What Does Destination Management Mean and Look Like in Practice?

Written by Thomas Hinkel on January 5, 2023. Posted in Blog, Uncategorized.

Destination management is the process in which Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) work with stakeholders to increase development of the tourism sector, gain more tourists, address challenges, and bring more benefit to the local community. In the case of Solimar, this is also done while ensuring that this development is conducted sustainably, both from an economic perspective as well as an environmental perspective. This practice sounds simple in theory, but it can be a complicated process that requires coordination with a large group of people with diverse interests. Solimar is currently working in the Sugar River Region of New Hampshire to help develop a DMO from the ground up, as well as establish a website and marketing plan for the destination.

The Sugar River Region of New Hampshire is a picturesque New England destination that is made up of fourteen towns and one city. The region has hiking trails with scenic views, historic covered bridges, as well as quaint small-town charm as you travel from town to town. Solimar is partnered with the Sugar River Destination Council, the existing organization concerned with tourism, to assist in creating a Destination Management Plan that will benefit all the local stakeholders. The first step in this process was to create a DMO, and the Sugar River Region Destination Council (SRRDC) was established to coordinate and create, as well as conduct Destination Management.

Engaging Stakeholders in Destination Management & Understanding the Destination

To successfully manage a destination, it is important that the DMO fully understands the unique challenges and opportunities of the place. To understand your destination, you have to understand the tourists that are interested in visiting, as well as how to keep local residents satisfied. This holistic approach makes it very clear that different stakeholders and industries that are involved in tourism must be unified in their efforts in order to create a seamless experience for tourists.

Outside of the Sugar River Region example, Solimar has also created comprehensive Destination Management Plans in other regions of the world. Solimar’s work in Timor-Leste established a network of businesses that were key to the tourism sector of the island, and also assisted the community in creating a DMO. This community-based approach has yielded a lot of success for the local businesses throughout the island and has helped Solimar to hone its framework for creating and managing DMOs.

In the case of the Sugar River Region, Solimar and the SRRDC worked together to consult with a wide variety of organizations and individuals to better understand the needs of the community, as well as the goals these stakeholders shared for the community. These talks were held with local governments, tour and transport operators, accommodation providers, educators, business owners, as well as residents from across the region. Once common goals for the region are established, the DMO can guide the Destination Management Plan in the direction it needs to in order to reach these goals. This is an important part of community-based tourism, which is crucial to creating a sustainable Destination Management Plan.

Understanding the goals of all the stakeholders involved in the destination is critical, but it is also important to understand exactly what the destination has to offer as well as its capacity to host tourists. Conducting research on tourism, as well as the impacts it will have on the region is vital in order to stay true to the holistic approach. For one, this research can underscore the potential pitfalls that could occur if destination management is not done incorrectly. These downsides could pertain to environmental, economic, or social concerns. These concerns must be addressed in the Destination Management Plan to ensure that the destination is developed in a sustainable manner. These studies can also identify key opportunities to further develop attractions to bring success to the destination.

When background research was conducted in the Sugar River Region, key opportunities for collaboration with local stakeholders were highlighted. For instance, they found that cultural events in the region could be expanded to attract more visitors while partnerships between local businesses and residents of the region could be enhanced to make decision-making and strategizing more collaborative.

Considering Infrastructure and Logistics in Destination Management

Once goals are established, it is important to evaluate the region’s capacity and infrastructure in order to determine how best to move forward. For instance, where are the closest airports to the region, and is it easy to get there from the airports once tourists have arrived? In less developed tourism industries abroad, this step is very important to destination management.

Luckily, in the case of the Sugar River Region, the area is close to three airports in Boston, Hartford, and Burlington. There are shuttles that run from two of these airports, but the most scenic way to see the area is to rent a car and use it for travel! The Destination Development Plan aims to encourage this, as it is an easy way to get around the area while still getting to see all the breathtaking sights before you. In fact, the Sugar River Region plans to promote designated Sugar River Region Scenic Routes, which will connect the towns and bring you near historical markers.

