Tourism Highlight: The New Landscape of Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs)

I've spent my entire career in the hospitality and tourism space, specifically the destination marketing world in tourism entities promoting tourism and its positive economic impact to the community which it serves. From San Diego up the coast through Orange County, to Santa Barbara and even Monterey County, the grandeur of these places and desirability of tourists to convene in these places has been limitless until COVID-19.

Tourism entities are typically funded by local hotel and occupancy taxes as more recently by tourism improvement and marketing districts through a tourism assessment fee. As we move through the pandemic the threat to the existence of destination marketing organizations (DMO's) is real. Just as many industries face a new reality and rapidly changing business environment, DMO's are being forced to shift and change from their traditional ways of promoting tourism as COVID-19 continues to stall ALL travel in complex ways.

Since forming my own consulting practice late last year, I have focused on supporting DMO's and other tourism related businesses in ways they can shift resource, create new strategy and grow in spite of a very dire outlook and recovery for the travel business as a whole. As such I have formed a collaborative effort with other industry consultants to address the way of the future of DMO's. You'll find the first three podcasts in a series we have started focused on the changing landscape and new opportunities being presented to DMO's as we move through the pandemic age. Listen to myself and my colleagues Carl Ribaudo, Chief Strategist for SMG Consulting and Danna Stroud, destination and recreation marketing consultant to learn more how DMO's can shift their mindset, strategies and create their future now.