3.2 Today’s Destination Management Organization (DMO)
Meagan A. McGuire
People use multiple terms to identify destination marketing and management organizations (as described earlier in this chapter). Some terms developed as a result of geographical reach and others have evolved to designate changes in organizational functionality. However, most destination marketing and management organizations share similar governance, funding models, roles, and functionality.
Governance and Funding
Most DMOs are governed by a Board of Directors and a set of organization by-laws that regulate the policies and procedures that determine how a DMO operates. A DMO’s Board of Directors approves policies and annual budgets, monitors spending, provides direction, monitors DMO performance, and represents 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 among its tourism stakeholders such as hotel general managers and community leaders. Other DMO Board of Directors are appointed by administrative bodies such as governmental agencies. Other DMOs are governed by various models as shown below.
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.
Fact
Hotel Occupancy Taxes (HOT Tax) and other hotel and tourism business assessments are a common funding source for DMOs, especially in the United States.
HOT Taxes are collected as a sales tax, paid by the overnight visitor staying in hotels, motels, short-term rentals, and other lodging establishments. The tax is a percentage (for example, 2% of the cost of the room), and an exemption usually applies for people staying over 30 days.
Hotel assessments impact designated regions like Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) or Tourism Promotion Areas (TPAs). A BID’s or a TPA’s legislative authority can impose a fee, usually a dollar amount like $2 or $5, that is added to the final bill for an overnight visitor staying at a lodging establishment located within that designated region.
The below chart demonstrates how wide-ranging DMO budgets are, with 35% of DMO total budgets coming in at under $1 Million and 30% of budgets totalling between $1 Million and $5 Million.
Accountability and Transparency
Because DMO funding comes primarily from public sources, DMOs are held accountable for their activities and must justify and track 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 few exemptions. This means that 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 enables tourism stakeholders to understand the DMO’s 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 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.
Roles and Functions of a DMO
Although the terminology and strategic focus of each DMO may differ, most perform the following functions: providing leadership; advocating for tourism and building government relations; acting as stewards; providing strategic planning; evaluating data, marketing and branding; and research and segmentation.
Destination Leadership
A DMO is responsible not only for the marketing of a destination, but also for 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.
Crisis Communication Plan
A common DMO practice that exemplifies leadership is the crisis communication plan. As the tourism managers of a destination, many DMOs develop guidelines to assist in the emergency evacuation of tourists, manage public perception when destination issues arise, or outline communication measures the DMO can take to make sure the public is well-informed. This plan is important because during an emergency, timeliness matters.
Explore Seattle Southside’s Crisis-Disaster-Emergency Plan (2016) is a working tool to delineate how the organization can assist when faced with an emergency. According to the following excerpt (p. 1), the Plan offers the following:
City, County and State Emergency Managers can use [Explore Seattle Southside] in planning for the evacuation of Seattle Southside’s visitors. Our services can also be used to identify emergency housing for responders and assist in educating the industry about the Emergency Manager’s role.
Cities can use [Explore Seattle Southside] to deploy unlimited, complete, time-sensitive notices quickly and easily to businesses and local, state and regional emergency management entities to warn against disasters and to provide outreach and education notifications via landline phones, cell phones, text messages, email accounts, etc.
After the event [Explore Seattle Southside] will support local and regional business recovery. Rebuilding the community takes time.
Advocating for Tourism and Building Government Relations
DMO leadership requires building 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. Strong competition exists for public funding, and the DMO needs to ensure an adequate budget for tourism marketing. In addition, governmental regulations, funding initiatives, the establishment of programs, business relocations and land use, historic designations, and other processes that impact the public also affect tourism. Often these impacts are underestimated by government officials. As a result, these authorities should heed the advice of DMOs when making decisions that influence tourism.
Building relationships with government officials serves as an important proactive step for DMO leadership. In particular, advocacy should be an ongoing effort that begins well before a DMO requests support from the government, as officials are more inclined to give credence to an organization they are familiar with.
DMO Funding
Government officials who do not understand the economic impacts of tourism may reallocate governmental funding that supports DMOs.
