have memberships and some of them don’t. And often what members want isn’t always necessarily what the consumer is looking for. I’ll give you an example. Let’s say I’m a
DMO that has a membership structure, and I’ve got 15 steakhouses that are DMO mem- bers and I’ve got 30 more that are not. If only the 15 member steakhouses are listed on a website, well, the consumer might want to know about all 45. The members say, “That’s my membership value. Only list the other 30 if they contribute funding, like I do.” Well, the consumer doesn’t really care about the model. They want to know, where is the best steak? Some DMOs are moving away from even
having a membership category, and going into a partnership category. The statistic is 41 percent of our members have a membership [category], 59 percent don’t.
Has the role of advocacy become more important for DMOs? If President Obama gets travel — and he does, probably more than any other president we’ve had in recent memory — it really gives a lot of momentum to the travel industry. It is important at the national level and certainly it is critical at the destination level, because ultimately, we’re relying on the hotel tax base or the general tax fund to fund our market- ing efforts. So it’s imperative that the DMO be
involved at the local level from an advo- cacy standpoint to ensure that the funding stays in place. We do a survey every couple of years of our CEOs — it’s a financial and organizational profile. In 2012, CEOs reported spending about 80 percent of their time on advocacy-related issues and about 20 per- cent of their time on marketing and selling a destination. Now, that could be a community involve-
ment — it doesn’t mean standing down in the mayor’s ofice every day — but promoting the value of tourism for your destination. Ten years ago, it was just the reverse: 80
percent of a CEO’s time was spent on market- ing and 20 percent was spent on advocacy. So the answer is definitely yes.
PCMA.ORG
As more associations and organizations include CSR activities at meetings, what are the opportunities for DMOs in provid- ing support? If you took the top 10 items that are includ- ed in an RFP, some kind of CSR question is always going to be included. Seventy-four percent of DMOs report actively recommend- ing local charities for clients to engage with during events. It’s an opportunity for DMOs to help the planners get their jobs done suc- cessfully, and with ease. Here’s an example. The Virginia Beach
CVB recognizes that sending planners to the local United Way, or any other list of 100 charities, puts a lot of work on the planner. So they defined six categories of different types of social-responsibility opportunities. Under each category, they give one to four recommendations for an activity that fits those themes. So it is already structured, it is not overwhelming, and it simplifies the job of the meeting planner.
How has the relationship between DMOs and local and state governments and busi- ness communities evolved? It’s evolving. That’s how I would describe it. If you take a look in the rearview mirror, I think DMOs were thought of as delivering visitor services, which they do very effectively through visitors centers, and now, an online presence and a combination of both, and of bringing meetings to a destination. I think the role of the DMO has evolved
over the last few years to one that has the primary responsibility of being able to com- municate the economic benefits of tourism and meetings to their specific destination. And DMOs have to be the best salespeo-
ple, because for the most part they’re selling a product they don’t produce and services they don’t deliver. The people selling that destina- tion have to really understand the product and know the services that are being pro- vided in that destination in order to be able to get the meeting planner the best experience. — Barbara Palmer
A CAPITOL IDEA: ADVOCATING FOR THE MEETINGS INDUSTRY
• On April 10–11, DMAI will partner with the U.S. Travel Association and other organizations for Destination: Capitol Hill, which will bring together professionals from all segments of the travel industry for an event in Washington, D.C., that will include meetings with legislators to talk about issues that affect travel.
• Thanks to research initiatives like “The Economic Significance of Meetings to the U.S. Economy” study, produced by the Convention Industry Council (CIC) in partnership with more than a dozen organizations, including DMAI, U.S. Travel, and PCMA, “I think we’re armed with the data, and being proactive in a lot of ways in talking about the importance of meetings,” said DMAI’s Michael Gehrisch. “Knowing the facts — that there are 1.8 million meetings held every year in the United States and that the industry creates 1.7 million jobs, or almost one job for every meeting held — those are pretty powerful numbers.”
• Destination: Capitol Hill will include presentations from leaders from both the travel industry and the federal government, and a workshop to help prepare participants to speak effectively about the issues with legislators. U.S. Travel has created a policy agenda for the event that includes visa-policy reform; funding for U.S. airport infrastructure and NextGen, an overhaul of the national air-trafic-control system; and opposition to steep, across-the-board cuts to government travel programs and support for improved methods of managing travel and conducting oversight.
For more information:
ustravel.org and
destinationmarketing.org
APRIL 2013 PCMA CONVENE
87
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164