Overview

Think about your most recent travel experience. Why did you choose to travel to that particular destination? And once you decided to make the journey, how did you learn about what to do, where to eat, and where to stay? Whether the tourist is aware of it or not, destination marketing impacts those decisions.

A destination marketing and management organization is behind the TV commercial, magazine advertisement, or digital banner ad that promotes a destination. These advertisements depict the attractive attributes of a destination and are designed to spark curiosity, intrigue, and desire to visit the destination. A destination’s website, app, or visitor guide presents information on what to do, where to eat, and where to stay.

A destination marketing and management organization also manages tourism within a destination by assisting visitors, collaborating with tourism stakeholders to develop and maintain sustainable tourism practices, advocating for the tourism industry, analyzing and reporting on tourism statistics, and more. This chapter provides an overview of the purpose and function of a destination marketing and management organization with an emphasis on the wide variety of career paths and roles available in this field.

3.1 Introduction

3.1.1 What is a Destination Management Organization?

A Destination Management Organization (DMO) is an organization that promotes a city, region, county, state, nation, or area to potential visitors and/or manages multiple aspects of tourism within a destination. These organizations can be private, government, quasi-government, or non-profit. The DMO coordinates with tourism-related stakeholders (those with an interest in tourism in a destination), including local businesses, attractions and events, hotels and event facilities, local government, and community groups, to strategically plan the promotion, development, and continuity of tourism for the destination.

While there are different types of DMOs and variations in terminology for tourism organizations (discussed below), the phraseology denotes slight variations in organizational focus, structure, and geographic boundaries. These organizations are similar enough to generalize on their roles within the hospitality and tourism industry. The term “Destination Management Organization” and the acronym “DMO” will be used throughout this chapter as an all-encompassing term.

It is important to understand what a DMO does because these organizations are the nucleus of the local tourism industry. Regardless of your chosen career path, if it is within the hospitality and tourism industry, you will have the opportunity to work with the DMO that represents your region. All hospitality and tourism-related professionals are impacted by their local DMO, whether they are aware of it or not, by region-wide marketing and sales efforts. In addition, DMOs typically offer many opportunities, such as cooperative marketing and/or sales campaigns, research, training initiatives, and other useful programs, that can help grow your career.

3.1.1.1 Defining a Destination

The term destination is used by the tourism industry to identify a geographic area that attracts visitors. A destination can be one city or multiple cities, an entire state, territory, or country, or a region of a country such as the Pacific Northwest. In the case of a DMO, the boundary defining the region as a ‘destination’ is typically established by the administrative body that has commissioned the management of the region, such as a community organization or a governmental entity like a city council.

Often, the boundary of a DMO is based on its financial sources. DMOs are typically funded by a variety of sources (to be discussed later in this chapter) including Tourism Promotion Area and Business Improvement District assessments, hotel occupancy taxes, and other taxes. Assessments and taxes are charged to businesses or taxpayers within a defined area, either a district, city, county, or state. If a DMO is funded by one or more of these sources, then the boundary of their destination typically mirrors the assessment or tax boundary.

3.1.1.2 Types of Tourism Organizations

The diagram below, the result of a worldwide survey of DMOs conducted by Destinations International and MMGY NextFactor (2023), shows the variety of business models involved in destination marketing and management.

•  Private/Public Partnerships (10%): In some destinations, private entities, governmental bodies, and/or NGOs (non-governmental organizations, usually with a social mission) partner in support of the development of sustainable tourism practices. In Samoa, community tourism operators have partnered with the private sector and federal government to develop innovative mechanisms to adapt to climate change (UN World Tourism Organization, 2015, p. 46).
• Chamber of Commerce (4%): Some Chamber of Commerces’ conduct tourism promotion in addition to their non-tourism work. The Kittitas County Chamber of Commerce in Ellensburg, Washington, offers a visitor center, helps manage tourists (especially during the famous Ellensburg Rodeo), and works with municipalities to promote Kittitas County as a premier tourism destination (Kittitas County Chamber of Commerce, n.d.).
• Government Department/Authority (21%): Tourism promotion is conducted by governmental bodies in some destinations, sometimes incorporated into the work of economic development departments at various levels of government. The Ministry of Economy, Development, and Tourism manages tourism promotion in Chile.
• Non-profit Organization with membership (35%): Some DMOs are membership-based, which means that they supplement their funding by selling memberships to the tourism businesses in their destination. Visit Seattle in Seattle, Washington, is funded by a variety of sources, including membership fees (Visit Seattle, n.d.).
• Non-profit Organization with no membership (17%): Some DMOs do not charge membership fees to the tourism businesses in their destination and rely solely on other funding sources. Explore Seattle Southside, which represents the cities south of Seattle, is funded by a Tourism Promotion Area assessment only (Explore Seattle Southside, 2024).
• Other (13%): Other business models exist to market and manage tourism in a destination.

The way a tourism organization is structured can influence how it operates. For example, a private/public partnership will usually have heavy influence from the private partner to accomplish a specific goal. Chambers of Commerce have broader missions for supporting their business partners, and tourism marketing is but one component of that support. Government organizations will be restricted by adherence to political wills. Non-profit organizations with membership may be influenced by their member base while non-profit organizations without membership will usually have another funding source to maintain. One business model is not better than another, and they all have their strengths and weaknesses.

3.1.1.2.1 National Tourism Organizations/Administrations (NTOs or NTAs) and Ministers of Tourism (MOTs)

At a national level, National Tourism Organizations (NTOs) & Ministers of Tourism (MOTs) are governmental bodies that focus on tourism development for their countries. These entities actively promote destinations, either directly or through a contracted marketing agency, and often act as oversight organizations, developing policies and helping dictate rules and regulations for the travel sector.

In the United States, the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) works to “enhance the international competitiveness of the U.S. travel and tourism industry and increase its exports, thereby creating U.S. employment and economic growth” (International Trade Administration, n.d., para 1). They accomplish this goal by reducing barriers that international travelers may face to enter the U.S., through robust marketing campaigns administered through their marketing agency, Brand USA, by providing official governmental travel and tourism statistics for the public, and by coordinating efforts across federal agencies through the Tourism Policy Council (Brand USA, 2022).

3.1.1.2.2 Regional Tourism Organizations (RTOs)

Regional Tourism Organizations (RTOs) are state, county, city, and region-run tourism offices. In some cases, these organizations are government-run, such as the State of New York Division of Marketing, Advertising, and Tourism. Other RTOs are statutory bodies, quasi-governmental entities, or non-profit organizations. RTOs are also often referred to as Regional Tourism Associations (RTAs) .

RTOs include the following:

Convention and Visitors Bureaus (CVBs)

Most of the organizations that initially emerged since the 20th century to promote destinations were known as Convention and Visitors Bureaus (CVBs) . A CVB is responsible for promoting a destination to tourists, like most destination marketing and management organizations, but there is much more of a focus on attracting conventions to the destination. These destinations often have large convention centers built to draw event attendees to the destination.