In 1993, the state tourism office in Colorado was eliminated and the state reallocated its $12 million budget to other expenditures. It took until 2000 for the tourism industry and Colorado’s tourism stakeholders to convince the legislature to reinstate the office. As a result of the elimination of tourism marketing, Colorado lost over $1.4 billion in annual tourism revenue the two years after the closure. This spiked to over $2 billion annually in the following years. Colorado dropped from 1st to 17th place in popularity as a summer resort destination. When funding was reinstated, tourism rebounded quickly and reached 28 million visitors in 2007, who spent $9.8 billion that year (Siegel, 2020).
Similarly, the Washington State tourism office was closed in 2011 when the state legislature eliminated the funds to support it, saving $1.8 billion in the state budget at the expense of the more than $15 billion in tourism spending that the tourism office helped procure in 2010 alone (Yardley, 2011). After the closure, hospitality and tourism professionals rallied together to form a cooperative organization called Washington Tourism Alliance (WTA) that worked to advocate for reinstatement of tourism funding. The WTA eventually succeeded, and Senate Bill 5251, State Tourism Marketing Plan, was created in 2018 to reestablish a state tourism office for Washington State.
Destination Stewardship
DMOs also embrace the role of leadership 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. Preserving the vitality of a destination’s environment, population, and cultural heritage 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 entails a community-centered approach to developing strategies that focus primarily on protecting the qualities that make the destination a wonderful place to live and, in turn, a wonderful place to visit. This strategy counters the traditional approach to tourism development, which has degraded some destinations in the name of drawing as many tourists as possible. In many destinations, this older approach has commodified natural and cultural assets to the point where the residents cannot enjoy their community (Bray, 2021; Crotts et al., 2022).
Clearly destination stewardship cannot be effectively administered without community involvement. To engage the residents and tourism stakeholders, some DMOs perform surveys and other outreach measures. Sometimes DMOs form stewardship councils in order to identify shared goals and to strategize about the steps necessary to achieve 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 overwhelmed by traffic, crowded beaches and trails, and high prices for goods and services. The COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020 provided a much-needed breather for locals and led to the development of Hawai’i Tourism Authority’s six-year strategic plan, which was majority-led for the first time by native Hawaiians. The mission has shifted from increasing tourism “to strategically manag[ing] 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. More respectful and authentic tourist-focused cultural practices are embraced such as hula performances that incorporate more traditional dress as opposed to the grass skirt, which was imposed by imperialism.
Strategic Plan
Hawai’i Tourism Authority’s community-led strategic plan (2020) follows:
Our Strategic Plan
At the start of 2020, we introduced a six-year strategic plan to guide our vision and our responsibilities in support of Hawai‘i tourism through 2025.
HTA has been reorganized around four interacting “Pillars” supported by research and other administrative functions. This plan establishes a general goal for each Pillar.
NATURAL RESOURCES Respect for Our Natural & Cultural Resources
Dedicate resources to programs that enhance and support Hawai‘i’s natural resources and cultural sites to improve the quality of life for all of Hawai‘i’s residents and to enhance the visitor experience.
HAWAIIAN CULTURE Support Native Hawaiian Culture & Community
Hooulu (grow) the uniqueness and integrity of the Native Hawaiian culture and community through genuine experiences for both visitors and residents.
COMMUNITY Ensure Tourism & Communities Enrich Each Other
Work to make sure residents and local communities benefit from tourism by supporting programs valued by the community and aligned with the destination’s brand and image; informing both residents and visitors of these programs and events; strengthening relations between residents and visitors; and forming partnerships to build a resilient tourism workforce and community.
BRAND MARKETING Strengthen Tourism’s Contributions
Take the lead in protecting and enhancing Hawai‘i’s globally competitive brand in a way that is coordinated, authentic, and market-appropriate; is focused on Hawai‘i’s unique cultures, diverse communities, and natural environment; and supports Hawai‘i’s economy.
Under the goal for each Pillar, this plan establishes several objectives and specific milestones or measures for tracking success. The Pillars are intended to support an integrated destination management system, with four overall Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), representing the most important ways HTA will be accountable to our stakeholders:
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- Resident Satisfaction
- Average Daily Visitor Spending
- Visitor Satisfaction
- Total Visitor Spending
View HTA’s 2020 – 2025 Strategic Plan here: ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i / English
(Reprinted with permission)
Strategic Planning
As the tourism leader for a destination, a DMO provides 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.
Strategic plans should 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 be implemented, but 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. They will also include tourism stakeholders within their destination and residents. DMOs will also analyze data such as tax receipts, census data, hotel visitation, airport activity, among others. 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.
