What is a Destination Marketing Organization? 

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Destination marketing organizations (DMOs) are organizations charged with representing a specific destination and helping the long-term development of communities through a travel and tourism strategy.

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, business and leisure travelers. 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? 

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• 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

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 occupancy taxes, membership dues, improvement districts and government resources.

 

Why are tourism and meetings important?

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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?

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You can visit the Profile of Destination Marketing Organization (2011), for more information on DMOs. 

 

 

What services does a DMO offer meeting planners?

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DMOs make planning and implementing a meeting less time-consuming and more streamlined. Learn about the free services that a DMO offers to meeting planners here.