Convention business can be lucrative, bringing a lot of people into the destination who stay in hotels, eat at restaurants, and spend money. Convention Centers are built on the premise that, when filled with convention attendees, the city will receive an economic boost. Therefore, competition amongst cities for hosting conventions is zealous. A CVB will have dedicated staff members focused on selling the convention center facility, as well as the destination, as an ideal convention location.

Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs)

The post-WWII rise in mass tourism in the second half of the 20th century provided an opportunity for destinations to attract more leisure travelers (Kachroo-Levine, 2021), including international tourists. The term, “CVB”, lacked an emphasis on this expanded marketing approach and a new term emerged; Destination marketing organizations (DMOs) . Some organizations found that the term DMO better described this broader promotional strategy. Their primary function was to market and promote the destination to potential visitors of all segments, including leisure travelers who travel for enjoyment and business travelers who attend meetings and conventions.

Destination Management Organizations (DMOs)

Until recently, DMOs typically based their strategic plans on increasing tourism to their destination. Their business goals emphasized growth in the numbers of tourists, the number of ‘heads in beds’ at hotels (the number of people staying overnight at hotels), and in tourism dollars spent within the destination. Marketing and sales activities were the primary means to accomplish these objectives. However, some destinations have experienced overtourism , which is when too many visitors negatively impact a destination. The result is a need for tourism to be managed more effectively. This forced some DMOs to shift away from a goal of increasing tourism and focus more on stewardship of the destination, managing tourism’s impact, conserving the destination’s natural and historic sites, and preserving its culture and heritage.

Most DMOs have taken on the responsibility of managing more than just the marketing of their destination. They have integrated additional stewardship, development, and stakeholder engagement into their strategic planning. Therefore, some DMOs have elected to replace the “M” in their acronym from ‘marketing’ to ‘management’. This replacement word is more descriptive of the work some DMOs do. Because it is ambiguous to use the same acronym for a Destination Marketing Organization and a Destination Management Organization, some organizations have even chosen to use both and call themselves Destination Marketing and Management Organizations (DMMO) .

3.1.2 History of Destination Promotion

In 1896, business leaders in Detroit recognized the economic benefit large conventions brought to the city and formed an organization known as the Detroit Convention and Businessmen’s League, now known as the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau (Ford & Peeper, 2007). The mission of this organization was to market the City of Detroit as an ideal place for organizers to hold their conventions, bringing attendee dollars into the city. In 1898, the group published a fully illustrated book, Detroit, the Convention City (Bierce, 1898), to further promote their destination.

The Seattle Chamber of Commerce was one of the first organizations to recognize the potential of marketing to visitors. One of their target markets was those traveling to the Klondike Gold Rush in Alaska and Yukon Territory in Northwestern Canada (Mighetto & Montgomery, 1998). While Seattle had the advantage of proximity to Alaska and the Yukon, multiple West Coast cities competed for the opportunity to be the outfitting and departure point for the Yukon when gold was discovered in 1896 on the Klondike River. The Chamber established a Bureau of Information in 1897 to promote Seattle as the “Gateway to the Gold Fields.” Led by a local journalist Erastus Brainerd, the organization devised a plan to fund an advertising campaign to promote the city by taxing Seattle merchants who would likely profit from the influx of visitors.

“We are taking advantage of the Klondike excitement to let the world know about Seattle.” Erastus Brainerd, 1897 (as cited in Mighetto & Montgomery, 1998, p. 39)

Much like the direct marketing tactics utilized by modern DMOs, Brainerd placed advertisements in newspapers and popular journals offering the services of the Bureau of Information to Yukon-bound prospectors and declaring it “will always answer free of charge all questions as to Routes of Transportation, Cost of Outfitting, etc. for the Yukon, Copper River, Henia Peninsula and other Alaskan gold Fields; for which Seattle is the port of Departure” (as cited in Mighetto & Montgomery, 1998, p. 44). Brainerd wrote feature stories in publications across the nation praising Seattle, providing testimonials from others who experienced the city, and declaring that “everybody in the East says Seattle is an extraordinary place” (p. 44). He even developed a traveling exhibit of $6,000 of Klondike gold. The Great Northern Express Company carried the exhibit throughout the nation to excite prospective gold-rushers.

Similar to the common destination travel guides produced by DMOs today, a special Klondike edition was published by the Post-Intelligencer in October of 1897. The 1897 headline read “Seattle Opens the Gate to the Klondike Gold Fields,” (as cited in Mighetto & Montgomery, 1998, p. 42) and provided advice to prospectors on how to prepare for and travel to the gold fields. This special issue was distributed nationwide:

• 70,000 were sent to postmasters for distribution
• 20,000 were sent to newspaper editors for circulation
• 10,000 were sent to librarians for dissemination
• Mayors and city councils received approximately 10,000 copies
• 15,000 were sent to railway operators for sharing.

As a result of this positioning, 70% of gold-fevered visitors came through Seattle on their way to the Klondike Gold Fields, spending large amounts of money and often settling in the City, which dramatically grew Seattle into the major U.S. city it is today (National Park Service, 2022). Seattle is still known as the “Gateway to Alaska” with airline company Alaska Airlines based in Seattle and many Alaskan cruises departing from Seattle ports.

3.1.3 Significance of DMOs

To the tourist, the act of traveling can fulfill their need for excitement, intellectual stimulation, exploration, relaxation, or reconnecting. But from the viewpoint of the businesses within the destination, the act of traveling has an economic impact.

Tourism brings money into an area from outside the area, which means that it is considered an export product . In fact, when looking at global tourism, travel was ranked the third largest U.S. export in 2019, totalling $239 billion, only behind capital goods (used in producing other goods) and other industrial supplies (International Trade Administration, 2021), and accounted for 9% of total U.S. exports (U.S. Travel Association, 2023).

Tourism is an essential driver of economic vitality for many destinations, large and small, contributing to the growth of local businesses and encouraging the establishment of new business ventures. Yet the success of these hospitality and tourism-related businesses rely heavily on many factors outside of their control. For example, a tourist does not decide to visit a destination simply to stay at a specific hotel (unless the hotel is a destination resort property). The tourist may choose to book a hotel because of its proximity to things to do or see, friends and family, or business opportunities. A tourist typically decides first on a destination to visit because of its reputation of having great weather, interesting sites, fascinating culture, or relaxing luxury and then book the hotel only after making that decision. The hotel, therefore, is reliant on attributes of the destination and where it is situated for its success. The same could be said for other businesses, such as restaurants, smaller-sized attractions, and shops.

With so many hospitality and tourism-related businesses reliant on the reputation of the destination for their business success, the tourism industry is collaborative by necessity. Attractions, restaurants, and hotels can and do market their offerings to tourists, but a tourist does not usually decide to visit a destination based on one draw (unless the draw is significant, such as Disneyland) but instead they have an impression of a destination that draws their interest. And, when a tourist returns home from a trip, the stories they bring back and tell others will include many aspects of the destination. They sleep, eat, and entertain themselves utilizing multiple businesses and all of those components make up their travel experience. A DMO will assess the entire destination and its tourism-related experiences when they strategize on the promotion of a destination.

