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Exploration Local
Come journey with us as we explore and highlight the people and places that make the Blue Ridge and Southern Appalachian Mountains special and unique. We explore the towns, trails, rivers, scenic byways, businesses, and people that fuel the life & adventurous spirit in these mountains. Listen in on this relaxed conversational style podcast as host Mike Andress interviews Authors, Business Owners, Photographers, Athletes, Adventurers, Travelers and Friends who have a deep connection to the outdoors and directly influence the culture of the Blue Ridge. We’ll even explore the many ways nature & the outdoors can positivity influence our health and well being.
Exploration Local
Five Towns, One Vision: Inside Visit Haywood’s 10-Year Destination Master Plan
As outdoor tourism continues to grow, how can mountain communities plan with intention—not just for visitors, but for the residents, businesses, and natural spaces that make them unique?
In this episode, I sit down with Corrina Ruffieux, Executive Director of Visit Haywood, to talk about Haywood County’s innovative approach to tourism. Their comprehensive 10-year destination master plan is designed not just to attract visitors, but to do so in a way that aligns with the values of the community and protects what makes the area special.
We explore how Haywood County’s plan is rooted in stewardship, inclusivity, and a commitment to attracting visitors who share the local values of environmental respect, community care, and responsible tourism. The plan’s focus is on sustainable growth that ensures long-term benefits for residents, local businesses, and the area’s exceptional natural assets.
Through community-driven engagement and a clear brand identity, Haywood County is proving that it’s possible to grow tourism while protecting the very things that make the place worth visiting in the first place.
Mike Andress
Host, Exploration Local
828-551-9065
mike@explorationlocal.com
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What does it take for a rural mountain community to grow without losing its soul? In this episode, we head to Haywood County, north Carolina, a place where five distinct mountain towns are tucked between the Great Smoky Mountains, pisgah National Forest, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and is surrounded by wild rivers, scenic byways and a deep sense of place. In recent years, like many outdoor destinations, haywood County experienced a post-pandemic tourism surge. Like many outdoor destinations, haywood County experienced a post-pandemic tourism surge, and with it came the pressing question how do we welcome visitors without compromising what makes this place so special to those who live here? Rather than react, haywood County chose to plan, intentionally and collaboratively. Over 2,000 local voices came together to shape a comprehensive 10-year destination master plan that reflects shared values like stewardship, inclusivity and working better together. Alongside that vision came a refreshed Visit Haywood brand, one that helps tell the story of a region that's not only beautiful but thoughtful in how it grows. This plan isn't about chasing more visitors. It's about attracting the right kind of visitors, those who care, who connect and who leave the place better than they found it.
Speaker 1:In today's conversation, we dive into how this plan came to life, what it means for the future of Western North Carolina and how Haywood County is setting a new standard for sustainable, values-driven tourism. To help us unpack it all, I'm joined by Karina Refure, the Executive Director of Visit Haywood. Karina has been at the forefront of this planning process, helping guide a countywide effort that balances visitor experience with community well-being. From brand strategy to destination stewardship, karina brings a deep understanding of what it takes to create tourism that works for everyone locals, visitors and the natural environment alike. So let's dive into this thoughtful and inspiring conversation about the future of Haywood County and what it truly means to be welcoming, intentional and better together.
Speaker 1:You're listening to Exploration Local, a podcast designed to explore and celebrate the people and places that make the Blue Ridge and Southern Appalachian Mountains special and unique. My name is Mike Andrus, the host of Exploration Local. Join us on our journey to explore these mountains and discover how they fuel the spirit of adventure. We encourage you to wander far, but explore local. Let's go, karina, thanks so much for being here today. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Good morning, Mike. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:I want to give listeners some context for those who might not be familiar what exactly is a destination marketing plan and why is it such an important tool for communities like Haywood County?
