SEQUIM — Tourism isn’t nearly the factor in this area’s economy that it’s marketed to be. Neither is the Christmas season.
Yet Sequim and Dungeness Valley business owners are optimistic about their potential for future growth, even though they’re concerned about the encroachment of big-box retailers, the pending closure of the Hood Canal Bridge for repairs and the changing character that increased population is bringing to the area.
Through it all, their love of their little community rings through loud and clear.
Those were among the findings of a recently released survey of 163 business owners conducted earlier this fall by the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Nearly 40 percent of the 438 surveys mailed out in October were returned.
Interviews next
The survey, which will be followed up with about 80 in-person interviews with selected business owners, will provide the baseline for future annual trend-tracking that chamber officials hope can be used to help its members with marketing and business development in the rapidly evolving Sequim-area market.
“We are still small enough to be extra-friendly and caring. (But) with all the stores and people coming in, it will be lost,” one survey respondent said, crystallizing the concerns of many.
“I know progress has to happen, but I feel we could have done a better job of preserving some of our originality.”