3.1.3.1 The Destination Management Cycle

As we have discussed, a DMO exists to manage and promote a destination to potential visitors. And while this effort is focused on increasing the attractiveness of a destination for visitors, it also contributes to the overall vitality of a place for residents and businesses.

The Destination Management Cycle, developed by Maura Gast (2019), exemplifies the indirect results of tourism marketing, illustrated in the chart below. The process is self renewing, meaning that there is not necessarily a starting point and each phase of the cycle flows into the next, which then flows back to the original phase. A DMO, focused primarily on building a place where people want to visit, can also contribute to the attractiveness of a destination for workers, businesses, and residents, which then increases the desirability of the place as a destination to visit.

If a place is attractive to visit, then the area becomes desirable as a place to live. With an influx of residents, opportunities arise for business development and employment, as both are required to provide suppliers and services to an increasing local population. And with an increase in business, including restaurants and leisure businesses, the destination becomes more accessible to people who want to visit.

3.2 Today’s Destination Management Organization (DMO)

There are multiple terms people use to identify destination marketing and management organizations (as described above). Some of this variation is a result of geographical reach and other terms have evolved over time based on changes in organizational functionality. However, most destination marketing and management organizations share similar governance, funding models, roles, and functionality.

3.2.1 Governance and Funding

Most DMOs are most often governed by a Board of Directors and a set of organization by-laws that specify through policies and procedures how the DMO is to operate.

A DMO’s Board of Directors approve policies and annual budgets, monitor spending, provide direction, monitor DMO performance, and represent the DMO in the community. DMOs are typically non-profit organizations, and their board members are usually not compensated for their time. The size of a DMO’s Board and the composition of its membership varies greatly. Some DMOs have the authority to select Board members directly, choosing amongst its tourism stakeholders such as hotel general managers and community leaders. Other DMO Board of Directors are appointed by administrative bodies such as the governmental agencies. Other DMOs are governed by various models as shown below.

3.2.1.1 Funding

According to the 2017 Futures Study, 93% of DMO funding came from public sources and 7% from private (Destinations International, 2017). Public sources include sales or hotel occupancy taxes (also called “HOT” taxes or lodging taxes), assessments such as Tourism Promotion Area and Business Improvement District assessments , or other taxed or assessed funds. Other revenue comes from membership fees, marketing revenue, building revenue (such as is generated through events held at a convention center), and private grants and donations.

The below chart demonstrates how wide ranging DMO budgets are, with most DMO total budgets under $1 Million (35%), followed by 30% of budgets between $1 Million and $5 Million.

 

3.2.1.2 Accountability and Transparency

Because DMO funding comes primarily from public sources, DMOs are held accountable for their activities and must justify and account for their use of resources. The DMO, therefore, must keep diligent records, disclose decision-making details, measure the results from marketing campaigns, sales activities, and other programs, and report these results in a transparent way. Should the actual results of spending activities not measure up to expectations, the DMO must be able to explain why. Most publicly-funded DMOs produce an annual report to provide an overall summary of results. DMO spending is often audited by an independent auditor to make certain that the use of public funds is appropriate and within proper authorization.

DMOs that are government or quasi-government may be subject to public records acts . In Washington State, the Washington Public Records Act (Wash. Rev. Code § 42.56, 2005) requires that agencies make most records public upon request with only few exemptions, meaning all emails, voicemails, text messages, documents, and other records must be provided to anyone who submits a request to see them.

Transparency is essential in order for a DMO to be held accountable for spending public money. It is also important because it empowers tourism stakeholders with understanding the DMOs decision making process. DMOs often provide a wide range of information and data on their website for the public to access, such as meeting minutes, annual reports, and sometimes financial reports. DMOs often hold public board meetings and make certain those meetings are announced and accessible. This openness in operations ensures public money is being spent appropriately.

3.2.2 Roles and Functions of a DMO

Although the terminology and strategic focus of each DMO may differ, most perform the following functions, at least to some extent.

3.2.2.1 Destination Leadership

A DMO is not only responsible for the marketing of a destination, but also the management of tourism-related affairs within that destination. The DMO should act as the leader of the tourism sector, bringing together tourism stakeholders to ensure that the promotional strategy, visitor experience, and branding efforts are in line.

 

3.2.2.1.1 Advocacy and Government Relations

It is essential that DMO leadership build relationships with local, state, and regional governmental bodies so that officials understand the impact of tourism within their community and recognize its contribution to the destination’s economic vitality. There is strong competition for public funding, and the DMO needs to ensure that tourism marketing is funded adequately. In addition, governmental regulations, funding initiatives, the establishment of programs, business relocations and land use, historic designations, and other things that impact the public also impact tourism. Often these impacts are underestimated by the authorities making the decisions. DMOs are the advocates for tourism and it is important the governmental officials hear from them when decisions are being made.

Building relationships with government officials is an important proactive step for DMO leadership. This is because advocacy is an ongoing effort that should happen before the DMO requests support from the government. Once the DMO is in need, government officials are more inclined to give credence to an organization they are familiar with than one with which they do not have a standing relationship.

3.2.2.1.2 Destination Stewardship

Another example of how DMOs embrace the role of leadership is by leading the community in developing sustainability plans that minimize the negative impacts of tourism on a destination, either due to overtourism or environmental degradation. The vitality of a destination’s environment, population, and preservation is important to DMOs and necessary for a sustainable future.

According to the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, destination stewardship is defined as “a process by which local communities, governmental agencies, NGOs, and the tourism industry take a multi-stakeholder approach to maintaining the cultural, environmental, economic, and aesthetic integrity of their country, region, or town” (n.d., para. 10).

Destination Stewardship is a community-centered approach to developing strategies that focus primarily on protecting the qualities that make the destination a wonderful place to live and therefore a wonderful place to visit. It is a strategy to counter the historic approach to tourism development that has degraded some destinations in the name of more tourists, where natural and cultural assets have been commodified to the point where the residents cannot enjoy their community (Bray, 2021; Crotts et al., 2022).

Clearly destination stewardship cannot be effectively administered without the community. To engage the residents and tourism stakeholders, some DMOs perform surveys and other outreach measures or form stewardship councils in order to identify shared goals and organize strategies towards achieving them.

 

Hawai’i, an island of 1.5 million residents, hosted a record 10.4 million visitors in 2019 (Hawai’i Tourism Authority, 2020). Residents felt overrun with traffic, crowded beaches and trails, and high prices for goods and services. The Covid pandemic lockdown in 2020 was like a much-needed breather for locals, and heartened Hawai’i Tourism Authority’s 2020 six-year strategic plan, for the first time majority-led by native Hawaiians. The mission is no longer to increase tourism in Hawai’i, but is instead, “to strategically manage Hawai‘i tourism in a sustainable manner consistent with economic goals, cultural values, preservation of natural resources, community desires and visitor industry needs” (para. 1). Reservations are now required to visit popular natural attractions with caps on entry passes, educational videos about coral regeneration and marine life are required viewing prior to visiting some beaches, and more respectful and authentic tourist-focused cultural practices are embraced such as hula performances that incorporate more traditional dress as opposed to the colonial-imposed grass skirt. See the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority’s (HTA’s) fifth strategic plan below.

