The Role of Destination Management Organizations

INTRODUCTION

Destination management refers to a coordinated management of all the factors that make up a tourism destination. Destination management plays a crucial role in enabling communities as well as destinations to effectively respond to the changing conditions and uncertain the kind of tourism they would like to have and the advantages they would like to receive, by taking an active role in management. The aim and objective of the essay is getting deeper understanding of the role of Destination Management Organizations in promoting sustainable growth, efficiently managing resources as well as implementing strategic plans within the tourism industry. Presently several sustainable practices integrated into the tourism managements, such as DMO`s focus on supporting local business and communities by promoting awareness of local arts, handicrafts, cuisines leads to increase employment generation and standard of living of local people. In addition, by promoting cultural preservation and socio-economic development as well as promoting sustainable practices such as using waste management, 3R policy and so more aids in address environmental factors of tourism.

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The role of DMO`s includes promoting a local destination as an attractive and vibrant travel destination. In addition, DMO`s performs various roles related to marketing and development of the destination as well as manages partnership within the tourism industry, agencies and public departments, for promotion and management of destination. Currently, demand of travelling increase globally, it has positive and negative impact both, it leads to increase pressure on environment, to overcome this importance of effective destination management increase. Destination management aids business to build a sustainable plan to protect the destination. The essay will outline the value of tourism as well as the growing requirement for effective destination management. It will highlight DMO`s with the help of various theories and explain role in developing regional tourism in UK and international tourism of Bali and destination plan.

TASK 1: VALUE OF TOURISM AND GROWING NEED OF EFFECTIVE TOURISM DESTINATION MANAGEMENT

Overview of Tourism as an asset

Tourism is considered as a significant economic asset on both global and regional level as it is beneficial for the growth and development of the local places. Increasing tourism generates employment opportunities for the local communities, results in enhancing standard of living, income level as well as enhances overall GDP of the country. For instance, the tourism sector of England contributes £106 billion to the British GDP as well as creates roughly 58000 jobs in Bali and estimated growth in economy is projected 60% (The value of tourism in England, 2024). In addition, tourism plays an important role as a social asset at a global and regional level. It builds a mutual influence on tourists and the host community by bringing together individual of different languages, races and beliefs; it leads to increase socio-cultural exchanges within the host and tourists countries.

Tourism also known as a cultural asset as it perform crucial role in preserves heritage as well as fosters cross-cultural understandings. It encourages sustainable development and community revitalization, leads to contributes both local economies as well as global cultural enrichment via the preservation celebration of diverse traditions (Kim, Whitford and Arcodia, 2021). Increasing tourism effectively enhance the awareness about the ;local arts, music, language, tradition, histories as a result efficiently aids in preserve culture at regional and global level, correspondingly known as cultural asset.

Economic Contribution

Tourism has a significant and positive impact on employment, GDP, local economies regionally and globally.

Employment: A great impact of tourism including increasing employment opportunities at global and regional level. Increasing tourism aids in establishment of more hotels, resorts, adventure activities, infrastructure as well as support to local business, leads to generate more employment. In UK, due to number of tourism number of foreign tourist increase which leads to increase employment opportunities and generate 3.12 million jobs while growth of tourism sector OF Bali creates 3 million jobs (Bali Tourism Sector, 2024).

GDP: Tourism has a major impact on the GDP as its aids on bring more foreign currency to the country as well as generate more employment, leads to positively contributes in country`s GDP. Contribution of UK tourism in GDP forecasted to grow 3% average annually, within 2022 to 2032.

Local economies: Increasing tourism efficiently increase economic activities, rise demand for the local businesses products and services, generate jobs, increase revenue as well as decline poverty. Tourism generates local economies by building tourism related activities including transport, accommodations and attractions. The enhancement of local economies leads to boost Bali`s economy by 5.43%.

Social and Cultural Importance

Destination Management Organization (DMO) role includes educating travellers about attraction and offerings of destination, marketing via targeted campaigns, working on sustainability issues and so more. DMO`s plays crucial role in promote cultural exchange by effectively creating a marketing campaigns that highlight customs, traditions, heritage sites, beliefs to grab the attention of wide range of tourists (Gretzel, 2022). In addition, DMO`s prepares several strategies to educate the travellers about the destination so that effectively able to do cultural exchange. In addition, Destination Management Organization collaborate with government, businesses, agencies and local residents to do effective planning for protecting and preserving cultural heritage. DMO`s conducts and implements programs to enhance knowledge of people regarding local culture, tradition as well as to educate travellers about the cultural sites. Apart from this, for preservation of heritage sites DMO`s emphasize on management, maintenances, construction, and development so that the sites can effectively preserve for the long time.

