Washtenaw County Destination Master Plan

Project Brief

In 2019, our partnership collaborated with Destination Ann Arbor to develop the Washtenaw 2030 Destination Master Plan. The objective was to define how the visitor economy in Washtenaw County in Southeastern Michigan could be leveraged more strategically to drive sustainable growth and equitable community development, within and beyond the city of Ann Arbor. The county-wide process was very much community-driven to ensure that the widest breadth of local residents would determine, and benefit from, the future growth of the region.

Approach

A series of steps were taken in developing and delivering the Destination Master Plan:

• Collaborated with the public and private sectors across Washtenaw County to define the long-term opportunities for the destination, especially in terms of diversifying the visitor economy
• Facilitated more than 50 community engagement sessions with more than 400 people during town halls, focus groups, workshops, and 1-on-1 interviews with key stakeholders
• Completed extensive research on existing tourism and destination development initiatives to define integrated strategies to drive higher visitor spend and dispersal
• Developed specific vertical strategies to enhance cultural, culinary, sports and outdoor recreation tourism segments
• Designed a framework to develop the Southeastern Michigan Mobility Innovation District to grow meetings business in related advanced industries