 

3.2.2.1.3 Strategic Planning

As the tourism leader for a destination, a DMO is responsible for strategic planning for tourism marketing and destination management. Most DMOs produce multi-year strategic plans that outline the state of the destination’s tourism environment, tourism impact data, market research, and future strategies.

It is important that strategic plans involve tourism stakeholders and residents to ensure that the plan is in line with the community. Involving people in the development of the plan will not only better inform the strategies to implement, but it will also make it more likely that the plan will be embraced by those affected. Those involved should have shared ownership in the plan and feel that their voices are heard.

During the strategic planning process, DMOs will often conduct interviews, surveys, or focus groups with people who have visited the destination or seen an ad produced by the DMO, with tourism stakeholders within their destination, and with residents. They also analyze data such as tax receipts, census data, hotel visitation, airport activity, and other data. They will conduct a S.W.O.T. Analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) to identify and analyze internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats. This information will be used to develop strategies and initiatives that will guide the DMO’s daily operations. Strategic plans will also include performance measurements to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy, called Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) . The strategic plan will be written in report form, incorporating all of this information, and will be shared with tourism stakeholders and usually made available on a DMO’s website.

3.2.2.1.4 Tourism Data Evaluation

Tourism research does not end with the production of the strategic plan. Tourism data is continuously gathered by DMOs and often made available to stakeholders. DMOs typically employ research companies to gather data on their behalf, such as STR Research, which reports on a destinations’ hotel occupancy (percentage of hotel rooms sold during a specified time period), Average Daily Rate (a measure of the average rate paid for hotel rooms sold) and Revenue Per Available Room (total hotel room revenue divided by the total number of available hotel rooms).

Data also helps DMOs better understand its potential visitors, competitors, and opportunities. It can inform the DMO on how well their ads and campaigns are doing, how their destination’s image is perceived by potential visitors, and how satisfied visitors to their destination are.

Recent technology has made it possible for DMOs to commission the analysis of visitor movement through mobile phone location tracking. This data is aggregated, meaning that the location and movement information is reported as a whole so no specific individual can be identified or tracked. The ability to track visitor movement can assist DMOs with identifying how visitors move around their destination, where they go before or after they attend an event or arrive at their hotel, and what attractions are most popular. This data also reveals the ‘home’ location of the visitor’s mobile phone, which then tells the DMO where tourists are coming from.

Evaluation is also important in demonstrating a DMOs effectiveness to stakeholders. In multi-year strategic plans and with annual work plans, DMOs will identify KPIs that they will periodically measure against. Evaluating initiatives regularly allows for the DMO to pivot or alter plans to optimize success.

Destinations International (DI), the global association for destination professionals, outlined a handbook to standardize performance reporting for DMOs (Destination Marketing Association International & Destination & Travel Foundation, 2011). These standards met the need in the community for a uniform approach to reporting performance measurements for convention sales, travel trade sales, marketing and communication (direct-to-consumer), membership, and visitor information center. In addition to identifying performance measurements, such as the number of social media followers, newsletter signups, hotel reservations, leads received and sent, and booked meetings, activity and productivity measurements were identified. Activity measurements quantify the work that DMO staff perform, such as attending a tradeshow or distributing a press release. Productivity measurements analyze the relationship between the performance and its resource, such as cost per lead or cost per impression. While these measurements are quantitative, DI recommends that DMOs performance reporting be accompanied by narrative reviews.

3.2.2.2 Marketing and Branding

Tourism differs from many products that are bought and sold because it is not a physical thing that a consumer can hold in their hands, that they can try on or test drive prior to purchase. It is an experience that is anticipated and imagined based on marketing materials, consumed media, and word of mouth. It is a temporary relocation of a place out of a traveler’s normal routine in the hopes of experiencing something different. That experience is made up of multiple elements; where one sleeps, eats, and finds entertainment, which when combined create the experience of a destination.

The places people travel to already existed before tourists, but it is only with marketing that they draw the attention of new visitors. Marketing consists of branding, promotional campaigns, public relations, and other methods that attract tourists, all fueled by market research and data.

According to Morrison, destination marketing is defined as “a continuous, sequential process through which a destination management organization (DMO) plans, researches, implements, controls and evaluates programmes aimed at satisfying traveler’s needs and wants as well as the destination’s and DMO’s visions, goals and objectives” (2019, p. 9).

DMOs sometimes work with a contracted marketing agency to help develop the brand, advertisements, and marketing campaigns. There are many marketing agencies that cater specifically to DMOs and understand marketing in the tourism space. These agencies will work behind the scenes, helping the DMO with strategic planning, destination intelligence, designing websites and advertisements, public relations, and buying media. A DMO may use all or only a few of their services, depending on their budgets, staffing levels, and expertise. Other DMOs, usually those with larger budgets and staff, will perform these activities internally without outside assistance.

Many DMOs employ integrated marketing communications (IMC) in their approach. IMC is the fusion of a DMO’s external outreach efforts to increase effectiveness. This means that advertising, social media, personal sales outreach, public relations, and other promotions are coordinated to deliver a more consistent message.

3.2.2.2.1 Research and Segmentation

A DMO’s marketing approach takes research and planning prior to implementation. When developing a marketing plan, it is important to know the target audience. When determining a target audience, the DMO will analyze the motivations to travel (to escape, for work, etc.), the demographics (age, occupation, education, ethnicity, income, and household composition) and psychographics (interests and personality) profiles of visitors, and the stages that make up the buyer’s journey . Motivations for travel differ depending on the trip purpose, for example, pleasure travel vs. visiting family and friends vs. business travel. Demographics and psychographics can offer insights into what would spark interest in a potential visitor. And the stages of the buyer’s journey can inform the DMO on where to place what messaging. Segmenting the target audiences allows for more direct and effective messaging.

The chart below, based on a survey of 837 CEOs of destination organizations from 62 countries, displays the percentage of DMOs focused on leisure travel, business events, or both (Destinations International & MMGY NextFactor, 2023). In this chart, the market segment categorized as ‘leisure travel’ includes group tours (aka, tour operators or group leaders) and people traveling alone or with family and friends for fun and leisure. ‘Business events’ include conventions, meetings, exhibitions, and incentives, which are corporate-led trips that are designed to incentivize and reward employees.

 

3.2.2.2.2 Branding

A destination’s brand is behind its marketing approach. The brand consists of the name and logo, the look and feel of marketing materials, and the overall positioning of the destination in the minds of the public in relation to expectations and when differentiating it from other destinations.