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. For example, STR Research crafts reports on a destination’s 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 a DMO to better understand its potential visitors, competitors, and opportunities. For example, data can inform a DMO about how well their ads and campaigns are doing, how their destination’s image is perceived by potential visitors, and how satisfied visitors are while at their destination.
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.
Tourism Data Evaluation demonstrates a DMO’s effectiveness to stakeholders. In multi-year strategic plans and with annual work plans, DMOs will identify key performance indicators (KPIs) that they will periodically measure against. Regularly evaluating initiatives allows a 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 meet 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. Reports measure performance, such as the number of social media followers, newsletter signups, hotel reservations, leads received and sent, and booked meetings. They also measure activity that quantifies the work that DMO staff perform, such as attending a tradeshow or distributing a press release. The reports also measure productivity by analyzing 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 a DMO’s performance reporting be accompanied by narrative reviews.
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, try on, or test drive prior to purchase. Rather, tourism provides an experience that is anticipated and imagined based on marketing materials, media portrayals, and word of mouth. Tourism temporarily relocates a traveler, who voluntarily disrupts their normal routine in the hopes of experiencing something different. Where tourists sleep and eat and how they entertain themselves while visiting a destination determines their experience.
Marketing draws 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 a leading tourism and hospitality scholar, 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” (Morrison, 2019, p. 9).
DMOs sometimes work with a contracted marketing agency to help develop a brand as well as advertisements and marketing campaigns. Many marketing agencies cater specifically to DMOs and understand marketing in the tourism space. These agencies will work behind the scenes, helping a DMO with strategic planning, destination intelligence, website design, advertisements, public relations, and media campaigns. Depending on a DMO’s budgets, staffing levels, and expertise, it may use all or only a select few of these services. Some 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.
Research and Segmentation
A DMO’s marketing approach requires research and planning prior to implementation. Developing a marketing plan entails knowing the target audience. When determining a target audience, a DMO will analyze motivations to travel (to escape, for work, etc.), demographics (age, occupation, education, ethnicity, income, and household composition) and psychographics (interests and personality) profiles of visitors, and the various stages that make up a buyer’s journey. Motivations for travel differ depending on the trip purpose. For example, a buyer might travel for pleasure, to visit family and friends, or for business. Demographics and psychographics can offer insights into what would spark interest in a potential visitor. In turn, knowing the stages of a buyer’s journey can inform the DMO about where to best place 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.
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 hospitality and tourism expert Alastair Morrison 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” (2019, p. 289). Positioning and image work in conjunction with the destination’s brand to portray the unique identity and personality of a 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 focus on positioning a destination in the marketplace and developing an alluring image. The destination’s unique identity is promoted through marketing materials, such as advertisements, articles, and commercials, which create an appealing image of the place in the minds of tourists.
Collateral and Marketing Assets
Historically, a DMO’s physical travel planner or visitor guide was the primary means of communicating the desirability of a destinationto to potential visitors and promoting sites, events, restaurants, and hotels. 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 a destination (Adams et al., 2021). Today, the visitor guides at some destinations have evolved to become e-books, digital magazines, mobile apps, or 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 have opted 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 allow for extensive outreach through free postings or paid posts and for DMOs to share imagery, topical news stories, interesting information, and upcoming events. Social media also provides a communication channel between tourists, the DMO, and other users. A DMO can build a community, engage with users, and collect user-generated content, such as images, videos, and posts. Comments on 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 anyone to post and review places based on their personal experience.
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 budget on digital opportunities such as display and banner ads, retargeting campaigns, social media ads, and paid keyword search optimization. When an internet user employs a search engine to find information on a particular subject, the keywords or phrases typed can be purchased by a DMO so that its website appears 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 a can appear on the website.
Public and Media Relations
In addition to marketing campaigns, public and 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 meet with press or organize media familiarization tours (fams) where they invite media contacts on a trip to the destination. By offering these events, the DMO encourages 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.
Destinations should 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, or outbreaks of disease. DMO’s respond to these negative stories on their website. Social media channels and news channels can also be useful in mitigating negative perceptions.
The importance of strong media relations to DMOs has increasingly expanded to 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.
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 because people like to visit the locations they see 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 and on websites and social media platforms, and conduct familiarization tours showcasing potential film locations.