There are many moving parts within destination management. As previously mentioned, understanding the region and its residents is necessary to ensure that the DMO is promoting equitable and sustainable practices in tourism development. Tourism is a fast-paced industry, therefore coordination and constant communication among stakeholders is the name of the game. Some examples of these coordination efforts within the Sugar River Region project are:

Ensure that campgrounds in the New England woods are properly prepared to host guests
Organize with local accommodations and restaurants to boost their visibility to tourists
Cooperate with cultural groups, such as the Claremont Arts Council to ensure that there are a myriad of events to encourage tourists to visit
Work with local governments to establish a Visitor Center for tourists.
Ensure that hiking trails are maintained and promoted

The DMO responsible for destination management also must ensure that the destination becomes successful, as this will bring more profits to the area and sustain the Destination Development Plan. Sustainability necessitates processes that are environmentally, socially and financially maintainable. Achieving this can be very difficult, but incredibly beneficial process to ensure that a destination’s tourism sector is developed sustainably.

Marketing & Destination Management

It is the role of the DMO to manage and coordinate with various organizations in the local tourism network. While this is the case, another important aspect of destination management is digital destination marketing. Digital marketing can change the reach of marketing campaigns for a destination from a local audience to a global one. Especially today, it is important that a destination has a strong digital footprint. With a strong digital footprint, it is easier for people to discover your destination and learn more about it.

The first step to building a strong digital footprint is to create a tourism website. This website should aim to not only promote the region, its attractions and its people, but also to encourage others to visit. In the case of the Sugar River Region, Solimar is currently working in conjunction with the SRRDC to make a website that will fit the destination’s needs. The website must ensure that campgrounds are listed online, as well as restaurants, and that events are properly listed and up to date. This requires a significant amount of information from the various stakeholders.

Creating a website itself is a significant undertaking, and it requires the same coordination between stakeholders that is necessary for the other aspects of destination management that have been previously discussed. The DMO must also ensure that social media posts are created which boost interest in the region and let tourists know that the destination has much to offer. Social media is a very powerful tool in increasing how much attention your destination gets, and destination management should account for utilizing social media to receive these benefits.

Destination management is an all-encompassing process that ensures that a Destination Management Plan is created and followed. The DMO responsible for destination management must ensure that all stakeholders are consulted, and that the destination is developed in a way that will help achieve these goals.

This is not an easy process, and one that requires careful coordination. However, by properly addressing these concerns, the Destination Management Plan will ensure that the destination becomes both sustainable and beneficial to all members involved, including the local government, the businesses and the community. The Sugar River Region is a great example of Solimar’s destination management process being put into practice. We encourage you to visit the area and see all that it has to offer!

Liked learning about Destination Management and want to hear more? Take one of our courses to learn more about destination management! Visit our Institute for Sustainable Destinations website today: https://institute.solimarinternational.com/

DMOs destination management planning across many maps

Why DMOs must be about Management, not just Marketing

Written by Veronic Santapa on October 11, 2022. Posted in Blog.

DMOs are crucial organizations within the tourism industry. They were primarily established to promote destinations. However, with the rapid growth of tourism, the need for its sustainability and management of the sector eventually emerged. Therefore, whether DMOs should focus only on marketing or broaden their activities and be a management organization is part of the future agenda. At Solimar, we have seen time and time again why the M in DMO must also be about destination management, and not just destination marketing.

Let’s define what a DMO is, what roles they fulfill within a destination, and find out why these roles are mostly related to the management of the destination:

What is a DMO?

DMO stands for Destination Marketing/Management Organization. At times, the role of a DMO is mistakenly perceived to be limited to the marketing efforts, but in reality, DMOs contribute majorly to the development aspects of a destination too. Effectively, the UNWTO defines it as “the leading organizational entity which may encompass the various authorities, stakeholders, and professionals and facilitates partnerships towards a collective destination vision”. Thus, DMOs are not only about marketing, but also about management. But what do DMOs manage exactly?

Why are DMOs important?

Originally DMOs were established to competitively market the destinations by image-making, branding, and advertising what a place has to offer to tourists. However, in order for a destination to be successful, applying good marketing strategies or setting up an outstanding promotional campaign is no longer enough. Strategic management of the destination is also extremely important. Thus, it is clear that for the future of more sustainable tourism, DMOs must take the lead, as they hold the skills and the knowledge to support the destination through the management of tourism activities. Additionally, they have the ability and the tools to monitor the destination’s performance, allowing them to create the most suitable and sustainable approach to destination development.

To effectively manage a destination, DMOs should:

Manage the variety of different stakeholders involved in tourism. This is also connected to the creation of a common website platform, where stakeholders can engage and contribute to the destination’s development
Consult visitor-related sectors, namely, accommodation, food and other services related to tourism. To this regard, DMOs also facilitate the introduction of quality standards in service
Help communities become more visible. Developed and advanced communities raise the sense of pride among their residents
Support local economies
Encourage sustainable development of tourism

As shown, apart from marketing and brand image creation, DMOs can truly contribute to developing sustainable destinations.