As Morrison (2019) describes, destination branding is interconnected with positioning and image . Positioning is “how the destination decides to make itself unique among competing destinations from the tourist’s perspective” and image is the “mental image people have in their minds of specific tourism destinations” (p. 289). These intersect with the destination’s brand in portraying the unique identity and personality of the destination. Once a DMO decides the destination brand in collaboration with its stakeholders, it can use brand messaging to outline the marketing approach.

Tourism marketing organizations are focused on positioning the destination in the marketplace and developing a destination image. This unique identity is expressed on behalf of the destination through ads, articles, commercials, etc. distinguishes the place from other places in the minds of tourists.

3.2.2.2.3 Collateral and Marketing Assets

Historically, a DMO’s physical travel planner or visitor guide was the primary means of communicating to potential visitors the desirability of the destination, things to do, places to eat, and hotel options. A 2020 survey of visitor guide recipients found that 88.8% of readers felt that the visitor guide helped them in making a decision to visit the destination (Adams et al., 2021). Today, the visitor guides at some destinations have evolved to become e-books, digital magazines, mobile apps, or are delivered in other multimedia formats.

Even more so than visitor guides, the DMO website is now the principal communication platform for most DMOs. In addition to intriguing visitors through photographs, videos, and written content, a destination website can act as an information source for those planning their visit. Websites provide DMOs with the advantage of implementing digital and search engine advertising, quickly changing out content, and tracking website usage. Most DMO websites are robust, including a calendar of events, ideas for activities that can be curated to the user’s interest, details on hotels, event venues, and restaurants, suggested itineraries, and blogs describing activities and features of the destination.

Many DMOs offer an e-newsletter, sent out periodically to members of the public who opted in to receive the email. These e-newsletters inform potential visitors on things to do, upcoming events, and interesting information. Modern e-newsletter software allows for data collection on the number of people who open and click a link. Programs can also identify individuals’ interests based on what they clicked so that the DMO can retarget them with more focused content.

Most DMOs utilize multiple social media channels , including Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and more. Social media channels not only allow for unlimited outreach through free postings or paid posts and allow for DMOs to share imagery, topical news stories, interesting information, and upcoming events, it provides a communication channel between tourists, the DMO, and other users. The DMO can build a community of interests and engage with users, they can collect user-generated content such as images, videos, and posts made by others, comments to posts can also be monitored to evaluate user sentiment about the destination, and a DMO can use social media platforms to encourage word-of-mouth recommendations.

The travel industry, including DMOs and travel retailers, have been accused historically of marketing a destination or an experience only to have visitors discover something different upon arrival (Morrison, 2019). This happens when messaging is not aligned with the destination’s community and authenticity. The problem has actually been tempered in recent years due to the rise of social media. Social media has democratized the marketing of travel, meaning that it has allowed for not just the marketers, but anyone to post and review places based on their own experience.

3.2.2.2.4 Media Buys and Campaigns

DMOs are faced with several options for advertising, including print ads in magazines, television and radio commercials, marketing sponsorships at events, billboards, digital display and banner ads, social media ads, and more. These media buys can be expensive and make up a significant portion of budgets for many DMOs.

The rise of digital media has transformed how people access news, watch movies and shows, shop, and find entertainment, resulting in a decline in print publications. Some DMOs focus their media buy on digital opportunities such as display and banner ads, retargeting campaigns, social media ads, and paid search optimization by paying for search keywords. When an internet user uses a search engine to search for a particular subject, those typed words can be purchased by a DMO, resulting in the DMO website displaying as one of the search results. Or, when a user clicks on a website to shop or listen to music or read the news, a DMO’s banner or display ads can appear on the website.

3.2.2.2.5 Public and Media Relations

In addition to marketing campaigns, media relations can advance DMO messaging through media or press. DMOs often build relationships with media contacts with the goal of having articles produced about the destination. DMOs will write press releases describing new attractions, upcoming events, interesting stories, and other newsworthy information and distribute these to their media contacts.

DMOs may also conduct media missions where they will meet with press or organize media familiarization tours (fams) where they will invite media contacts on a trip to the destination. By offering these events, the DMO is encouraging media to produce articles and other pieces that highlight the destination. The key is to showcase aspects of the destination that would make a good story.

It is important for destinations to maintain a positive public presence, within the destination as well as externally. The relationship between the DMO and the media can be indispensable if the destination is faced with a negative public story, such as natural disasters, riots, social issues, acts of terrorism, outbreaks of disease, etc. In addition to the DMO responding to these negative stories on their website and social media channels, news channels can be useful to mitigate negative perceptions.

Another increasingly important relationship for a DMO is with social media influencers . Social media influencers are users on social media who, through regular postings, video (vlogs) or written blogs, and branding, have gained a large following and social credibility in their specific industry. There are many travel bloggers and vloggers online and many will contract with DMOs, hotels, attractions, and other companies to promote the destination through their medium. According to Matter Communications (as cited in Deyo, 2023), 69% of survey respondents said they are more likely to trust a friend, family member or influencer recommendation over information coming directly from a brand and 81% of respondents took action towards purchasing a product or service after seeing a post by friends, family or influencers.

3.2.2.2.6 Film Development

Another way to showcase a destination is through film. The portrayal of a destination in movies or television episodes can greatly impact visitation to a destination. That is because people like to see in real life the locations they viewed on screen. In 2013, Finding Mr. Right, a popular Chinese movie, “motivated many viewers to fall in love with Seattle. As one of the best-selling Chinese films of all time, the movie’s love story [was interwoven] with the city and established Seattle as a romantic destination,” resulting in many Chinese tourists expressing an interest in visiting Seattle (McGuire, 2021, para. 2).

Much like media relations, DMO staff involved in film development build relationships with the location scouts and decision-makers for film production companies. They will also attend trade shows, make prospecting calls to qualified companies, place advertisements in relevant publications, on websites and social media platforms, and conduct familiarization tours showcasing potential film locations.

3.2.2.2.7 Marketing Evaluation

Marketing strategies are evaluated periodically to determine their effectiveness. This allows for the DMO to pivot their strategy to optimize results.

Because a DMO promotes something that is not tangible, it is difficult to determine if a specific campaign directly resulted in a tourist visiting the destination. Unlike product marketing, such as with PepsiCo, a DMO does not have direct sales figures and cannot measure the number of products sold, such as bottles of soda. Tourists are bombarded by advertisements about the destination from multiple sources, news stories about the destination, and the opinions of their friends and family and it is nearly impossible to claim a visit was 100% the result of a media buy, ad placement, sales meeting, or other outreach effort by the DMO.

A major advantage to digital marketing is that it is more easily measurable. On a DMO’s own website, data can be collected on the number of user sessions, how engaged a user was with the content, and how the user navigated the site. For display and banner ads, data is collected on “impressions” , which is the number of times an ad appeared on a viewed website, and on “click-through rates” , which is the number of times an internet user clicked on the ad to take them to the DMO website.

