful	Moderately helpful	Somewhat helpful	Not at all helpful
	5	4	3	2	1
Community engagement (e.g., Membership in a CVB or COC)
Business located in a strong, cohesive community
Business/Business owners have a strong connection to the natural resource(s) upon which it relies
Locally owned and operated
Economically stable or successful years prior to the disaster
Strong existing marketing effort by tourism bureau, CVB, or other group to attract tourists to the area
Access to emergency capital or alternative sources of income
Business provides unique tourism opportunities
Diverse set of tourism options in the area
Previous shocks have prepared the sector
Disaster communication planning
Strong disaster/recovery planning by tourism businesses
Strong disaster/recovery planning by local municipalities
Critical facilities (e.g., local government buildings, fire department, evacuation shelter)
Portable technology in place
Critical infrastructure (e.g., power grid, evacuation routes)
Transportation (e.g., accessibility and operability following the disaster/shock)

15. Please provide any additional comments and/or feedback that you wish to share.

[Open-ended]

ROUND 2 SURVEY

OMB Control #0648-xxxx

Expires: __ / __ / 2014

Overview

The first round of questions and follow-up opportunity to review and alter your responses was targeted at identifying the most relevant areas to pursue related to resiliency of coastal tourism. Based on the results from the first round, NOAA and ERG identified a number of factors to consider pursuing as we move forward. These include:

• {List of factors that rated highly.}

This second round of questions will be taking these factors, which are general by design, and asking about ways to measure them in a meaningful way.

To do this, you will be presented with a set of indicators (ways of measuring the factors) and asked to rate how well you think each indicator would work and how useful it would be for measuring resiliency. You will also be provided with the opportunity to suggest other ways to measure the factors that were rated as the most important.

Your responses to this survey will be kept anonymous and any published results of the survey will be summarized in a manner that does not allow identification of individuals. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 25 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other suggestions for reducing this burden to Chris Ellis, NOAA Coastal Services Center, 2234 South Hobson Avenue, Charleston, 29405-2413.

Notwithstanding any other provisions of the law, no person is required to respond to, nor shall any person be subjected to a penalty for failure to comply with, a collection of information subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act, unless that collection of information displays a currently valid OMB Control Number.

1. Before we begin, please rate how knowledgeable you consider yourself to be about each of the following types of tourism and recreation businesses in {AREA}. (We realize you were asked this on the last round, but we need this during round 2 to better target questions later on in the survey.)

Type of Tourism Business	Very Knowledgeable	Moderately Knowledgeable	Somewhat Knowledgeable	No Knowledge of this Industry
Lodging
Restaurants
Charter boats
Marinas
Golf
Fishing

[Note: To make this manageable, we would restrict the number of “business types” to 3-4 key sectors in each region.]

2. The first round results indicated that {FACTOR 1} is relevant for tourism resiliency as a whole in {AREA}. How would you rate the following ways to measure {FACTOR 1}?

Indicator	Excellent	Good	Fair	Poor	Very Poor	Comments
F1, Indicator 1
F1, Indicator 2
F1, Indicator 3

3. If you had data on each of the following ways to measure {FACTOR 1}, how likely would you be to use this information in your job?

Indicator	Very Likely	Moderately Likely	Somewhat Likely	Not At All Likely	Not Part of my Job	Comments
F1, Indicator 1
F1, Indicator 2
F1, Indicator 3

4. Are there other ways of measuring {FACTOR 1} for tourism as a whole in {AREA} that we missed?

[open-ended]

5. How relevant are the following ways to measure {FACTOR 1} for {BUSINESS TYPE 1} in {AREA}?

[Note: Respondents would only be asked about business types they indicate they are “very” knowledgeable about under Question #1 above.]

Indicator	Very Relevant	Somewhat Relevant	Somewhat Not Relevant	Not At All Relevant	Comments
F1, Indicator 1
F1, Indicator 2
F1, Indicator 3