What is destination management?

DMOs are vital for touristic destinations, especially where national or local governments struggle to manage and control all the activities related to tourism. DMOs are especially crucial in the destinations with emerging economies and the tourism sector. The roles of DMOs involve destination development, management of all the available assets and monitoring of the tourism impacts at the destination. DMOs’ ultimate goal is to maintain the destination successful, competitive, and socially and economically developed, and in order to achieve that, it is necessary to create and implement the destination’s development plan.

Destination Development

DMOs’ main role is destination development. Destination development includes a range of different activities, such as marketing efforts, improvement or diversification of tourism products and quality of the services supplied. For DMOs, it is crucial to create a development plan which will lead all the activities in the short or long-term perspective. With the development plan, DMOs set the target goals and indicators for businesses, communication, marketing and product development. All the actions taken by the local stakeholders and the DMO itself should be in line with the destination development plan.

Much of Solimar’s work is oriented on destination development, as many destinations and, consequently, DMOs need facilitation and support at their early stage.

Management and coordination of destination assets

Every destination comprises a variety of resources provided by different organizations, and these resources need to be coordinated accurately to develop a competitive and sustainable tourism offer. The development and maintenance of a tourism destination is a complex process, and it requires a strategy capable of generating and sustaining synergy among all the various elements involved in the sector.

Local stakeholders, entrepreneurs, government, citizens and visitors have their own roles at the destination, and they are all part of the development process. It is the DMO’s prerogative to bring together representatives from each group to establish integrated and regular interactions and collaborations. These collaborations are essential to create the tourism product, the destination strategy, policy and crisis management plans to foster investments and funding and to evaluate the overall destination’s performance. Moreover, DMOs are also expected to provide services related to the improvement of physical and human resources, supply assistance and advice for hospitality and tourism businesses.

Solimar International’s examples of DMO and asset management

Solimar recognizes the value and importance of DMOs – collaborating with them is a key part of many of our projects. But most importantly, we strategically assist destinations where such institutions are inexistent, but are essential for a sustainable tourism development.

For example, in our current project USAID Visit Tunisia, we are supporting the country in differentiating its tourism offer by promoting six lesser known regions in the country. In most cases, tourism in Tunisia is solely managed by the national tourism organization. The lack of regional DMOs compromises these emerging destinations’ possibility to create and implement a tourism strategy and development plan adequate enough to support the emerging destination and its success.

For this reason, Solimar is assisting these destinations by encouraging and facilitating the dialogue between the public and private sector and the local communities at a regional level. Under the guidance of our expert Solimar team, the local stakeholders are collaborating and drafting destination development plans, which they are also using to advocate for a local DMO to be established with the help of the national tourism organization. Through this project, we are also supporting Destination Dahar, the first DMO in the country.

Why DMOs must monitor tourism impacts

As the tourism market and destinations change and evolve, they create an immediate urge of monitoring the impacts created by the tourism activities. This is crucial to evaluate and manage the change and respond to the challenges.

The main goals of monitoring are:

To understand the effects of tourism
To identify improvements or/and challenges. This will help the future planning and response
To enable destinations to remain competitive

Another aim of monitoring is to find out how strategic goals of the destinations are met and measure the main indicators of the destination development. Monitoring impacts helps DMOs collect data on tourism activities. This facilitates the process of analyzing the tourism impacts and coming up with an adequate response, in particular to the most challenging ones. This way DMOs stay responsible, accountable, and fulfill their strategic goals.

DMOs track positive and negative impacts of tourism

Monitoring tourism impacts covers the following main areas: economic, social and environmental. Tourism impacts can be seen as negative and positive. Growing number of visitors positively contributes to the economic growth within the destination. However, it can also cause some threats to the cultural and natural assets of the destination if not managed and controlled properly. For example, in the case of cultural heritage, not well-managed visitor flows can cause damage to the sites.Or in the case of nature, tourism can cause major environmental challenges.

As seen above, monitoring helps DMOs to evaluate tourism impacts and take the appropriate measures. Various projects implemented by Solimar across the globe cover supporting development of DMOs and naturally, this involves facilitating them to acquire different roles, including monitoring the tourism impacts and effectively responding to it. Solimar’s ongoing project Bangladesh Ecotourism and Conservation Alliance envisages supporting one of the most important protected areas – the Sundarbans. With the project, Solimar works to implement a series of interventions in order to improve tourism and natural resources management in the area. One of the outcomes is creating a local DMO, which will unite the private and public sector and contribute to the conservation of the protected areas through sustainable governance.