With e-newsletters, open rates and click-thru rates are monitored. This data will help the DMO better understand if their newsletter content is of interest to the recipient. Emerging technology around email systems allow DMOs to send e-newsletters to recipients on individualized days and times based on that particular user’s likelihood to open the email. E-newsletters can also be sent with different subject lines and headings to evaluate how the variance affected open rates.

Some DMOs will conduct conversion studies to determine the effectiveness of their ad placement, visitor guide, or website. The study determines how many people who have interacted in some form with the DMO actually visited the destination.

3.2.2.3 Visitor Services

Of the 837 DMOs from 62 countries who participated in Destinations International’s DestinationNext Survey, 60% had visitor information centers (Destinations International & MMGY NextFactor, 2023). Visitor Information Centers provide visitors with maps and brochures and usually a place to use the bathroom, which is an important consideration while traveling. Some Visitor Information Centers offer souvenir shops, bookstores, or they display exhibits or videos educating guests on the destination’s history, culture, and nature.

Visitor services staff are well educated on the destination and will often provide tourists with directions, recommendations, and they will assist with hotel, tour, entertainment shows, and restaurant reservations. Often visitor services staff will earn a commission on these bookings.

Of the DMOs that do not offer a Visitor Information Center, some provide the same services virtually via phone, email, or chat. Some develop apps in lieu of Visitor Information Centers.

Some DMOs have taken the visitor information center on the road and have converted vans, food trucks, and even ambulances into mobile visitor centers. The primary advantage is, of course, its mobility. A mobile visitor center can be parked in the heart of primary tourists activities, such as events, festivals, conventions, and popular sites.

3.2.2.4 Product and Destination Development

Many DMOs focus on developing tourism products, services, and master plans to create a more inviting tourism landscape. The aim is to enhance the destination’s offerings through compelling experiences, quality infrastructure, educated tourist sector staff, and other overarching initiatives that enhance the holistic destination experience for the tourist.

Tourism products are the elements tourists consume during a travel event (Polat et al., 2019). In other words, they are the overnight accommodations, modes of transportations, dining services, entertainment, and experiences such as guided tours and attractions used throughout a trip. Unlike most goods and services, tourism products do not necessarily require a financial transaction. A tourism product can be a hiking trail or a park, intangible things like services or the local people tourists interact with, or they can be material objects like purchased souvenirs. The tourism product is the combination of all the elements that make a travel experience complete.

DMOs will package tourism products together for marketing purposes and to educate visitors on why they should visit the destination and what they should do while there. DMOs will create themed itineraries, assist hotels with creating hotel packages, or put together “trails”, self-guided tours, or savings passes. For example, Visit Sacramento offers a “Fried Chicken Trail,” Richmond, B.C. offers a “Dumpling Trail,” and the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development offers a “U.S. Civil Rights Trail.”

Destination development, as opposed to product development, is less focused on the marketing and development of tourism products and more focused on the destination itself and its infrastructure, facilities, services, and experiences. Forward-thinking DMOs plan well into the future – 5, 10, even 20 years – and consider how the destination can utilize its assets to enhance the tourism landscape.

Destination Development includes the creation of programs that can help hospitality businesses improve and expand their operations. Explore Seattle Southside, for example, offers an online class that teaches the attributes of their destination so that guest-facing staff can answer tourist questions with educated responses. State of Washington Tourism offers a Rural Tourism Support Program that focuses on long-term, sustainable destination development for the benefit of visitors and residents and includes financial support and guidance to rural communities who are looking to develop a tourism strategy. Destination British Columbia offers destination development planning assistance to the tourism sector in British Columbia, Canada, inviting tourism businesses, agencies, non-profits, and local governments to partner with them on developing long term growth strategies. These initiatives focus on elevating the tourist experience in a destination.

DMOs often take a leadership role in placemaking , which is the process of shaping the future of a place through a shared vision. Focused mostly on public spaces, the goal of placemaking is to strengthen the connection between people and place. It is a collaborative process involving residents, tourism stakeholders, visitors, government, and anyone else who utilizes a place. Placemaking is a concept that designs places for the people, as shared space, instead of for cars or shopping centers, and focuses on the social and cultural importance of public spaces and neighborhoods. Placemaking plans access destination assets like iconic attractions, unique neighborhoods, outdoor recreation, shopping, arts and culture, and infrastructure like wayfinding, accommodations, transportation, and accessibility. They also analyze patterns of use, take into account physical, cultural, and social identities associated with a place, and include strategies and tactics to support the destination’s ongoing evolution.

3.2.2.5 Community Engagement

Destinations International (DI), recognizing the importance of the community when doing the work of tourism marketing and management, has revolutionized the industry by providing a DMO definition with an emphasis on the community:

A destination organization is responsible for promoting a community as an attractive travel destination and enhancing the destination’s public image as a dynamic place to live and work. Through the economic impact of travel they strengthen the economic position and provide opportunity for people in their community. (2018, p. 2)

The people of the community include the residents, tourism-sector and other businesses, elected representatives, community groups such as neighborhood groups, and interest groups such as historical societies. The relationship between the community and the DMO can make or break a tourism organization. It is vital to engage with all stakeholders in order to ensure the work of the DMO is relevant, visible, valued, supported, and sustainable.

3.2.2.5.1 Community Relations

Because of the unique funding structure of DMOs, it is important that local residents are fully aware of the contributions tourism makes to the local economy so that they will support tourism in interactions with their elected government officials. But beyond this, communication with the community can lead to improved visitor experiences. Because residents are part of the ‘tourism product’ and interact with tourists regularly, making sure that they understand the importance of the visitor experience can improve these interactions. Residents are also potential customers of the tourism sector, often leading their visiting friends and family to local attractions and restaurants. They represent the destination through social media posts, blogs, online videos, and word of mouth, and they are the labor pool for local hospitality businesses.

Based on a survey conducted by Simpleview, Inc. in 2022, 84% of DMO respondents are “actively working on community engagement and alignment” (Connell, 2022, para. 6). Examples of these practices include hosting a workshop to discuss how to best represent the destination to tourists, forming a task group to address workforce shortage, financially supporting local venues to hire musicians and elevate the live music scene, and working with indigenous communities to ensure respectful practices.

Community relations includes continuous and sustained communication with the business community, local government, and residents. DMOs have employed various methods to achieve this. Most DMOs distribute community-focused e-newsletters with tourism data, news on tourism-related activities, and other information that would be of interest to community members. Most DMOs also meet regularly with business partners and elected officials to discuss tourism initiatives. Some DMOs submit articles to the local newspaper or hold press conferences addressing residents and reporting on activities, statistics, and updates on local tourism efforts. Messaging to the community is as vital as messaging to potential visitors.

