As the tourism sector continues to recover from the impacts of COVID-19, increased demand presents challenges and opportunities for Catalina’s residents, businesses, and employees while also impacting owners of both second homes and moorings. With that in mind, Jim Luttjohann, president & CEO of Love Catalina Island Tourism Authority is working in partnership with SMARInsights to create a survey aimed at gauging current/future tourism impacts and promotions for the island. Love Catlina is the Island’s Chamber of Commerce.
The online survey takes about 15 minutes to complete. It touches on a variety of ways tourism impacts the community as well as the vital role Love Catalina plays in destination management and marketing.
Luttjohann realizes tourism can be an intricate issue for any community and especially on Catalina Island. The survey seeks the input of island stakeholders to better help planning for the future.
“I see my job as encouraging visitors to travel to Catalina while making sure the impacts of tourism are as positive as possible for our local community,” Luttjohann said.
“It’s a balancing act between meeting visitor expectations and resident or business operators’ needs. The more feedback Love Catalina receives, the better we can reflect the impacts in future planning and work,” Luttjohann said.
The survey is not intended for visitors, but focuses on input from all local stakeholders and collects only minimal demographic data.
Responses are tallied in the aggregate and results are processed without divulging participant identification or IP addresses by SMARInsights. Both English and Spanish language versions are available at www.smarinsights.com/catalinasurvey.
Love Catalina Island Tourism Authority is the Island’s official destination marketing and management organization and operates the Catalina Island Visitor Center. Originally founded in 1949, the nonprofit is comprised of approximately 230 member organizations.
Love Catalina Island is funded in part through the collection of transient occupancy taxes. For more information, visit www.lovecatalina.com.