Speaker 2:There's probably a variety of different definitions you could come up with for it. For us, we really started the project because Haywood County saw a pretty significant increase in visitation COVID and post-COVID and we've all heard the terms over-tourism and in a rural community with lots of natural resources, we wanted to be really careful and make sure that we plan for the future and ensure that we don't get to challenges like over-tourism and other concerns that can arise. And the other definition I'll throw out there is like it or not, change happens and if we have a plan that's been initiated in advance, it can really help you address some of those unplanned for changes because the plan is done strategically. So it's about who is Haywood County, who do we want our visitors to be.
Speaker 1:What do we want this destination to look like in 10 years and how do we all work together to get there? You're going through this rollout of the refreshed Visit Haywood brand. How does this identity reflect what makes the county unique? And then, how are you all planning to use this to tell Haywood's story over the next decade?
Speaker 2:We embarked on two massive projects at the same time by doing a master plan concurrently with a rebranding initiative, and that was a lot, but a lot of it overlapped, and I know we'll talk in a little bit about community outreach, and and that was a lot, but a lot of it overlapped, and I know we'll talk in a little bit about community outreach and how important that was. But a lot of the questions that we were asking people about Haywood County, its five mountain towns, its assets, what people love about our community, also get reflected in the branding initiative. So we did those. We did the branding project because our old brand was fantastic but also so watered down.
Speaker 2:It was Visit NC Smokies and if you Google Smokies, visit Smokies, nc Smokies, any combination of the above there's literally over 100 different organizations using some version of that, and so, while Smokies are so well known, it also made it a lot harder for people to find us. So we did all this research and, ironically, the research came back as something as simple as Visit Haywood. It resonated with our visitors and it also resonated with our local stakeholders and it's really important when you're doing a brand that you try to have both. How we roll it out is in everything we do. Of course it's always hard with. We'll talk about Helene and how that impacted Haywood a little bit.
Speaker 2:So we'll talk about Helene and how that impacted Haywood a little bit, but we launched our brand the day before Helene hit, which was not very effective. But the good news is now that we've been leveraging that brand for coming on eight months. People are talking about it, they hear it, they understand it. Visit Haywood. It's actionable, people know what it means and we're just using it to help tell Haywood story, our authentic rural, small town story.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that. So one of the things that sort of caught my attention here recently, since the last time that you and I talked, were these guiding principles, and what I'm referring to here and what we're referring to is this really big plan. It's a really thought out, well-crafted master plan. It's about 138 pages if you read it end to end, but there's a lot of really good stuff in there and, for people that want to, we're going to put a link in the show notes. But the guiding principles and those things that you all really kind of thought of better together welcoming to all and destination stewardship, those kind of things really, as you were going through this planning process, they seem to really reflect not just the goals but the values that you all have and how those values are really kind of shaping how this plan is going to play out. And I'd love to talk a little bit just a little bit about some of those guiding principles and why they were important right from the outset.
Speaker 2:It's interesting, they really bubbled to the top at the very beginning of this process. So developing this 138-page plan was a solid year-long process. It was not short. It involved a whole lot of surveys and outreach and community input and all of those things. And one of the tactics we used to gather feedback were one-on-one interviews with a variety of different stakeholders, namely elected officials, local mayors and aldermen and the like, and even in separate one-on-one interviews they all kept on saying a lot of the same things.
Speaker 2:Better Together, namely coming to the top and being welcoming to everybody, was just across the board. Destination Stewardship comes kind of separately than the Better Together and welcoming to all, because almost half of Haywood County is public lands and it's the number one reason why people choose to come here. So in order to ensure that we have those lands for our future, our children's future, et cetera, we have to protect them. So the destination values were pretty much universally agreed upon throughout the whole process, throughout a 12 month process, which is pretty impressive. But I really just so enjoyed seeing separate, individual one-on-one interviews and similar themes coming to the top. It speaks to the authenticity of the folks that participated in the process and that everybody really was working together to come up with the best possible plan.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it seems like it was a way to really align all of your stakeholders too, like organically it was aligning because you were hearing these things over and over and over. So I guess those are the ways that it sort of bubbled to the top. Maybe you didn't start out with the principles, I don't know, maybe they just at the end of it. This is just what came about as you were kind of starting on the front end of this plan.
