What Makes a Successful DMO?

Originally posted by Todd Lucier @ Internet Marketing for Tourism.

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Successful Destination Marketing Organizations
Tourism businesses can succeed with the help of a strong destination marketing organization. At the core, a shared community vision about the values in a community are at the heart of any shared marketing project.

By bringing together traditional and non-traditional partners in tourism and getting the word out with a variety of online media the entire community benefits.

Stratford Ontario (WelcomeToStratford.com) is a DMO that offers great marketing opportunities to its membership. Telling compelling stories about your community is the role of your DMO or DMMO (Destination Marketing and Management Organization) and Stratford Tourism Alliance does it well by focusing on community character, culture and cuisine. I chatted with Cathy Rehberg, Marketing Coordinator for Stratford Tourism Alliance at the recent Ontario Tourism Summit.

Before you ask DMO members for money . . .

Does your community have a shared vision of what your community offers the traveler? Before you ask you members for money, ask them to contribute to the vision of what makes a visit to your region special. Invite members to a community forum so that your DMO can find success by tapping into the pulse and lifeblood of your community.

What makes your community unique?

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Date: October 8th, 2009 @ 09:43

Author: Todd Lucier

Categories: Blog, Syndicated

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http://buhlerworks.com/wordpress JEBworks

These are important elements. A successful DMO understands that it has a dual marketing role, one directed at the demand side, the other at the supply side. This can cause friction when supplier opinions are not aligned towards a common objective. What is essential to solve these potential issues is a priority focus on the customer and not the internal destination politics. Smart suppliers realize that to have an effective DMO able to demonstrate its value add makes for a better opportunity to compete in a very tough and competitive marketplace.

Realizing that such an organization has to be funded adequately to deliver those value added services should be a logical conclusion, alas it often isn't and the ideal relationship is not always found. Like any intermediary, a DMO has to constantly make a valid case for what it is they deliver to their suppliers and the community at large.
http://buhlerworks.com/wordpress JEBworks

These are important elements. A successful DMO understands that it has a dual marketing role, one directed at the demand side, the other at the supply side. This can cause friction when supplier opinions are not aligned towards a common objective. What is essential to solve these potential issues is a priority focus on the customer and not the internal destination politics. Smart suppliers realize that to have an effective DMO able to demonstrate its value add makes for a better opportunity to compete in a very tough and competitive marketplace.

Realizing that such an organization has to be funded adequately to deliver those value added services should be a logical conclusion, alas it often isn't and the ideal relationship is not always found. Like any intermediary, a DMO has to constantly make a valid case for what it is they deliver to their suppliers and the community at large.