Implementation of destination marketing strategies by DMO`s plays important role in enhancing social integration. DMO by using the strategies promote landmarks, attractions, products and services as well as knowledge of specific location beliefs, customs and languages. It aids in social integration.

Environmental Impacts

Destination management furnish a powerful way to coordinate how a destination manages different factors in tourism industry. DMO`s should effectively plan the activities related to tourism industry so that industry able to generate economic gains with sustainable management of resources. DMO`s effectively coordinates with government that can build practices for tourist businesses for ensuring sustainable management of environmental resources.

Ultimately, DMO enables the tourism destination to balance economic, environmental and community values. This aims to increase contribution of industry of tourism towards economy and enhances viability of destination at long term (Gutic, 2022). DMO highly focuses on the sustainable management of environmental resources by prioritizing sustainable investment within green technologies. Along with that, it integrates resource-efficient practices such as waste reduction, recycling and sustainable agriculture to promote sustainable management while balancing economic gains. Besides that, DMO can encourage businesses within tourism industry to operate in ethical and environmental responsible manner. This leads to maintain a balance between sustainable management and economic gains within tourism industry.

Case studies

VisitBritain, VisitEngland, VisitScotalnd and London & Partners are some domestic and regional DMOs. All these destination management organisations highly focus on the development of the destinations. They concentrate on partnership programme to improve the infrastructure of the different tourism destinations. These DMOs also put full efforts on marketing and make different campaigns and launch events to attract local and global tourists. VisitBritain works with the trade and investment, travel operators, international brands and airlines along with the official tourism units for Scotland, Wales, London and England (VisitBritain, 2024). It is liable for marketing and promotion in all over the world and developing the visitor economy of the Britain. Cititravel, a largest destination management organisation (DMO) in Barcelona is proficient in meetings, conferences as well as incentives (Cititravel, 2024). The organisation provides the resources to the execution of the meetings and events in given location to boost the tourism in the Barcelona. World Travel Awards is a top destination company of the Bali is specialised in tailor-made trips, adventure tourism, conferences and innovative incentive travel. It helps Bali to improve their tourism industry and attract more people towards this destination. It facilitates to generate more income for local business and contribute to the infrastructure and economy development.

TASK 2: THE APPLICATION OF THEORETICAL CONCEPTS WITHIN A DMO (VISIT BRITAIN) CONTEXT

Tourism Area Life Cycle

Butler’s (1980) Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) model is primarily used to study about evolution of specific tourism destination. TALC model can be applied by Visit Britain to manage development of destination through exploration to decline along with a prime focus on rejuvenation strategies.

Stage 1: Exploration

Visit Britain can emphasize on the development of tourism amenities and infrastructure to attract large number of visitors to explore tourism destination.

Stage 2: Involvement

Visit Britain can involve and encourage local people to start business such as restaurants, tour services or guesthouse to promote development of destination.

Stage 3: Development

As per the TALC model, Visit Britain may emphasise on the development of infrastructure and tourism amenities to enhance flow of visitors at destination. For example: with the launch of promotional advertising campaigns and digital promotion, Visit Britain can reach out to large section of society (Morrison, 2023).

Stage 4: consolidation

The consolidation stage enables Visit Britain to take initiative to de-seasonalize visits, enhance stay of tourists and their per capita expenditure.

Stage 5: Stagnation

TALC model can further guide Visit Britain to drive in-depth analysis through leverage of Google travel insights to minimize stagnation and to promote innovation and growth in tourism.

Stage 6: Decline or rejuvenation

It is the last stage of TALC model; Visit Britain can formulate effective strategies to overcome the decline aspect of tourism. For instance: with the implementation of sustainable practices of tourism, Visit Britain can boost number of visitors with shifting its focus on destination with the improvement in tourism services. Sustainable travelling and accommodation are the key strategies that enable the tourism industry to rejuvenate (Truyols, 2023).

SWOT Analysis

Visit Britain use SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis to effectively shape their decision making and strategies. It serves as a structural framework that enhances capabilities of Visit Britain in decision making as it provides organized and clear method for the evaluation of tourism variables. Visit Britain can shape effective risk mitigation strategies with the identification of potential threats and weaknesses. For example: with the identification of weaknesses such as lack of environmental knowledge and threat such as increased pollution and soil erosion at Bali, Visit Britain can shape its strategy to overcome them. Strategies related to adoption of renewable energy sources and electric vehicles can be adopted to minimize adverse impact of tourism.