Speaker 2:We did not start with really any outcome in mind, other than probably knowing that stewardship was going to be a piece of the puzzle because of who Haywood County is. But everything else that came out of the plan truly organically came out of the plan the research and the whole process.
Speaker 1:Nice and that seemed to lead to these pillars, if you will, or these objectives, and there were four major pillars that I think you all laid out or that really kind of came that surfaced up and you guys sort or these objectives, and there were four major pillars that I think you all laid out or that really kind of came that surfaced up and you guys sort of laid out. And so, building on the principles that we just talked about, I love to kind of unpack a little bit what these four pillars are, because it seems like that really kind of guides the rest of this conversation.
Speaker 2:The pillars are really a way of organizing all of the work in the 138 pages Because you can look at this and it's kind of overwhelming, right there's a whole lot of objectives and strategies and tactics and it's a 10-year plan, so it's not meant to be completed in the next 12 or 24 months. The four pillars just help us organize ourselves so that we aren't quite so overwhelmed when you're looking at the plan in its entirety. So we have number one, which is what destination management or marketing organizations are really well known for, and that is strengthening awareness and perception of the Haywood County brand, ie marketing, telling our story. Awareness and perception of the Haywood County brand, ie marketing, telling our story. How do we tell the Haywood County story in a way that it resonates with visitors and encourages people to want to come here? But that's not simple because there's a lot of beautiful Western North Carolina communities that are our neighbors, that have similar assets, similar stories. So we just want to make sure that we're telling ours in a slightly unique way and hopefully Haywood County then becomes you know, gets put on somebody's list that they want to come vacation here.
Speaker 2:The second bucket of work, or pillar, is to diversify tourism product offerings and experiences that enhance the destination appeal for all. The short version of that is product development. What do we do beyond marketing to encourage people who have already come to want to come back, to build out the experiences that Haywood County can offer, to ensure that we are appealing to as many potential visitors as possible? And I'll caveat that with this is throughout the whole plan. This is not about volume of visitors, it's about quality of visitor, the right visitor. At the end of the day, yes, our ultimate mission is to drive economic growth and to drive spending at our local businesses, and it keeps that economic cycle moving, but we still want the right people to come here, so product development can definitely help us do that.
Speaker 2:The third pillar is to promote stewardship of our natural resources and our outdoor recreation opportunities.
Speaker 2:Again, that's the number one reason people come here. Our research very clearly shows that and we are so blessed to have 46 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway, second only to one other county on the entire stretch of the entirety of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We are the biggest section North Carolina section of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, including Kaloochee Valley, which is where the elk were reintroduced and roam freely. We have the Appalachian Trail, which is its own national park, and we have Pisgah National Forest, including Shining Rock Wilderness. So we have so many federal natural assets and we really want to work with our federal land partners and our visitors and our local residents to protect them and ensure that they're here and continuing to drive our economy for decades to come.
Speaker 2:And then the fourth pillar is really about us, the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority, as a business, as an organization. How do we have the bandwidth to lead these other three pillars of work if we don't look internally at ourselves? So that one's not as exciting to folks reading the plan, perhaps, but it's a necessity and any business has to look at themselves as well as their outreaching work.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I think it just kind of speaks to the thoughtfulness behind this plan too, not only what you want to do for the tourists and for the county and preserving and protecting, but you are a large part of what's driving that marketing. So looking inward, I think, is really really key, and it sounds like you all are doing that in a really insightful and thoughtful way too. One of the things that's interesting right now and I don't know if this is still true because I haven't looked at the recent map, but you mentioned the Blue Ridge Parkway and all these areas these are really some of the areas that are really truly wide open. You can look up and down the Blue Ridge Parkway and there's a lot of areas that you know as you sort of go north. There's a lot of sections that are still affected by Helene and they're still recovering from Helene. But here in your area, and heading southbound.
Speaker 2:This is a lot of stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway that is open right now as of 2025. We're very lucky that our stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway was not as impacted significantly by Helene as some of the other sections.