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 has directly resulted in a tourist visiting the destination. Unlike product marketing, such as with a company like 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. This makes it 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, on how engaged a user was with the content, and on how the user navigated the site. For display and banner ads, data is collected on “impressions,” which count the number of times an ad appeared on a viewed website, and on “click-through rates,” which count 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 helps a DMO to 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.
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 restroom. Some Visitor Information Centers include souvenir shops, bookstores, or display educational exhibits or videos about the destination’s history, culture, and nature.
Visitor services staff are well educated on the destination and will often provide tourists with directions and recommendations. They will assist guests in finding and booking hotels, tours, shows, events, and restaurants. Often visitor services staff earn a commission on these bookings.
Among 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, mobility. A mobile visitor center can be parked in the heart of primary tourists activities, such as events, festivals, conventions, and popular sites.
Product and Destination Development
Many DMOs focus on product and destination development by creating tourism products, services, and master plans to shape a more inviting tourism landscape. The goal is to enhance the destination’s offerings through compelling experiences, quality infrastructure, well-trained staff, and other initiatives that improve the overall tourist experience.
The term tourism products denotes the elements tourists consume during a travel event (Polat et al., 2019). These include the overnight accommodations, modes of transportation, dining services, entertainment, and trip experiences such as guided tours and visits to attractions. Unlike most goods and services, tourism products do not necessarily require a financial transaction. Tourism products include both tangible and intangible elements, ranging from souvenirs, hiking trails, and parks to services and interactions with locals. Tourism products contribute to making a travel experience complete.
DMOs will combine tourism products as a package to market a destination and to educate visitors about why they should visit and what they can do upon arrival. 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.”
DMO
Explore Seattle Southside, the DMO for the cities of SeaTac, Tukwila, and Des Moines in Washington State, launched a Bubble Tea Trail in 2024, which invites visitors to:
Discover the Bubble Tea Trail, a collection of 22 different tea shops serving up the sweetest bubble tea in Seattle Southside. Use this FREE digital trail to help you navigate your bubble tea adventure. Using the pass will earn you fun prizes like a Bubble Tea T-shirt or a Bubble Tea Cup! Here’s how: simply check in to a location to earn one point (there is no required purchase necessary from the restaurants to check in). Earn 4 points to redeem the T-shirt. Earn 22 points to redeem a unique Bubble Tea Cup. Now you’re ready to begin the trail!
Bubble (or boba) tea is a Taiwanese blend of tea, milk, delicious flavorings, and toppings with chewy tapioca pearls. Washington State ranks fifth highest in the nation for the number of bubble tea shops and Seattle Southside, in particular, boasts nearly 10% of the state’s total—making it a premier hub for bubble tea enthusiasts. Seattle Southside is the first in the state—and one of the few in the nation—to launch an experience that highlights the bubble tea scene.
“Our Bubble Tea Trail is all about the experience and our community,” says Ashley Comar, Explore Seattle Southside Senior Vice President of Marketing & Communications. Comar explains:
We’re excited to welcome visitors and locals to try out the trail. Seattle Southside has some of the nation’s top boba chains and a lot of beloved locally-owned hangouts. The Bubble Tea Trail is a passport to discovering new favorite spots and flavors, connecting with friends, and winning some sweet swag along the way. Get ready to pop in, check-in, and drink in the very best bubble tea around—it’s a perfect microadventure for your taste buds!
(Reprinted with permission from Explore Seattle Southside)
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 would like 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, nonprofits, 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, placemaking strengthens 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 focuses on designing places and neighborhoods as shared spaces that bring people together for social and cultural reasons. Placemaking works to enhance the quality of destination assets, which include an array of elements, such as like iconic attractions, unique neighborhoods, outdoor recreation, shopping, and arts and culture.
The process also analyzes patterns of use to enhance infrastructure aimed at providing various modes of transportation to destination assets and works to provide visitors with the ability to easily navigate and orient themselves as they move within and between assets. Placemaking likewise entails ongoing assessment of the physical, cultural, and social identities of a place to develop strategies and tactics to support the destination’s evolution.
Community Engagement
Recognizing the importance of community engagement when doing the work of tourism marketing and management, Destinations International (DI) 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, a DMO strengthens the economic position and provides opportunity for people in their community. (2018, p. 2)
The people of the community include 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. DMO’s should engage with all stakeholders in order to ensure their work is relevant, visible, valued, supported, and sustainable.