So, why must DMOs make this shift?

DMOs facilitate the social and economic development of the destinations. This is especially important in the case of societies where tourism and the economy are in their emerging phase. In this process, fulfilling merely a marketing goal is not enough. Through proper management and leadership, DMOs can create inspiring and attractive destinations that will contribute to their socio-economic growth.

Interested in discovering how Solimar can support the management of your destination? Find more information about our services and training courses. And don’t forget to check out more Solimar blog posts to learn everything about the importance of DMOs: here and here.

Blog by Veronica Santapa and Teona Zhuzhunadze

7 New Trends in Tourism Planning You Must Know

Written by Greta Dallan on July 26, 2022. Posted in Blog, Uncategorized.

What is Tourism Planning?

Tourism planning consists of creating strategies to develop tourism in a specific destination. Knowing and understanding current trends allows those in the industry to tailor their operations to meet demand. It is crucial for DMOs and tourism businesses to stay up-to-date.

Origin and development of tourism planning

Tourism planning was born from the necessity of simultaneously balancing the economic goals of tourism and preserving the destination’s environment and local welfare. It arose in the second half of the 1990s, when mass tourism brought an unparalleled change in the travel environment. Consequently, the industry had to develop new standards to adapt to this change.

The aim of tourism planning

The current objective of tourism planning is to control tourism’s unprecedented expansion to limit its negative social and environmental effects, while maximizing its benefits to locals.

These goals can be reached by:

Analyzing the development of tourism in the destination
Examining the state of affairs in a specific area and executing a competitive analysis
Drafting tourism policies
Defining a development strategy and actionable steps

Businesses looking for support through this process can reach out to Solimar International or check out this free toolkit. Solimar has a dedicated team of staff who employ a wide range of skills to promote economic growth, environmental preservation, and cultural heritage conservation.

developing strategies and planning are key to improving destination tourism — Planning development strategies are necessary to improve tourism.

Why is Tourism Planning Important?

Tourism planning should be part of destination development plans because it supports a destination’s long term success and incentivizes the collaboration of key stakeholders.

Tourism planning maximizes tourism benefits like:

Promotion of local heritage and cross-cultural empathy
Optimization of tourism revenue
Natural environment and resource protection

Tourism planning also minimizes tourism drawbacks such as:

Overtourism, and consequently anti-tourism feelings
Economic leakage
Disrespect for the local culture
Damage to the local environment

Tourism planning is also important because, by creating plans and strategies, destinations provide an example that other destinations can follow to improve tourism in their area. It ensures that the destination is consistent with changing market trends, constantly addressing tourist and resident needs as they arise.

This was made clear in the Cayman Islands. The surge of cruise tourism caused a massive influx of tourists, which brought new challenges to the small islands. Consequently, the destination’s goal shifted from attracting tourists to sustainably managing them. The development of a National Tourism Management Plan was key to provide stakeholders with the tools they needed for sustainable tourism management.

What are the Newest Tourism Trends?

In the planning process, it is fundamental to consider how new tourism trends influence the future of tourism planning and allow destination strategies to stay innovative.

1. Safety and Cleanness

The Covid-19 pandemic brought about significant change to tourism and tourists’ perception of travel. Tourists are now more concerned about safety and cleanliness. They have a preference for private home rental, contactless payments, and booking flexibility due to the constantly-evolving global health situation. They are also more willing to visit natural environments and less crowded destinations where they feel safer.

→ Tips for DMOs: Have safety and cleanliness standards, allow flexible bookings and contactless payments, and focus on open-air experiences.

An excellent example of these practices is Thailand, which decided to boost tourism after Covid-19 by rebranding itself as a safe tourist destination, issuing safety certificates to infrastructures to build public trust.

2. Social Media

Social media is the preferred channel for travel inspiration, influencing travelers’ decision-making because videos and pictures create an emotional bond between people and places.

The preferred platform depends on the traveler’s generation:

Gen X uses Pinterest and aesthetically pleasing blogs
Millennials use Instagram
Gen Z uses TikTok

Generation Z is also more willing to travel after Covid, and they will have high spending power in the next few years.