Speaker 2:We still have one piece, one segment, that's closed and I know that the Blue Ridge Parkway staff are working incredibly hard, as they are on the entire stretch of the parkway to reopen as much as they can. They know how critical the parkway is to to gateway communities, of which we have five, um, and, and those gateway communities rely on the visitors coming to experience the parkway and then they come into our towns to shop and have lunch and spend the night, and so we're just so proud of our, our national park friends and the work that they're doing. But yes, we have almost all of our 46 miles are open and ready to welcome you today.
Speaker 1:I love it, love it, absolutely love it. Let's dip back a little bit. Talk about community engagement and that piece where you really reached out to a lot of the stakeholders. We're kind of started out with this whole process reaching out to all these stakeholders, and you also mentioned collaboration. I'd love to talk a little bit about what that experience was like talking to local stakeholders, what their feedback was, what their feedback was about going through a process like this, and then how do you continue to engage those same stakeholders?
Speaker 2:That's a lot of work. I mean we're all so busy, right, it's very difficult to encourage folks to make time for something. But the good news is Haywood County as a community is incredibly collaborative and again, that certainly bubbled to the top through those destination values and people individually stating we've got to work together. But we my team and I and the consultants that we hired to help lead this project it was so critical from the outset that we gather as much community feedback as possible Because tourism, while it drives our economy, it also impacts our locals. Some locals think it impacts them positively, others may disagree with that assessment, but at the end of the day it's driving our total economy, which means jobs, which means businesses, which means restaurants that are here for us to enjoy in the winter, when it's not as busy. That probably wouldn't be here without the visitor economy to support them. So we intentionally held public community input sessions and we published them. We work with the local newspapers to get the word out. We fed people at those sessions to encourage more participation.
Speaker 1:Food always brings people in.
Speaker 2:It does, and it's worth it because we can honestly say over 500 local stakeholders, business owners, residents participated in our in-person sessions and then another almost 330 participated in the online surveys, and that's not including the surveys that we did to visitors and to travel journalists. So that gets our participation up. Over 2,000 different folks had input into this plan. So it was always always important that this could truly be Haywood County's destination master plan, not the TDA's master plan. It's rooted in tourism and it's about the tourism economy, but this is a very famous saying that's shared in the destination space If you have a beautiful place or a wonderful place to visit, it also then becomes a great place to live. And if it's a great place to live, it's a great place to work. So, and they're all connected with each other. So we're happy to lead the having a great place to visit piece of it, knowing that it will also drive back to we'll have a great place to live, which also means a great place to work, and it just keeps that, that economic cycle churning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and stewardship is a big part of that. I mean, because, you know, one of the things I know is very important to you all and as you and I, as you and I have talked is not trying to overlove some of these areas. You, you also want to protect some of these areas as well. So I know that stewardship is is pretty big. How do you strike the balance between the tourism growth and also preserving what makes this area so special?
Speaker 2:That's where it goes back to. It's not about quantity of visitors, it's about quality of visitors. So we're intentionally seeking visitors who align with our values, who want to come and see the wild elk from a safe distance and respect and understand that these are wild animals.
Speaker 2:A lot of it's messaging, education, all of the above. Thankfully, Haywood County does not have a lot of assets that are overloved yet, but by knowing that now, and knowing which ones are a little bit more heavily trafficked and which ones are not, we can create trails, we can create maps. We can suggest to visitors try this, you know this location as opposed to that location and help disperse those visitors that do come. And all of the same information that we're producing on behalf of visitors is also fantastic for our residents as well, who may find new trails or new secret hideaways that they didn't know existed. And all of that is also rooted in safety. We've learned through this process. We worked with haywood county search and rescue, our local sheriff's office, our emergency services, and we've learned what areas of haywood county tend to drive more rescues and which ones don't okay and so we're also leveraging that information, because we didn't know that before this whole plan process.
