By Renard Teipelke
Along the Pacific Coast, California offers hundreds of beautiful beaches. Names (or places) such as Santa Cruz, Malibu, or Coronado Island are world famous not only because they are marketed well but are actually nice, sunny, and fantastic locations for a day at the beach. So what role can much smaller, less famous beaches and their adjacent towns in California possibly play in the presence of these ‘big players?’ It comes with no surprise that the demand for beaches seems to be clearly large enough so that these less famous locations are not relegated to a negligible niche existence. But demand also refers to a certain quality of supply: How do these places attract ‘enough’ guests in order to benefit from tourist revenues which they are often seeking in the absence of other relevant fee- or tax-paying industries?
Let us take an 85-mile-ride from Santa Barbara up the coast to the town of Pismo Beach. Continue reading
