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The New dmo
The world that meeting planners are work- ing in is changing, said Michael Gehrisch, president and CEO of the 3,500-member DMAI, and DMOs are changing, too. “We’re really committed, from a DMO standpoint, to help shape services that we provide to meeting planners so that they are planner- focused, and relevant for today’s meetings,” he said. The DMO channel should be one of the first two or three things that people think about when they think about planning meetings. “It’s all about ease for the planner,” Gehrisch said. Making things easy for the planner
requires not just hard work on the part of DMOs, but new ways of thinking and working. Convene talked to Gehrisch about how DMOs are making that transition.
What are the major challenges that DMOs face in 2013 and beyond? There are really four things I would talk about here. The first one is an ongoing one: secur- ing investment and funding. Domestically, Tourism Improvement Districts (TID) have become a really effective way to raise addi- tional dedicated tourism dollars for the com- munity. There are more than 100 TIDs that dedicate 100 percent of the funding for the tourism product within those destinations. The second thing is, in the era of transpar-
The New DMO
Michael Gehrisch, president and CEO of Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI), on what it takes for DMOs to keep up with ever-present challenges — and the importance of making it all look easy for planners.
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ency where all the information is available at your fingertips, being able to accurately report the net benefit of meetings and tour- ism to the community. Number three gets more into branding
— being able to differentiate your destina- tion from a growing number of destinations that have DMOs. What is your brand prom- ise? What is your distinctive brand among your competitive set, whether it’s natural attractions, transportation modes into your destination, historic sights, special events, whatever that brand is really able to differ- entiate in a very specific way. The last thing is really engaging all the
marketing content and managing all those people that are part of the community, from the hotels to the restaurants to the muse- ums. The way DMOs are structured, some