Community Relations
Because of the unique funding structure of DMOs, local residents should be made 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. Residents represent the destination through social media posts, blogs, online videos, and word of mouth, and they are the labor pool for local hospitality businesses.
In 2022 Simpleview, Inc. surveyed DMOs. Among the respondents, 84% identified themselves “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 shortages, financially supporting local venues to hire musicians and elevate the live music scene, and working with indigenous communities to ensure respectful practices.
Community relations requires continuous and sustained communication with the business community, local government, and residents. DMOs have employed various methods to achieve effective communication. 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 proves as vital as messaging to potential visitors.
Partnerships
By default, a DMO is in partnership with local government as well as with residents and its own tourism stakeholders. Ample opportunity exists, however, for additional destination partnerships, which can lead to creative and effective outcomes. DMOs can form partnerships with educational institutions to focus on workforce development, with neighboring DMOs to develop shared itineraries, with organizations such as the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) or Destinations International (DI) to create tourism initiatives, with nonprofit organizations to address sustainability issues, and with non-tourism businesses to develop like-minded initiatives. Explore Seattle Southside, for example, partnered with Highline College to develop an online course to educate guest-facing staff on the tourism assets found at 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 to work together for the benefit of both entities. Partnership opportunities are wide-ranging and diverse and, if successful, can move both entities toward similar goals.
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. By becoming members, businesses become eligible for benefits, which might entail inclusion of their company in a DMO’s marketing materials, on its 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. Chambers of Commerce who participate in tourism marketing almost always operate this way. The membership fees, however, seldom represent a major source of income for the DMO. Rather, the engagement that members bring when choosing to support the DMO yields the most benefit. 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 becomes acute when assisting meeting planners with hotel options, transportation, and catering options, as limiting options to only DMO members can be a disservice. As a DMO director surmises about her organization’s non-membership status:
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)
Fifty percent of DMOs are not membership-based. Rather, they are considered to be partnership-based, meaning that they partner with businesses without requiring a membership fee (Ting, 2015). A 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.
Conventions, Meetings, and Group Sales
For DMOs with a strong focus on conventions, meetings, and group businesses, 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. In 2017, U.S. business meeting attendees each spent an average of $1,287 per event at destination 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 income, 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 among staff based on geographic location, size of convention or event, or planner market. The planner market refers to 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; social, military, education, religious, and fraternal (SMERF) planners 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 convention or meeting requirements in written form to planners and hotel and event sales staff. 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 needs 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, which includes hotel options, restaurant recommendations, and suggested activities, for a convention’s attendees. Some DMOs offer to host an information table for attendees of an event. At the table, attendees may receive registration bags, customized welcome letters, greeting services, welcome banners, or promotional items. 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 also contribute to attendee satisfaction, which is a top consideration when planners assess the success of their event (McGuire, 2019).
Attributions
- Figure 3.6: DMO Governance Model © Destinations International Used with permission.
- Figure 3.7: DMO Budget Profile © Destinations International Used with permission.
- Figure 3.8: Crowds on 4th of July by Daniel Ramirez is released under CC BY 2.0
- Figure 3.9: Explore Seattle Southside’s Key Traveler Segments © Explore Seattle Southside Used with permission.
- Figure 3.10: Market Segment © Destinations International Used with permission.
- Figure 3.11: Our NEW 2015 Official #ElPaso guide is out! Pick up a physical copy at any of our Visitor Information Centers: Downtown, Airport or Ft. Bliss! #ItsAllGoodEP#TexasToDo by Visit El Paso is released under CC BY 2.0
- Figure 3.12: Mobile Visitor Center by Grand Teton, National Parks Service in the Public Domain; Materials produced by federal agencies are in the public domain and may be reproduced without permission.
- Figure 3.13: Explore Seattle Southside’s Bubble Tea Trail © Explore Seattle Southside Used with permission.
a governing body or group of individuals elected or appointed to oversee the management and strategic direction of an organization, including setting policies, making decisions, and providing oversight.
a set of rules and regulations established by an organization to govern its internal operations, structure, and decision-making processes.
local or municipal taxes levied on the rental of hotel rooms and accommodations, typically collected by lodging establishments and remitted to government authorities.
a designated geographic area where lodging businesses assess themselves a fee to fund tourism marketing, promotion, and destination enhancement efforts.