Speaker 2:Right, okay, which areas? If we're going to send visitors to an area that's a little more challenging, ensure that they're prepared, that they've you know, they understand what they're getting into, that they're going to an area without cell service and they aren't going to be able to call for help. All of these things are also important for people who just moved here or perhaps are new to hiking. All of these things, then impact our friends and neighbors at emergency services, search and rescue, etc. So we want to do everything we can with all of this information to ensure that people follow the principles of leave no trace but also protect themselves, because then it keeps our other, our other friends, safe too.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, let's switch a little bit and talk a little bit about the outcome, some of the outcomes of this, the uh, the, the plan and the work that you all went through, the front end work that you all went through. I love to know some just kind of the interesting I don't know if you have stats or interesting things about what people are looking to do. You know, as they're giving you feedback, as tourists are giving you feedback, what were some of the really kind of key findings that came out of this plan?
Speaker 2:Well, it's always interesting when you do a plan like this, or even marketing, because we all tend to, as human beings, think about ourselves first. So my husband and I are very active. We love getting out and hiking and biking and enjoying this beautiful place that we are so lucky enough to live in, and so I went into this, assuming that that's what our visitors want too. Well, it's not. Our visitors come for passive recreation, not active recreation. I'm not saying this doesn't apply to all, this is just the majority.
Speaker 2:And that speaks to who our visitors are. We tend to skew a little bit older on the visitor scale, which is also going to go back to that branding and marketing and messaging. How do we find younger visitors? So there's so many tentacles that come out of a plan like this, but I always love learning something that I wasn't expecting.
Speaker 2:So passive recreation people love to drive the parkway and go to an overlook and have a picnic and just simply sit and enjoy the beautiful view. They love going to Cataloochee Valley in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and they'll literally pull a chair out and sit and watch the elk from a chair out and sit and watch the elk from a distance. So not necessarily as active. So the number one thing we know that our visitors like to do is passive recreation. But, that said, our residents like more active recreation, and so one of our research studies showed that our residents really want more access to our waterways, and so some of your listeners probably don't know this.
Speaker 2:Haywood County is one of only two headwater counties in the entire country, meaning 100% of our water originates from within the county. So our water is pure, pristine and very, very special, and we have all of these incredible rivers. That can be a challenge in the time of a hurricane, but during non-hurricane times are absolutely beautiful assets that very few people have access to. I'd love to get out on the river and have a place where I could teach my kid to fish or where I could go tubing. So as we talk about product development or outcomes of this plan, we are working towards developing some of those assets that our residents said they wanted, because then the residents get to use it 365 days a year, but our visitors also get to enjoy it when they come.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and some of those diversifying products, some of those tourism products. So you mentioned the rivers and yes, you have a lot of amazing rivers around here and some of the trails. What are some of the other things that came out of it? And then maybe a follow-up to that would be for those people who are coming in here for passive recreation, what is the average kind of day that they're staying or their length of their stay that they're here?
Speaker 2:So I'll start with that. Our average visitor stay is 3.9, 3.9, 3.9 nights, which is always an odd number, so we'll just round that to say four nights, five days, and part of that is we have a lot of vacation rentals in haywood county.
Speaker 2:So those those definitely appeal to families, multi-generation groups that want to come and they can stay in one big house together and and that leads to longer stays, I think, sometimes than your traditional hotel or motel. And in terms of other product development, the research really showed some gaps. We don't have a lot of activities for younger children and so family-friendly activities. If one of our goals is to start attracting families with kids to come here. So it's cloudy or rainy or and you can't enjoy those beautiful vistas something that helps fill in those the what do they do during those five days when they can't do the number one reason they're coming here. So whether that's A children's museum or bowling, I mean, there's so many different activities that could fill that gap. We did not specifically identify what those indoor activities should be, just that we need family friendly and indoor and those will really help round out the Haywood County outdoor economy and support and give people more reasons to come and come back All right.
Speaker 1:So the plan itself we said at the beginning it was a 10-year plan and when you look at the numbers 2026 through 2035, it doesn't add up to 10, a 10-year split. So there was, and there's, a reason for that. Right now, you mentioned Helene and most all of our listeners know that we've gone through that. We're on the other side for that right now. You mentioned Helene and most all of our listeners know that we've gone through that. We're on the other side of that right now, or coming on the other side of that. What did that, how, how, how did Helene kind of affect your being able to push, go fully on this particular plan?