Video content is favorable because of the high engagement and interaction it creates compared to pictures. In this context, TikTok is the future of travel marketing. On this fast-growing platform, videos are likely to become viral because of the app’s algorithm. For example, the travel campaign #TikTokTravel, where people were invited to share videos of their past trips, was viewed by 1.7 billion people.

tourists use social media like Instagram to plan travel — A tourist searches for Instagrammable locations

→ Tips for DMOs: DMOs can use TikTok to promote attractions, restaurants, and tours partnering with influencers. Social media can attract new customers, monitor Instagrammable locations, and manage overcrowding by promoting lesser-known areas. This all helps shift tourists away from hot spots.

Follow Solimar International’s success with social media promotion through their World Heritage Journeys of the European Union project. By providing research, media-rich itineraries, website promotion, and mobile maps, Solimar International can help your organization reach its target audience.

3. BLeisure Travel

Due to technology, the separation between work and life is blurred. This premise gives birth to the BLeisure travel, a genre of travel that combines business and leisure. Aside from those who travel for work, combining some leisure during their stay, there is an increasing number of digital nomads. These people are freelancers or smart workers who decide to adopt a traveling lifestyle. They will look for business hotels where they can easily obtain a fast Internet connection and a good working environment.

Some destinations are rebranding themselves, targeting those who work remotely. A good example is Aruba, which promotes itself as a paradise for workation.

BLeisure tourists could work from their favorite destinations — How working as a BLeisure tourist could look

4. Destination Uniqueness

The tourism market is becoming increasingly competitive, especially for destinations with similar climates or natural features. To stand out, destinations need to focus on their distinctive assets. Places should identify a destination brand, which highlights their culture and the unique experiences they offer to tourists, instead of branding common and widely-available tourism practices.

An example of destination uniqueness as a trend of tourism planning is Uganda, which is widely known as a safari destination. The country rebranded itself by focusing on its one-of-a-kind cultures, landscapes, food, and traditions, labeling itself “The Pearl of Africa.” This is one aspect of Uganda’s tourism planning process. By identifying and promoting a destination brand, Uganda aims to develop an immersive tourism for meaningful and transformative experiences abroad.

5. Transformative Travel

Transformative travel is an expression of the experience economy combined with experiential travel. The latter is about living once-in-a-lifetime, off-the-beaten-track experiences rather than conventional ones, connecting visitors with local cultures.

Transformative travel is defined by the Transformational Travel Council as:

“intentionally traveling to stretch, learn and grow into new ways of being and engaging with the world.”

Therefore, transformative travel is an immersive experience that aims to inspire personal transformation, growth, and self-fulfillment. People travel to transform their own lives and the lives of those who live in the destination.

→ Tips for DMOs: Destinations should focus on providing unique and authentic experiences that connect travelers with locals. This enables tourists to experience local culture, food, and lifestyles, lending way to authentic experiences that they are sure to remember.

6. Sustainability and Community Engagement

Travelers are becoming more conscious of their environmental impact, and they are more willing to adopt a sustainable travel style. This means not only doing less harm to the environment, but also making a positive impact on cultures and economies, generating mutually beneficial relationships between tourists and locals.

An excellent example of a country that stays ahead of trends in tourism planning is Jamaica. Instead of boosting sun and beach tourism development, Jamaica has recently focused on community-based tourism, providing several experiences that empower locals.

By focusing on poverty reduction, gender empowerment, equality and employment, Jamaica utilizes tourism to achieve social justice goals.

Similarly, Solimar contributed to an Artisan Development project in Morocco. By strengthening the connection between local artisans and tourists, Marrakech and Fez saw a significant increase in direct selling to consumers, which contributed to increased local welfare.

developing sustainable framework is ket to the tourism planning process — Giving tourism a sustainable framework is a necessity for tourism planning

7. Technology to Manage Overtourism

The rise of charter flights boosted mass tourism. This has pressurized cities, raising the debate on the limits of acceptable change and generating anti-tourism sentiments among residents. One example of this is in Sedona, Arizona, where we helped manage visitor flow by marketing and promoting the nearby towns and attractions in Arizona’s Verde Valley.

→ Tips for DMOs: Destinations should exploit technological advances to develop crowd management techniques. Some DMOs used gamification to manage tourism flow, spreading visitors in less known or less crowded areas. This is popular in London, for example, with the Play London with Mr. Bean app, a program that allows tourists navigate to different parts of the city and find points of interest quickly. This gives the city the opportunity to redirect tourist flows to spread-out spots in London.

To learn more about the tourism planning process and future trends in the tourism industry, visit our Institute for Sustainable Destinations website today.

By Greta Dallan & Hannah Lambert

WE DEVELOP, MANAGE, AND MARKET SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DESTINATIONS

Tag: dmos