: Melanie Ryan Griffin
Lane County Destination Master Plan
A Community-Driven Vision
Our region is embarking on its first comprehensive Destination Master Plan — a collaborative process to create a 10-year strategic vision that will shape the future of tourism across Lane County's diverse communities. This destination-focused plan will be driven by input from community stakeholders and will serve as a roadmap for sustainable tourism development that benefits all communities in Lane County.
The Destination Master Plan represents Travel Lane County's commitment to ensuring tourism development serves as a tool for thriving communities, aligns with community values and fosters collaboration across our region.
What is a Destination Master Plan?
A Destination Master Plan creates a clearly defined long-term vision for our visitor economy, with an agreed understanding of what success looks like. Unlike organizational strategic plans, this plan focuses on the destination itself — identifying opportunities to develop or enhance experiences and infrastructure while building stronger alignment between the visitor economy, economic development and community well-being.
Our Collaborative Approach
We've started conducting one-on-one interviews with a variety of community leaders throughout Lane County and will host several focus groups into early 2026. The plan will be shaped with meaningful input from:
- Community leaders from all Lane County communities
- Government leaders at local, county, and regional levels
- Local businesses across sectors
- Residents who call Lane County home
- Industry partners throughout the tourism ecosystem
The master plan will integrate existing community master plans and development strategies, ensuring that tourism development aligns with each community's unique character and vision.
Key Outcomes
This master planning process will deliver:
- Sustainable tourism framework that balances economic growth with community values and environmental stewardship
- Infrastructure assessment of current tourism capacity and future development needs across all communities
- Visitor management strategies that optimize tourism's positive impact while addressing community concerns
- Implementation roadmap with clear milestones and accountability measures
Project Timeline
Summer 2025: Initial research, data gathering and stakeholder mapping
Fall 2025 - Spring 2026: Comprehensive stakeholder engagement and plan development
June 2026: Final plan presentation to the community
Be a Part of the Vision
Tourism supports the places and experiences we all enjoy — from local restaurants and breweries to the parks, trails, festivals and shops that make us love living here. It helps fund infrastructure improvements, creates jobs for our neighbors and contributes to a sustainable year-round, countywide economy for our communities. When done thoughtfully, tourism supports communities as great places to live.
If you live in Lane County, your voice is essential to getting this right. Take our 10-minute resident survey to share how you see the future of our destination. You can also share any thoughts you have at any time below.
For more information:
Emily Forsha Vice President of Integrated Marketing
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Emily leads the implementation and management of digital tools and platforms, branding and creative services, and photo and video production to support marketing strategies across all of Travel Lane County's target markets.