3.2.2.5.2 Partnerships

By default, a DMO is in partnership with its own tourism stakeholders, local government, and residents. However, the opportunity for destination partnerships is inexhaustible and can lead to creative and effective outcomes. DMOs can form partnerships with educational institutions on workforce development, neighboring DMOs on shared itineraries, organizations such as UNWTO or DI on tourism initiatives, non-profit organizations on sustainability issues, and non-tourism businesses on like-minded initiatives. Explore Seattle Southside, for example, partnered with Highline College to develop the online course previously mentioned to educate guest-facing staff on the tourism assets in the destination. A nonprofit organization called Businesses Ending Slavery and Trafficking (BEST) Alliance, partners regularly with DMOs throughout the United States to provide training to the hospitality community so that more people are educated in identifying human trafficking situations.

Partnerships are formed through mutual trust and a willingness on both sides to work together for the benefit of both entities. Partnership opportunities are wide-ranging and diverse and, if successful, can succeed in moving both entities toward their similar goals.

3.2.2.5.3 Memberships

About half of U.S. DMOs are membership-based (Shimasaki, as cited in Ting, 2015), meaning that tourism-sector businesses, such as hotels, restaurants, attractions, and convention and meeting venues, can opt in to purchase an annual membership that offers benefits such as the inclusion of their company in marketing materials, on the DMO’s website, and in sales efforts and partner services such as newsletters and other benefits. DMOs that are structured in this way typically operate at the city, county, or regional level. This is almost always the model for Chambers of Commerce who participate in tourism marketing. The membership fees seldom represent a major source of income for the DMO. More important is the engagement that members bring when choosing to support the DMO. Membership means that stakeholders are invested in joining together to grow tourism within the destination.

The most poignant issue with the membership model is that it limits promotional opportunities. If a DMO discovers an impressive restaurant that would be of interest to potential tourists, for example, and they want to include the restaurant in an advertisement, does the DMO still include it in their marketing materials if the restaurant does not choose to become a member? Some DMOs would still include the restaurant and others would not. And, if the DMO does include the restaurant in marketing materials, the other restaurants paying membership fees may become upset and question why that restaurant received benefits without paying. This conundrum is especially apparent when assisting meeting planners with hotel options, transportation, and catering options, as limiting their options to only DMO members can be a disservice.

“Because we’re not a membership-based organization, we really represent all of the hospitality businesses in our community, so this helps us make recommendations that are really focused on the planners’ needs.”
~ Emily Cassell, director of the Arlington Convention and Visitors Service (as cited in Ting, 2014, para. 7)

The 50% of DMOs who are not membership-based are said to be partnership-based, meaning that they partner with businesses without requiring a membership fee (Ting, 2015). The DMO represents all tourism-related businesses within the boundary of their destination, with some offering ‘pay-to-play’ opportunities such as co-operative ad placement or trade show participation. This ensures a more holistic representation of the destination to tourists and meeting planner clients. However, this model is not without its issues. For example, businesses who have not directly opted to join a DMO as a member do not have investment in the organization and may be uncooperative when it comes to collaborative efforts to grow tourism in the destination.

3.2.2.7 Convention, Meeting, and Group Sales

For DMOs with a strong focus on convention, meetings, and group business, client relationship-building is very important. Sales staff at DMOs build relationships with meeting planners, tour operators, group leaders, and other market segments to develop business for the convention center , hotels, and meeting venues. While DMOs may also develop ad campaigns and media buys that target these audiences, the nature of this market is more personal and requires relationship-building skills.

DMOs who manage or work alongside convention or event centers typically employ a robust sales team to ensure that the convention or event facility is economically successful. The economic impact of convention business goes beyond the center’s walls. Booking an event at the convention center usually means that nearby hotels will benefit from the group room nights necessary to accommodate the convention attendees. Nearby restaurants, attractions, and stores will also likely experience a boost in business when a convention is in town. U.S. business meeting attendees spent on average $1,287 each per event in the destination at hotels, restaurants, and activities (Events Industry Council & Oxford Economics, 2018). Meetings business overall generated nearly $100 billion in travel spending in the U.S. in 2022 (Ferguson, 2023).

DMO sales teams sometimes also sell hotel meeting space in addition to space within the convention center. These are referred to as In-house meetings as opposed to convention center business. Meetings business is an important component to occupancy mix for hotels. To maximize revenue, the hotel revenue management strategy in certain locations is structured on a base of meetings, group, and corporate business, backfilling with additional room bookings made by leisure travelers.

DMOs with sales departments typically divide markets amongst staff based on geographic location, size of convention or event, or planner market. The planner market is the type of organization who is behind the event, which often aligns with the type of events to be planned. Planner markets can include tour operators who plan group tours, association planners who plan board meetings and annual conventions, corporate planners who plan meetings and business travel, SMERF planners (social, military, education, religious, and fraternal) who plan social events and reunions, and sports planners who plan tournaments and sports events. Each market has its nuances, interests, and needs and successful DMO sales staff are in tune with their assigned market.

Convention sales staff will prospect for business by finding and qualifying organizations that may be a good fit for the destination. Numerous sales conventions and tradeshows provide opportunities to connect DMO sales staff with meeting planners, tour operators, and other buyers, sometimes arranging one on one “speed-dating” style appointments between sales staff and planners. Sales staff will also conduct sales missions , where they travel to and meet with their potential clients at their offices.

Often DMO sales staff will conduct familiarization tours (fams) to showcase their destination to planners. This tour involves inviting qualified planners to visit the destination, experience its restaurants, hotels, and activities, and tour the convention center, event venues, and hotels.

DMO sales staff will typically be assigned sales goals based on the number of leads they respond to or send out to hotel or event venue partners, the amount of business they booked at the convention center, and the number of room nights they generated at partner hotels. It is vital that DMOs assess the booking data from the convention center, hotel, or event venue to determine the return on investment (ROI) of sales activities.

Requests for Proposals (RFPs) are used frequently to communicate in written form with planners and hotel and event sales staff the convention or meeting requirements. RFPs typically include details on how much space the planner needs to accommodate their meeting, the number of attendees and hotel room nights they expect, their requested dates, and other information. RFPs are given to DMO sales staff when a planner is looking to determine the feasibility of the destination for their event. A DMO may share the RFP with hotel or event sales staff. DMO, hotel, or event venue sales staff will respond to the planner addressing the meeting requirements in a proposal or bid .

DMOs often offer meeting and event planners additional services to assist in the planning of their event during or after the bid process. These services include referring the planner to the suppliers they may need to support their event such as charter companies, audio-visual or entertainment outfits, guest speakers, florists, and more. Some DMOs will create a custom website for the convention attendees to access that has hotel options, restaurant recommendations, and suggested activities. Some DMOs offer to host an information table at the event, provide registration bags, customized welcome letters, greeting services, welcome banners, or promotional items to attendees. DMO connections can secure the city mayor or other official to authoritatively welcome the group to the destination during an opening event. These services not only help the meeting planner, but they contribute to attendee satisfaction which is a top consideration when planners assess the success of their event (McGuire, 2019).

