Beckley Outdoors re-imagines Beckley as the premier gateway to the new National Park. Capitalizing on its assets and proximity to the park, the plan leverages the growing impact of outdoor recreation to grow small business, attract remote workers, strengthen local workforce, and increase tourism.
The ultimate vision is a walkable downtown, supported by a vibrant arts community, recreational amenities, and a network of trails physically connecting the city to the National Park.
Plan
Overview
Through six key focus areas, the plan identifies existing outdoor assets, and crafts recommendations to enhance connectivity between existing and proposed bike-ped infrastructure.
An accompanying destination brand, Basecamp Beckley, also helps connect Beckley’s identity to the National Park by promoting the area’s outdoor-forward lifestyle and amenities.
Through a series of renderings, the plan envisions a pedestrian-friendly Beckley, with a focus on its historic downtown and strong connections to the city’s natural assets, setting the stage for a more vibrant future.
Among the most visionary of recommendations, the proposed New River Bike Park, and the Exhibition Coal Mine Rider’s Village offer an exciting opportunity to leverage an existing city-owned coal history museum, and other assets to catalyze the outdoor economy.
The Riders Village leverages Beckley’s coal heritage and 50,000 annual visitors to its historic mine. This 20-acre development provides an ideal event event space, visitor amenities, and improved connectivity through the existing Beckley Rail Trail, while integrating coal-themed features into the park.
Community Engagement
Beckley Outdoors uses a robust engagement strategy designed to foster deep connections and sustain momentum throughout the entire project.
The planning process was introduced through a dynamic plan website and promotional video narrated by community members.
Interactive community forums, detailed surveys, and active social media engagement were used to generate excitement, which culminates in the Beckley Outdoors Summit, where recommendations for more connectivity and bike-centric infrastructure achieved significant community buy-in.
Plan
Website
The Beckley Outdoors website was the first point of contact with many community members. Fueled by a lively plan brand and multimedia content, the website helps engage and retain the community’s attention.
Signage & Wayfinding Concepts
Branded wayfinding and trail signage offer a consistent visual identity, enhancing awareness of Beckley’s recreational assets and reinforcing a sense of place.
These signage concepts allow for effortless navigation, seamlessly integrating trails into the fabric of the downtown and ultimately connecting Beckley to the National Park itself.
Content
Creation
Public engagement efforts are elevated through compelling visual content and storytelling to showcase the adventures and natural beauty of the New River Gorge region.
With downtown and the Gorge as a backdrop, our team captures Beckley’s potential as a thriving outdoor recreation hub, inspiring the community to invest in the vision and embrace Beckley’s transformation.
Brand
Identity
Basecamp Beckley is a city brand that encapsulates Beckley’s historic location as the epicenter of the Southern West Virginia coal fields, while also establishing it as a hub for excursions into the National Park.
The visual identity is a nod to the past in the form of a miner’s lamp, and a look to the future as the light of a camper’s headlamp, both important elements of its rich Appalachian heritage. The color scheme is also a subtle nod to WVU, while adding Beckley’s own special flavor.
Destination by Design partnered with the City of Beckley to create the Beckley Outdoors Tourism Master Plan, reimagining the city as the premier gateway to the New River Gorge, America’s newest National Park. The plan combines infrastructure master planning, wayfinding design, and brand strategy to enhance connectivity between existing and proposed bike-ped infrastructure, envisioning a walkable downtown supported by a vibrant arts scene and a trail network physically linking Beckley to the park.
In West Virginia, tourism planning and destination branding often work together to help a city reposition itself around a major regional asset. For Beckley, that meant pairing infrastructure recommendations, like the proposed New River Bike Park and Exhibition Coal Mine Rider’s Village, with a new destination brand, Basecamp Beckley, that connects the city’s coal mining heritage to its emerging identity as an outdoor recreation hub.
Outdoor recreation planning works best when it leverages a community’s existing assets rather than starting from scratch. Beckley Outdoors reflects that approach, using the city’s 50,000 annual visitors to its historic coal mine and Beckley Rail Trail as the foundation for a 20-acre Rider’s Village concept designed to grow small business, attract remote workers, and strengthen tourism, all built on strong community buy-in generated through the Beckley Outdoors Summit.
Tourism planning is the process of creating a strategic roadmap that identifies a community’s existing tourism assets and recommends infrastructure, branding, and programming to grow visitor spending and quality of life. For Beckley, that meant six focus areas addressing bike-ped connectivity, wayfinding, and destination branding, all shaped through community forums, surveys, and a dedicated plan website that kept residents engaged throughout the process.
Beckley sits in southern West Virginia, historically known as the epicenter of the region’s coal fields and now positioned just miles from the New River Gorge National Park. That proximity is central to the Beckley Outdoors vision, using the city’s existing rail trail and downtown core as the physical and cultural bridge between its coal heritage and its future as an outdoor recreation gateway.
