With a shared commitment to leveraging funding, the RCTDA utilizes the plan to effectively secure grants for projects that align with the plan’s vision. An ongoing partnership between RCTDA and Destination by Design continues to guide plan implementation through funding procurement, capital campaign efforts, engineering, and construction oversight.
Approximately $2.62 million in grant funding has been secured for project recommendations.
Tourism Infrastructure Master Plan
The master plan’s visual representations effectively communicate the transformation and enhancement of the built and natural environments to create an enriched visitor experience.
Strategic Enhancement Areas
We developed ‘deep-dive’ plans in four different towns: Chimney Rock Village, Lake Lure, Spindale, and Rutherfordton. Each sub-project plan works to realize the goals of the broader Rutherford Bound plan through site-specific planning.
Capital Campaign
& Publicity
Our Communications team has led an award-winning public relations and capital campaign for Rutherford Bound to raise awareness among local citizens, grant funders, and other stakeholders regarding project progress and additional funding needs. Activities include an interactive website, promotional and public engagement videos, project documentation and other publicity efforts.
Public
Engagement
Central to the planning process was a comprehensive multi-jurisdictional effort to mobilize residents and local government leaders to help determine how they wanted to develop their communities.
Destination by Design partnered with the Rutherford County Tourism Development Authority to develop the Rutherford Bound Tourism Master Plan, a two-year effort built with a 30-member Tourism Advisory Council to unify and revitalize the county’s tourism infrastructure. The plan has already helped secure approximately $2.62 million in grant funding for project recommendations, with DbD continuing to guide implementation through capital campaign efforts, engineering, and construction oversight.
In North Carolina, tourism planning and capital campaign strategy work together most effectively when a countywide vision needs sustained funding to become reality. Rutherford Bound reflects that pairing, combining tourism infrastructure planning with an award-winning public relations and capital campaign effort, including an interactive website and promotional videos, to keep local citizens, grant funders, and stakeholders engaged in the plan’s progress.
A countywide tourism plan works best when it also speaks directly to each town’s individual needs. Rutherford Bound does exactly that, pairing its broader vision with site-specific “deep-dive” plans for four communities, Chimney Rock Village, Lake Lure, Spindale, and Rutherfordton, each designed to realize the county’s larger goals through targeted, local planning.
Tourism planning is the process of developing a strategic roadmap that identifies a region’s tourism assets and recommends infrastructure investments to grow its visitor economy. For Rutherford County, that meant a comprehensive multi-jurisdictional public engagement effort mobilizing residents and local government leaders, paired with a capital campaign and communications strategy built to secure the funding needed to bring the plan’s recommendations to life.
Rutherford County sits in the foothills of western North Carolina, home to communities including Chimney Rock Village, Lake Lure, Spindale, and Rutherfordton. Its mix of small mountain towns and natural attractions made a unified, countywide tourism plan essential for coordinating investment across so many distinct communities under one shared vision.