Speaker 2:Well, it definitely delayed it. The plan was about 90, 95% done in the month of September. And then we got hit by the hurricane and that obviously impacted all of our partners and even the day to day work that that we were doing here in the tourism office. And then we also had to say wait, did all of the work that we all of 12 months worth of work and research and everything on this plan. How do we have to revisit any of that because of the impacts of this pretty significant storm? And the good news is the majority of the research and the work is very much still valid. All of the community input still applies.
Speaker 2:We just had to shift some of the priorities that we were initially looking at. So I had mentioned safety earlier on. Safety was let's talk about that in two or three years. Well, now we're going to talk about safety this year. So we've just shifted priorities, tactics when we're going to do things, and obviously recovering from Helene is the number one priority. So some of the projects that we really wanted to look at, like, say, building a fishing pier somewhere out onto the Pigeon River obviously that's not going to happen immediately because first we have to clean up, but that's the great part about collaboration and partners is because we're working with our towns and groups like Haywood Waterways and Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, and by all of us communicating and working together, we can hopefully overlap projects where they make sense and start moving things forward when the community is ready things forward when the community is ready.
Speaker 1:And I know the last time that you and I had a conversation about this, you were very mindful of and I think this goes back to the stewardship piece. You were very mindful of saying it's not time right now to push a heavy push to say let's, let's start implementing a whole lot of things. It was about we're we're recovering, we're going to kind of softly roll the beginning of this, this piece out and, um, I think that may be a little bit of what kind of what you're you're talking about. So you just mentioned collaborative, and I feel like that word has come up a number of times in this conversation so far and that ties back to one of the guiding principles of of better together. Um, and that really kind of speaks, I think, to that power of the collaboration piece as well. What role do the partnerships with local businesses, government nonprofits and you mentioned some of those just a moment ago how do they play into bringing this whole plan to life?
Speaker 2:Well, we all have to work together to make it happen. So, as the Tourism Development Authority or Destination Management Organization, we don't own any of these assets, right, we don't own the federal lands, we don't have land on the Pigeon River or on Jonathan Creek. So it's up to us working hand in hand with partners who do have those assets or do have that attraction, or that business owner that wants to build that indoor science museum or some beautiful art trail that's dedicated to elk. There's a million different things that could happen. We're here to help provide the data, the research. We have some funding available through our grant programs to help support them. We have some funding available through our grant programs to help support them. But if we don't have those communication mechanisms with those partners, they're never going to happen.
Speaker 2:And better together? It's funny. Those words literally just kept coming up through the whole process, whether community input sessions, one-on-one interviews, et cetera. And one of our board members loves to go to yard sales and she ended up at a yard sale and there was this giant sign that said better together on it, and so she bought this, this old sign that says better together, and she brought it to a board meeting and gifted it to us and it's hanging up in the office. And so the team and I just love it to us. And it's hanging up in the office, oh cool. And so the team and I just love it. And we have this little sign that says better together, because as a team, we're better together. As a board of directors, we're all better together. And then as a county, collectively, we absolutely are all better together.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's good, and they carry that thought out, at least in my brain. The right type of person coming in here and experiencing our community, whether it's leave no trace, principles, whether it's just recreating responsibly, safely, that all kind of brings that element in as well. So we're continuing to be better together.
Speaker 2:We are.
Speaker 1:Okay. So this next question it's a big loaded question and I know that when I ask it and so we can kind of take it in little bits and pieces Can you kind of hit the highlights of how you see the next 10 years kind of laying out and rolling out in this?
Speaker 2:plan. I knew, going into this, that adopting a 10 year plan can be so many plans. We've all heard this. Right, get put on a shelf and they collect dust. We are absolutely not doing that.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:The good news is we have a we've already started implementing some of the tactics in the plan. We have a revised and revitalized product development committee that has a great spattering of folks from across Haywood County with different skill sets and they're helping us review the plan and look at it. Okay, what are the low-hanging fruit items? What are the items, knowing Helene's impact, that we can do? We wrote that into actually our proposed budget for this upcoming fiscal year specific items that were pulled from the plan and they are actually in the budget and have funding behind them.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:So that's written, but that's only one year right.
