Destination Management

Using Technology to Manage Resources

The role of the Destination Management Organisation (DMO) is to provide a focal point for all the interdependent players:

Visitors
Industry
Community
Environment

This tourism ‘community’ includes:

A number of government departments, including the sponsoring department
Other official bodies
Residents, whether they are employed in tourism or not, if they live in an area that is exploited by tourism
Businesses – from the smallest owner-managed business to the largest corporations, and including the carriers and the intermediaries (such as agents, tour operators, conference organisers); and their trade representative bodies

… and of course, your customers, whether leisure visitors or business tourism clients.

The Destination should thus be seen as a ‘business community’, and to support the creation and operation of the community it is the task of the DMO to provide and operate e-business systems that will be the main media for these players to work together in managing and marketing the Destination. Their e-business systems should:

Enable the DMO to communicate with all the players
And enable the players to communicate with each other

The objective for the DMO is to be the facilitator of Destination teamwork, so that the interdependent elements of tourism are drawing up and working to a common agenda, supporting each other, and avoiding duplication. Efficient DMOs, to justify public and private sector investment in their organisations, observe guidelines including:

Not duplicating what’s already happening and working well
Aggregating existing product data from the industry, rather than compiling tourist information from scratch
Not launching its own e-commerce operation if the private sector is, or can be helped, to provide it
Encouraging and exploiting user-generated content (UGC) which in many areas has rapidly become equally important as information provided by the businesses and the intermediaries
Taking a lead in co-ordinating new developments such as the use of mobile
Working with partners, online and offline, to gather and distribute content about the destination through media that achieve greater coverage than can be produced by the DMO’s own activities alone
Maintaining its core DMO roles: building the brand and promoting new business

E-marketing – summary of benefits and functions for DMOs

Delivery of massive amounts of information in a user-friendly way: cost-effectiveness in conveying information and products on sale directly, cheaply and at short notice to prime prospects
Brand-building, now made possible by the rapid spread of broadband connections, allowing users to experience dramatic imagery and animation, as well as enhanced communication and interaction
Two-way interaction:
- Between the DMO and the customer (B2C)
- Between customers and other like-minded customers (C2C)
Joining promotion with sales in a seamless manner, from promotional messages straight through to online purchasing
Joining offline and online promotion together, to work in harmony so that traffic can be driven in both directions, web to brochures or telephone, telephone to web and so on
Engaging with customers one-to-one but also using ‘one-to-many’ and ‘one to a selected few’ activities
The facility to build integrated partnerships with other bodies, official and commercial, throughout the industry and outside it. Partnerships may work at many levels:
Sharing market intelligence within the industry
Promoting the DMO’s marketing opportunities and operating co-operative marketing schemes
Gathering product data, via data feeds, and by hosting product data entry forms that suppliers can use to provide and update their information
New joint product development
An integrated and coherent approach to branding of the destination achieved jointly by national, regional, and local tourism organisations and by their public and private stakeholders
Partnerships may also be interactive partnerships of customers who have shared interests, such as divers or walkers.

Whether the target audiences are end-customers, the media, or tour operators and retail agents in source markets, residents in the home community, or the home industry, DMOs require a wide set of e-marketing tools and techniques:

Content – collected from partners and by direct DMO work, to form an accurate, timely, and comprehensive resource
Content distribution – to partners in the destination to enhance their own sales messages, and to third-party media in source markets in order to extend the Destination’s reach
Websites, including:
Inspirational branding – dozens of pics, panarounds, lots of video, happy faces, happy tone of voice, consistency
Information and linking to UGC
Mapping, diary and itinerary planning tools
Customer contact methods; at least 3 data capture methods
Links to e-commerce
Natural search engine optimisation
RSS feeds from an to partners and site users
Onsite research questionnaires, Yes/No polls
Web analytics, reporting on the traffic to the site and how it is used
Email marketing
Online PR
Online advertising
Search engine marketing
Display advertising
Viral campaigns
Encouraging UGC through social networking
On 3rd-party travel sites
On 3rd-party non-travel sites eg Flickr and YouTube
On your site
On blogs
By promoting tagging
In Wikis
Mobile marketing
Satnav content
SMS services for travellers on arrival
Mobile websites for potential visitors and travellers on arrival
Podcasts
Interactive digital TV