Cultural Tourism in Mariposa County
A
Mariposa County Cultural Tourism Program
A
Multimedia Cultural Tourism Experience
The
Media is The Message-Brand/Image
A Proposed
Mariposa Cultural Tourism Program
The term “Cultural Tourism”, as
applied to Mariposa County, has a unique potential to both provide economic
stimulus to our overall economic setting but also contribute to the overall betterment
of our Community Quality of Life. With the “cultural resources” of Mariposa
County, a Mariposa County “Cultural
Tourism Program should focus on Mariposa’s “Mother Lode” heritage, the “real”
Old West culture and the Cowboy/Cattle Ranch industry of the County that can
trace it’s roots back to the early 1850s; not the 1880s image of Hollywood!
Our objective, with this project, is
to explore the possibility of “re-branding”
Mariposa County as its own
visitor/community identity apart from the “Yosemite” image.
A quick Web exploration on the
subject of “Cultural Tourism” led us
to a report by Richards, G. (2003) What
is Cultural Tourism? In van Maaren, A. (ed.), This small report (15
pages) (attached) provided some insight into Cultural Tourism gave us
a perspective on how to develop a program that “fits” our community.
European concepts of “Cultural
Tourism”, in many ways, reflects the experience that our local business
community frequently has with our visitors from Europe and around the world
here in Mariposa. The visitors that we meet are extremely interested in
“meeting” Americans and learning about our community and its people. The report
contains a considerable amount of information but this excerpt provides a good
overview:
“A
typical example defines the resources involved in cultural tourism as:
a) Archaeological sites and museums
b) Architecture (ruins, famous buildings,
whole towns)
c) Art, sculpture, crafts, galleries,
festivals, events
d) Music and dance (classical, folk,
contemporary)
e) Drama (theatre, films, dramatists)
f) Language and literature study, tours,
events
g) Religious festivals, pilgrimages
i) Complete (folk or primitive) cultures
and sub-cultures.
A similar approach is adopted by Munsters
(1996) who classifies a wide range of
cultural tourism attractions in the
Netherlands and Belgium in the following way:
1 Attractions
a) Monuments
b) Museums
c) Routes
d) Theme parks
2 Events
a) Cultural-historic events
b) Art events
c) Events and
Attractions
A
Mariposa County Cultural Tourism Program
Mariposa
County has many unique “Cultural” assets that already play an important role in
the areas “visitor based” economy. These include the many community events/festivals
around the County, our “world class” museums and the historic Mother Lode
buildings and ruins that are common monuments around the County.
At
present, Mariposa County derives significant revenues from “visitors” to our
County and Yosemite National Park. The financial impact of “tourism” comes in
many forms. There is, of course, the direct impact of the Transient Occupancy
Tax (TOT) or “Bed Tax”. There is also the increased revenue from sales and use
tax receipts and increased property tax from businesses and employees to
participate in the County’s Visitor Economy.
The
Cultural Tourism program that we are proposing would re-invest a small portion
of those “direct” TOT receipts back into the resources that generate those
visitor receipts. The program would have a dual thrust. First it would directly
support preservation/maintenance of our cultural assets and secondly it would
partially underwrite/support activities and events that attract visitors.
This
“Program” goes beyond our traditional County “Tourism Promotion”
programs, of course and may represent a direction that the County may want to
pursue with its “Investment” in our “visitor industry”. This program approach
would have a second benefit in that it would support preservation of our
crumbling historic/cultural assets and provide unique “quality of life”
entertainment/recreational opportunities for our Mariposa County residents.
Furthermore,
the idea of “cultural identity” among our own (American/California) visitors needs
to come into play. The vast majority of our County’s visitors come from
California and the U.S. Our program needs to be attuned to the Old West/Mother
Lode image that is part of OUR County’s historic lore. Americans and
Californians are also intrigued by our unique “mountain life-style” and
hospitality.
We
do not need to be “focused” on treating our foreign visitors to a “view” of our
unique cultural assets. Many European and Asian visitors remark that their
visit to Mariposa/Yosemite is one of the FEW opportunities in the United States
to actually meet and “get to know” Americans! With our and expansion of our
cultural offerings, we have an opportunity to expand on that contact and
cultural exchange.
