FAQs about DMOs
What is a Destination Marketing Organization?
Destination marketing organizations (DMOs), often called convention and visitor bureaus, are not-for-profit organizations charged with representing a specific destination and helping the long-term development of communities through a travel and tourism strategy. DMOs are usually membership organizations bringing together businesses that rely on tourism and meetings for revenue.
For visitors, DMOs are like a key to the city. As an unbiased resource, they can serve as a broker or an official point of contact for convention and meeting planners, tour operators and visitors. They assist planners with meeting preparation and encourage business travelers and visitors alike to visit local historic, cultural and recreational sites.
Why is a Destination Marketing Organization valuable to a visitor, business traveler or a meeting planner?
- DMOs offer unbiased information about a destination’s services and facilities
- DMOs save visitors time and energy, as they are a one-stop shop for local tourism interests
- DMOs can provide the full range of information about a destination
- Most services provided by DMOs cost nothing
If DMOs don't charge for their services, how do they make money?
For most services convention and visitor bureaus do not charge their clients — the visitor, the business traveler and the meeting planner. Instead, most DMOs are funded through a combination of hotel occupancy taxes and membership dues.
Why are meetings and tourism important?
Travel and tourism enhances the quality of life for a local community by providing jobs, bringing in tax dollars for improvement of services and infrastructure, and attracting facilities like restaurants, shops, festivals, and cultural and sporting venues that cater to both visitors and locals.
Travel and tourism is one of the world’s largest service exports and largest employers. In the United States, for example, travel and tourism is the third biggest retail sales sector. The industry contributes more than US$599.2 billion annually to the nation’s economy and generates US$99.4 billion in tax revenues (2004 figures from the Travel Industry Association). Indeed, travel and tourism is an economic engine and DMOs are the key drivers.
How can you find out more about Destination Marketing Organizations?
How do DMOs help meeting planners?
DMOs make planning and implementing a meeting less time-consuming and more streamlined. They give meeting planners access to a range of services, packages and value-added extras. Before a meeting begins, DMO sales professionals can help locate meeting space, check hotel availability, and arrange for site inspections. DMOs can also link planners with the suppliers, from motorcoach companies and caterers to off-site entertainment venues, that can help meet the prerequisites of any event.
No matter the size of the meeting being organized, from 50 to 50,000, all planners are encouraged to use a bureau’s services. In fact, some larger bureaus even have staff members dedicated to small meetings.
Among the advantages of going through a DMO to plan a meeting:
- DMOs can assist planners in all areas of meeting preparation and provide planners with detailed reference material
- DMOs can establish room blocks at local hotels
- DMOs will market the destination to attendees via promotional material, thereby encouraging attendance
- DMOs can act as a liaison between the planner and community officials, thus clearing the way for special permits, street closures, et cetera
- DMOs can obtain special letters of welcome from high-ranking government officials and in some cases, can bring officials to speak at a meeting
- DMOs can offer suggestions about ways meeting attendees can maximize free time, along with helping to develop spouse programs and pre- and post-convention tours
What are some of the specific services DMOs can offer the meeting planner?
- They can assist in the creation of collateral material
- They can assist with on-site logistics and registration
- They can provide housing bureau services
- They can develop pre- and post-conference activities, spouse tours, and special events
- They can assist with site inspections and familiarization tours, as well as site selection
- They can provide speakers and local educational opportunities
- They can help secure special venues
- They can assist in the coordination of local transportation
What information do DMOs have on hotels?
Destination marketing organizations keep track of room counts, as well as other meetings coming to the area. In this way, they can help planners avoid conflicts with other events. Moreover, as DMOs have first-hand familiarity with the hotels and with meeting space in the area, they can help planners match properties to specific meeting requirements and budgets.
What services does DMAI offer meeting professionals via its web site?
Professional meeting planners can now take advantage of the newly launched empowerMINT.com, a customer-centric meeting information network. empowerMINT.com provides planners free access to their meeting history reports generated by DMOs, enabling them to find the best deals on meeting space and group sleeping rooms and having a history report of past events to help substantiate their RFPs.
For more information on empowerMINT.com, go here.
Contact
info@destinationmarketing.org
+1.202.296.7888 |