Speaker 2:Okay so what we have to do is keep that rolling forward. But I feel, with community support and the product development committee, a great team here at the TDA and even the you know having your feet a little bit held to the fire. When we go present to say any of our local towns or the county commissioners, I want them to ask the question how's that master plan going? Have you been working on it? And that forces us to keep it front of mind and keep those items moving forward. And we'll be sure to include a report as well Within our annual report that we do anyways, about this master plan and how we've you know what items we have accomplished and what we're looking forward to doing next year.
Speaker 1:Neat. In a way, it seems like you've sort of planned the work and now you're working the plan that the next 10 years, being able to execute all the things that you all would love to execute or the majority of the things you all would love to execute might come to fruition just because of the buy-in, the total buy-in that you have with all your different stakeholders. They're really driving this to make sure it's successful.
Speaker 2:The buy-in is definitely a huge piece of it, and I think it's worth noting too that the plan is meant to be living, breathing, and I already said we wrote the plan initially or initiated the project, because things happen that you weren't expecting, helene being a perfect example of that. Nobody expected such a huge natural disaster just a few years after Fred impacted Canton and Clyde within Haywood County. So we know a lot of the proposed tactics in the plan will get accomplished and they make sense and they will help pull the whole county together. Some of them may not, and that's okay. But what will probably happen is new ideas will come as we start actioning some of the plan and then you shift it and we'll revisit it maybe four or five years down the road, see where we're at and what adaptations we need to make to it. The plan should evolve just as much as Haywood County and its people and its communities evolve.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I mean 10 years is a long time away, even though it doesn't seem like it. But yeah, a lot of things can come, mean 10 years is a long time away, even though it doesn't seem like it, but you know, a lot of things can, can come about in those next 10 years. Priorities could shift or, you know, you learn new things and maybe the interest is is higher or lower for certain areas here to recreate in. I guess you just you just don't know.
Speaker 1:But but the one thing that is common and is not going to go away is all of our natural assets, which you are incredibly blessed here in Haywood County to have so many, which really you know a lot of our listeners. They're going to be coming into this area within probably a day or two drive. That's where our demographic is for the people who listen here, and it's a little bit broader reach too. But one of the things we really haven't done is kind of talk about some of the towns that are here, that are within Haywood County. We know it, you know it, you live here. But to some of our listeners that are coming in and they may even recognize but may not be able to kind of connect the dots? What are the towns that are making up Haywood County?
Speaker 2:Haywood County is comprised of Canton, Clyde Lake, Chunaleska, Maggie Valley and Waynesville, so we've got quite a diverse grouping of five wonderful small towns. They each have their own personality and they each bring something special to the table.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then how does a plan like this tie in all that diversity and all the different offerings?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, our data shows that our visitors absolutely visit the entirety of the county. They don't go to one town, stay in that town, shop in that town, eat in that town, recreate in that town, and never leave, because each town does have its own kind of special nuances. So it kind of goes back to we're better together. Somebody might come and stay in Maggie Valley and dine and shop in Waynesville and then go recreate in Canton and drive through the other communities on their way. It's, we truly are one broader county within this, within all of our five towns.
Speaker 1:And so I know you can't have a favorite town or you may, but you wouldn't. I wouldn't ask you here, but I would love to ask you about some of your favorite parts and bits of this plan. What are some of the things that really kind of stick out to you as sort of your favorite initiatives that you all are getting ready to undertake?
Speaker 2:I think the most exciting initiatives are the product development, because it's something that can really make a meaningful difference for the long haul of Haywood County not just its visitors but its locals as well and so that's exciting. And I think the item that's the most necessary is protecting our natural assets, and that's not easy to do, but thankfully our federal land partners have all been absolutely supportive of this process from the start. We will continue those conversations and that collaboration and do absolutely everything we can to work with them and make sure that we keep that beauty for decades to come.