Please look for related terms in the Glossary.
a comprehensive document published by an organization or company that provides stakeholders with information about its performance, activities, financial results, and achievements over the past year.
the process of setting goals, objectives, and priorities, and developing strategies and action plans to achieve them, often involving analysis, decision-making, and resource allocation.
measurable metrics or indicators used to evaluate and assess the performance, effectiveness, and success of an organization, project, or initiative against its objectives and targets.
the collection, analysis, interpretation, and utilization of data and statistics related to tourism, including visitor arrivals, spending, market trends, and economic impacts.
identifying, anticipating, and satisfying customer needs and wants through the creation, communication, and exchange of value propositions, products, and services.
creating a unique identity, image, and perception for a product, service, or destination, including its name, logo, design, and messaging, to differentiate it from competitors and attract customers.
the underlying reasons, desires, and factors that drive individuals to undertake trips and vacations, such as relaxation, adventure, cultural experiences, or social interaction.
Statistical data relating to the characteristics of human populations, including age, gender, income, education, ethnicity, occupation, and geographic location, used for market segmentation, analysis, and targeting.
Psychological characteristics, attitudes, values, lifestyles, and behavior patterns of individuals or customer segments, used for market segmentation and targeting in hospitality marketing.
the process or stages that individuals go through when making purchasing decisions, including awareness, consideration, decision-making, and post-purchase evaluation.
the perception and image of a brand, product, or destination in the minds of consumers relative to competitors, based on factors such as attributes, benefits, and value propositions.
the overall perception, reputation, and impression of a brand, product, or destination held by consumers, stakeholders, and the public.
online platforms and networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, used for creating, sharing, and exchanging user-generated content, information, and communication.
electronic content and multimedia distributed and accessed through digital devices and platforms, including websites, mobile apps, social media, streaming services, and digital publications.
managing and cultivating relationships with the media, journalists, and public influencers to generate positive publicity, coverage, and exposure for organizations, brands, or destinations.
organized trips or visits for journalists, bloggers, or influencers to experience and report on destinations, attractions, or events for media coverage.
individuals who create and publish content, articles, videos, or blogs about their travel experiences, tips, recommendations, and insights for their online audiences.
the process of creating, producing, and distributing films, documentaries, or videos for promotional, educational, or entertainment purposes related to tourism and travel.
the number of times an advertisement, post, or content is displayed or viewed by users on a digital platform or media channel.
analyzing and measurung the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, advertisements, or promotions in converting viewers or users into customers, leads, or actions, such as purchases or bookings.
the range of amenities, facilities, and assistance provided to travelers and tourists at destinations, including accommodations, transportation, dining, tours, and recreational activities.
the creation, enhancement, and diversification of tourism experiences, attractions, amenities, and infrastructure to attract and satisfy visitors.
the elements tourists consume during a travel event. 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.
the process of shaping the future of a place through a shared vision.
the process of involving and collaborating with individuals, groups, organizations, and stakeholders within a community to address issues, make decisions, and implement initiatives that affect their lives or the community as a whole.
building and maintaining positive relationships, partnerships, and collaborations with local residents, stakeholders, and organizations to support sustainable tourism development and mutual benefits.
individuals or organizations joining and participating in associations, clubs, or groups related to tourism, hospitality, or destination management, often offering benefits, networking opportunities, and representation.
establishing and nurturing connections, trust, and rapport with customers, stakeholders, and partners through communication, engagement, and mutual respect.
a facility or venue equipped with meeting rooms, exhibition halls, and event spaces designed to host conventions, conferences, trade shows, and other large-scale events.
gatherings, conferences, or events held within a company or organization's own facilities, such as offices, conference rooms, or training centers.
a potential customer, client, or business opportunity that meets certain criteria or requirements and is considered a target for marketing, sales, or business development efforts.
organized trips, visits, or initiatives undertaken by sales representatives or teams to promote and sell products, services, or destinations to clients, customers, or partners.
(=FAM trips) organized trips or visits for travel agents, tour operators, or media professionals to experience and learn about destinations, accommodations, or attractions firsthand.
a financial metric used to evaluate the profitability or effectiveness of an investment, initiative, or marketing campaign by comparing the return or benefits gained to the cost or investment made.
a formal offer or submission made by a supplier or vendor in response to a Request for Proposal (RFP) or invitation to tender, outlining the terms, pricing, and details of the proposed goods or services.