McMinnville officials have a plan on how to improve adventure tourism development.

Griggs & Maloney, an engineering, planning and environmental consulting firm, provided city officials with a master tourism plan at the request of the McMinnville-Warren County Chamber of Commerce.

“We’ve been working on this adventure tourism plan for a while now and we’re really excited to present it to you,” said Ryan Maloney, of Griggs and Maloney, who made the presentation with Kevin Chastine. “We hope this document is a living document. We don’t want it to sit on a shelf. We always envision it to be a sellable tool for the community, something you can leverage internally to the organizations that you guys work with and also as a selling point when communicating with external developers or in developing public/ private partnerships.”

The plan, more than 40 pages, outlined what McMinnville and Warren County currently have to offer tourists, ways to expand into adventure tourism, and ideas on bringing in tourists.
By the plan, “Within 50 miles of McMinnville’s Historic Courthouse Square are eight state parks and natural areas, three navigable rivers, and over 125 miles of trails,” and those can be used to make McMinnville an adventure tourism destination.

The Adventure Travel Trade Association defines adventure tourism as a trip that includes at least two of the following elements: physical activity, natural environment, and cultural immersion.

Griggs & Maloney outlined four goals that would lay the foundation for strengthening and expanding adventure tourism here:

Destination and hub: McMinnville’s unique proximity to eight state parks and natural areas, all within a 75-minute drive, provides the opportunity for visitors to take a day away from a state park and experience downtown McMinnville shops, food, and experiences not available in a state park.

Get the word out: For someone to experience a new place they must first know it exists and then know its uniqueness. This strategy focuses on evaluation of existing marketing efforts and how those may be strengthened, as well as exploring new avenues of marketing and promotion.

Strengthen and expand tourism support industries: Although the area touts an abundance of natural beauty and potential for outdoor activities, the opportunity for sustaining the adventure tourism market lies within the industries that provide for visitors during their stay. These include food and lodging, but also encompass general retail establishments, as well as retail specific to adventure tourism, such as outfitters.

Strengthen and expand adventure tourism activities: As diverse as the existing tourism activities are, to ensure sustained success and growth of adventure tourism new tourism operations must be brought in, supported, and grown. Just as important is the collaboration of existing tourism operators to create new and unique adventures for all level of adventure tourists.

The plan also included possible funding sources, strategies and who McMinnville could seek to attract: Baby Boomers, Generation X, or Millennials.

According to Chastine, Millennials are the largest generation and they want experiences.

“There was actually a specific study on Millennials and adventure tourism so we included a good bit of information in there about that. Millennials have become the largest generation in U.S. history. Obviously, that’s a large group of people to market to. Also, they represent about $1.3 trillion in spending ability. Again, this is a huge market to focus on. One of the things we found interesting, which was repeated in different studies, the one statistic is that Millennials want to spend money on experiences and not physical things. They aren’t looking to come somewhere and buy a T-shirt or buy this to take home to remember. They want the experience, such as kayaking or hiking.”

Baby Boomers and Generation X, said Chastine, are also seeking experiences but just not to the degree of Millennials.

The Chamber obtained a grant through Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development for the adventure tourism plan by Griggs & Maloney.