3.3 Careers

Smaller DMOs may have only one person managing all destination marketing and management functions while larger DMOs will have one or more employees focused on each approach. The wide range of DMO budgets, employee size, and structures means that the below roles do not necessarily equate to jobs and some employees at DMOs can take on multiple roles. Therefore, the wider range of skill sets a person has, the more advantage they will have in the DMO setting.

The chart below lists the most common roles at a DMO with corresponding skills and competencies.

DMO Roles with Corresponding Skills and Competencies (by Meagan McGuire, CC BY 4.0)

About Mark

Mark Everton’s entry into the hospitality industry was through accounting and finance (personal communication, January 12, 2024). Shortly after graduating with degrees in accounting and finance from Humboldt State University in far northern California, Mark joined the Four Seasons hotel group as the Assistant Controller at the Four Seasons Clift Hotel in San Francisco.

“The early 1980’s was a very different time in the hotel industry than it is today. There were no computers in use in the hotels. Catering bookings were kept in enormous books and the sales team would put clients on hold and tell them ‘let me check the book to see if that room is available’ and literally would go to the big book to look at dates and availability.”

Mark had a diverse accounting tenure with Four Seasons, opening a Maui property and converting the Santa Barbara Biltmore from a Marriott to a Four Seasons. He left Four Seasons to open a new hotel, the Portman Hotel, in San Francisco. Mark believes that the experience of opening a hotel and the team building necessary to accomplish the myriad of tasks and challenges are skills that serve him well today.

“One becomes a bit like Rube Goldberg in having to find creative solutions to unanticipated issues because at the end of the day the hotel has to open and guests need to be accommodated. This experience is applicable to problem solving and ‘thinking outside of the box’ for a DMO to be successful.”

Mark’s love of operations and his ability to juggle multiple tasks led him to move from the accounting realm into hotel operations. Managing the 1,000 room Renaissance Pac 55 in San Francisco and the Oakland Marriott and Oakland Convention Center, he found his true passion of managing the day-to-day challenges of large big-city properties. After management positions in inner city luxury and convention properties, Hawaiian and coastal resorts, Mark joined Joie de Vivre, the countries’ largest manager of unique boutique hotels. Over many years with Joie de Vivre, he oversaw a dozen properties in Hawai’i, So Cal, Silicon Valley, San Francisco and was based out of the Waterfront Hotel in Oakland’s Jack London Square.

As a long term board member of Visit Oakland, Mark was a natural fit as CEO. He left the 24/7 life of an innkeeper after 30+ years and to join Visit Oakland.

“I was often asked if being the CEO of a DMO is different from being the GM of a hotel. They are surprisingly similar. The focus of marketing, sales, differentiation from your competition, managing owners vs. board members, team building, and goal setting are very similar. The primary difference is that the phone doesn’t ring at 2am because the night auditor has a stomach ache.”

Mark’s fondest memories (so far) of DMO accomplishments include having Oakland selected by National Geographic as one of the 20 best places to visit in the world and Explore Seattle Southside’s selection as one of the 100 best places to work in Washington State, U.S.A.

 

In addition, there are many opportunities with the marketing, technology, and research companies that support DMOs. Below is a list of the most common independent companies that DMOs contract with:

• Marketing Agencies: As mentioned earlier, some DMOs employ independent marketing agencies to assist with strategic planning, destination intelligence, designing websites and advertisements, public relations, and buying media. The skills required to work for a marketing agency include communications, creativity, critical thinking, design, social media, data analysis, public relations, project management, sales, and customer service.
• Data Companies: Data companies focus on data collection and provide hotel occupancy, ADR, and RevPAR data, conduct surveys, provide cell phone tracking data, airline and cruise passenger arrival data, and more. The skills required to work for a data company include data visualization and analysis, statistics, problem-solving, data modeling, critical thinking, and customer service.
• Customer Relations Management (CRM): DMOs work with CRM software that keeps track of their customers, RFPs, events, newsletter sign-ups, marketing data, and more. The skills required to work for a CRM company include sales, problem solving, customer service, technology, project management, database management, and communications.
• Other Technology Companies: Ever evolving technology means that new companies are emerging regularly to provide innovative approaches to DMO marketing. Email newsletter management systems, app developers, interactive digital display providers, and many more inventive companies cater to DMO and tourism marketing and offer professional career paths that require skills in development, technology, project management, operating systems, resourcefulness, innovation, communication, problem solving, and sales.

There are many opportunities to work for or alongside DMOs. Whether the role is in marketing or sales, partnerships or memberships, community engagement or convention sales, a successful career path will depend on an employee’s core interest in working collaboratively with others towards a successful and sustainable tourism economy.

3.4 Current Trends

As discussed earlier in this chapter, many DMOs have prioritized managing tourism within their destination in addition to their marketing and sales activities. And while this has been a trend for many years now, the Covid pandemic exacerbated this systematic shift. During the pandemic, tourism essentially ceased and many DMOs struggled to retain their funding, partnerships, and community support (Månsson & Eksell, 2024). As a result, many DMOs emerged as community leaders more so than ever before. Relations within the community became even more vital and DMOs who did not listen to their community and respond to their community’s needs were soon seen as superfluous.

DI’s DestinationNEXT 2023 Futures Study reports that:

According to this year’s survey data, organizations are increasing how they prioritize many different types of supply-side initiatives. Those include: Destination, product and experience development; community and economic development; small business and workforce development; partner support and education; resident engagement and education; workforce housing and childcare improvements, and advocacy to influence local, regional and national policy. (Destinations International & MMGY NextFactor, 2023, p. II)

This trend is likely to continue and accelerate as social issues, such as equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) priorities, workforce and housing difficulties, and mass tourism continue to have implications on quality of life and business. The above study shows that there is “a greater need for more actionable, data-driven business intelligence to collaborate with partners more effectively to support community and destination development efforts” (p. II) and that need is being addressed by DMOs.

Many DMOs face growing pains as they grapple with a balance between appeasing the community they serve and the profit-hungry businesses that see the DMO in the traditional sense; as an organization that will bring them business. The new approach to tourism management may be seen as contradictory to a DMO’s traditional, long-held mandate to increase tourism dollars spent in a destination. Some of the initiatives, such as workforce housing and childcare initiatives, may be seen by some as refocusing dollars away from tourism sales and marketing and into enterprises that do not directly put “heads in beds’.’

These top 5 trends that will impact DMOs were also identified by the DestinationNext 2023 study (Destinations International & MMGY NextFactor, 2023, p. III):

1. Artificial intelligence will become increasingly prevalent at an accelerated pace
2. Customers are increasingly seeking a unique, authentic travel experience
3. Communities expect to be more engaged in destination, product and experience development for locals and visitors
4. Destinations are looking at sustainability/regeneration more broadly, encompassing economic, social and environmental impacts
5. Greater industry, community and government alignment is driving destination competitiveness and brand

As society changes with new technology, global issues, and cultural shifts, the tourism industry must respond. As community leaders, DMOs are in a unique position to align with government, industry, and community leaders to move towards a more sustainable tourism economy that balances the needs of the people, the planet, and profit.

 

 

References