Speaker 1:Very nice, and so the stewardship, the protecting, the working together and wanting to make sure that people kind of do this responsibly. What does that look like? Practically Like, I know Leave no Trace. Principles, I know waterfall-wise, like Transylvania County does. Principles, I know, waterfall wise, like Transylvania County does. What are some of the practical things that are happening in terms of being able to do these activities safely?
Speaker 2:It all begins with education and pulling together. We have, as an example, a brochure and a blog on our website about the elk and bears and how to observe them safely and remind people that they're wild animals. And even the first time I know I saw an elk, they're really big.
Speaker 1:They are.
Speaker 2:They're like you think they're a deer, and they are not.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:So it begins with education and us as an organization, we need to expand our education and let people know how they can enjoy and view and be safe and all of those things. So we have to start with education and then the visitors and the residents, of course, have to action what hopefully they're being taught. So it's a partnership. We can't do it all by ourselves, but we're going to do everything we can.
Speaker 1:So how do we stay engaged with you, with Visit Haywood, with this area, with your plan? How can we just listen or stay engaged with what you have going on?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. We have two websites currently. One is our consumer website, visithaywoodcom, and that's got all of the great content about all of our five towns, what there is to see, do where you can stay, special events, all that great stuff. And you can also sign up for our Visit Haywood consumer email that we send out twice a month. We send out twice a month. We also have what we call our partner website and that is haywoodtda, as in tourismdevelopmentauthoritycom, and that's got a copy of the master plan on it. It's got ways to contact the team and stay in touch with our board and all sorts of very exciting things like our meeting minutes and our budgets and all sorts of things are all posted there. But it's important to us. We are funded by occupancy tax dollars.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much to our lodging partners for collecting it all and to visitors for staying here, and so it's important that we're as transparent as possible with everything we're doing, and so that's why we post it all on that website.
Speaker 1:Okay, and then you have great social media too.
Speaker 2:We do. We have Facebook, Instagram, and they're all visit Haywood, and then we have a partner Facebook which is Haywood TDA.
Speaker 1:Very nice, very nice. Well, is there anything that you just love for the listeners to know, to understand, to appreciate about this master plan that you all have put together, to appreciate about?
Speaker 2:this master plan that you all have put together. Stay engaged. If you happen to be a local or a local business partner, please reach out to us. We want to hear from you. If you're interested, no matter where you live, reach out to your local tourism office and find out the work that they're doing and how you can support, because tourism is a big piece of of our local economies and our local quality of life, and that quality of life piece is huge and I think a lot of people aren't aware of that, so we want to keep getting that message out oh, that's great.
Speaker 1:Well, I appreciate you taking a few minutes here with me today just to kind of lay out this plan. It is going to be available, or it is already available, online, and then I'll have some links to it in the show notes as well, and just so the listeners aren't too intimidated. The 138 pages is not like reading 138 page textbook. It's good, it's great. It's more booklet style, it has pictures, but the information that's in it is really remarkable and so really telling of all the heart and thought that you all put into this. So I just thank you for spending a few minutes with me today and helping me understand what Visit Haywood is all about and the direction that you all are going. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. We're excited to keep this project moving forward.
Speaker 1:Haywood County isn't just preparing for more visitors. It's preparing for the right kind of visitors. Through thoughtful planning, deep community engagement and a commitment to shared values, this mountain destination is showing what it looks like to grow with intention. It's a reminder that tourism, when done right, can protect what we love while creating meaningful experiences for everyone. A big thank you to Karina Refure for sharing the story behind Haywood County's 10-year destination master plan and the newly refreshed Visit Haywood brand. It's a powerful reminder that when tourism is grounded in stewardship and community care, it becomes something truly meaningful. If you're inspired to learn more or plan your own visit, head to visithaywoodcom or explore the full destination master plan at haywoodtdacom. Thanks again for joining me on this episode of Exploration Local. If you enjoyed this conversation, don't forget to follow, leave a review and share it with someone who values thoughtful travel and connection. And until next time, may your journeys be meaningful, your destinations intentional and, as always, I encourage you to wander far but explore local.