A
portion of our “Tourism Dollars” might be, at least partially, invested in
supporting/enhancing community based attractions like our art/performance
venues, cultural assets (buildings/sites), etc., that would benefit and enhance
our “tourist based economy” and improve/enhance our quality of life.
Specific
Mariposa County Cultural Tourism Program Activates/Investments could follow this outline:
1.
Attractions
a) Monuments.
Many of the “Cultural Assets” of this County are in “private” ownership. The
restoration and preservation of these buildings and property NOT cost effective
or “Good Business” for a private property owner. The County could initiate a
Loan and Grant program for “designated” cultural property buildings and
property.
At the same time the County could create
special “zoning” Use Exceptions for designated historic sites and buildings to
create an economic incentive for the private investment in preserving and
maintaining these properties and sturctures.
Additionally, the County could implement
the Mills Act http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21412 as set forth in
California Government Code, Article 12, Sections 50250-50290 and California
Revenue and Taxation Code, Article 1.9, Sections 439-439.4.
b) Museums
& Cultural Facilities. The County should provide a direct Grant to
help support the operating/acquisition/preservation/maintenance costs of our
County museums and important historic/cultural collections.
The County should
initiate the construction of a Performing Arts and Cultural Events Center.
Construction/operating costs would be underwritten by the County. Events in the
facility would be scheduled and managed by the Mariposa County Arts Council and
the Mariposa County Chamber of Commerce.
c) Routes.
The County should support the designated John Muir route (Hwy 132), Golden
Chain Highway (Hwy 49) and Create a unique identity for Hwy 140 as the Direct
route to the Mother Lode region, Wild & Scenic Merced River Canyon and
Yosemite VALLEY.
d) Theme
parks. The County would help the Mariposa County Dist. 35A Fair become
“independent” of State control and help the Independent Fair District develop
year-round attractions.
2.
Events
a) Cultural-historic events. The County
would subsidize the Chamber of Commerce in organization/support of various cultural/historic
events and celebrations. This would be similar to the Butterfly Days Event.
Other events include the Mariposa Wagon Train.
b) Art events. At present the major Art
Event in the County is the Mariposa Story Telling Festival. Similar events
could include a Film Festival, TEDx presentation, special performing art or
communication arts events that attract nationally and internationally recognized
talent.
c) Events
and Attractions. At present, the Mariposa County Fairgrounds provide
the best “event” center in the County. A similar, smaller “center” would be
part of the Performing Arts Center and a facility could be developed on the
“Northside” in the vicinity of Coulterville. The County could help provide
“seed” funding for special events/performances at these event centers.
A
Multimedia Cultural Tourism Experience
Additionally, Cultural
Tourism needs to focus on enhancing the experience of our visitors. This can be
accomplished using modern Mobile-Communications technology that employs
multimedia informational displays that are Internet based.
Mariposa is developing cutting edge video communications
technology. Our local “story” can be told to visitors via their cell phones
and hand-held communications devices that rely on Internet connectivity. Our Cultural
Tourism Program should support and develop multimedia resources that document
and explain our cultural assets and tell our story using modern
telecommunications technology.
The University of
California, Merced, faculty and students are now working on applying this
technology in new and innovative ways. This application of tomorrow’s
communications technology, in our County, creates a wealth of new opportunities
that have the potential to result in the development of new communication arts
technology industrial clusters in OUR community. Some of this technology is
explained below.
Technology/Vision Links:
The
Media is The Message-Brand/Image
This technology has the
potential to place OUR world of “cultural tourism” and our
media productions in a whole new light for our visitors in the
foreseeable future. The development of and application of that technology in
OUR community, as a MODEL, creates added benefits of creating a new BRAND IMAGE
of our community as technologically sophisticated and literate and, of course,
the cultural “message” in this innovate media helps spread the word that
Mariposa County, and Yosemite, are unique visitor destinations..
We, in cooperation with
the U.C. Merced faculty, staff and students, can work on building “hand-held”
Apps that someone takes with them around our County/communities. We can also
work on how we “produce” these “products” and develop a “sponsorship” concept
by local businesses to help off-set the costs of video production as a
traditional “business model” without “public support”. Note, however, that
there is great “Public Benefit” from the development of these multimedia
products that preserve our culture and history in this modern day media format.
We
are breaking NEW ground with our projects. The resources of U.C. Merced,
combined with the local resources of Mariposa County create a fertile
environment for technological advance, application and innovation.
Comments
Post a Comment