Along with that, Visit Britain can strategically evaluate its competitors with the implementation of SWOT analysis to ensure about maintenance of sustainable competitive advantage. This model can further assist Visit Britain to identify and grab the development and growth opportunities with strategic decision making (About Visit Britain, 2024). For example: SWOT analysis can enable Visit Britain to grab opportunities related to Eco-travel and sustainable tourism with an aim to promote regional tourism of UK. Information through SWOT analysis can assist Visit Britain to make informed decisions to take advantage of strengths and opportunities along with the addressing of weakness and mitigation of threats.

Carrying capacity

World Tourism Organization has defined Tourism carrying capacity as the maximum number of travellers that can visit can visit a destination without any causing any sort of destruction to external factors. These factors comprises of economic, physical, socio-cultural and physical environment that may cause unacceptable decline in quality of traveller’s satisfaction. Visit Britain can access the carrying capacity of tourism destinations with the development of destination management plan. This plan aims to outline the objectives and goals and provides strategic roadmap for their achievement. For example: Visit Britain can consider the factors related to visitor behaviour and impact of tourism on communities for accessing carrying capacity of UK’s regional tourism within London, Cambridge and Edinburgh.

Another effective strategy that Visit Britain can adopt is to encourage responsible tourism among travellers. This may involves initiatives such as encouraging sustainable options of transportation, educating travellers about culture and local customs and with the promotion of activities related to eco-tourism. This results in prevention of resource strain and over-tourism. For example: DMO can assess the carrying capacity of international tourism destination of Bali with the implementation of tool of visitor management (Bryan, 2023). This can assist Visit Britain to distribute visitors throughout a day to prevent the situation of over-tourism at Bali.

Tourism Typology

It is described as particular tourist group based on diverse psychological characteristics. This is one of essential tool for the planning of tourism. Tourists are categorised in different types which are identified as psychocentric and allocentric (Ryan, 2020). Psychocentric tourists are nervous, self-inhibiting and non-adventurous. This type of tourist follows conservative patterns and habits. Understanding about this type of tourist can help Visit Britain to tailor their offering as per their needs and preferences. For instance: Visit Britain may provide the road or water transportation services as this type of travellers often denies for air transportation. On the other hand, allocentric tourists are curious, confident and highly prefer to travel alone. These type of tourists are highly extroverted about their adventure choices. For example: Visit Britain can tailor their offering by way of organizing adventurous activities to attract this type of tourists and to enhance their per capita spending. Furthermore, with the significant understanding about allocentric travellers, DMO of visit Britain can offer them eco-tourism and off the beaten path location that aims to offers them opportunity to explore local regional destination of UK.

Examples of Theoretical Application

Visit Britain can apply the theoretical approach of TALC model in the formulation of rejuvenation strategies for the promotion of local and regional tourism of UK. For example: Visit Britain adopted the green tourism practices such as waste management and sustainable accommodation to attract eco-conscious travellers to maximize their spending at destination. This leads to promote economic contribution of tourism sector within growth and development of nation. Along with that, with the adoption of green practices also enables to manage sustainability and manage growth in tourism with attracting diverse range of travellers. On the other hand, Visit Britain adopt the theoretical framework of SWOT analysis to enhance experience of visitors by providing them best services. Besides that, SWOT analysis further enables visit Britain to identify and grab tourism opportunities such as eco-tourism, creation of jobs and opportunities related to conservation of natural environment. It was resulted that Visit Britain has offered 3.64 million jobs in UK within year 2022 to garb the opportunity related to economic development of nation (Statista, 2022).

Another example is based on adoption of tourism typology adopted by Visit Britain to understand needs and preference of consumers to enhance their experience and to promote growth in tourism industry. Visit Britain offers services related to airlines, investment and trade and travel operators and tour guides to enhance experience of different types of visitors.

TASK 3: The ROLE OF DMO`S IN DEVELOPING REGIONLAL DESTINATION PLANS:

Strategic role in TDPs

Tourism development plan refers to a plan for growth and maintenance of tourism industry in a particular destination. The role of DMO`s is crucial in developing and managing Tourism Development plan. The DMO`s such as Visit Britain and London & Partners make collaboration and partnership with the local authorities, local people and communities to develop a tourist destination plan. The DMO`s focus on marketing and investing in improvement of the destination to grab the attention of wide range of customers. DMO of UK namely Visit Britain for tourism development plan, focus on first developing infrastructure so that roads, airports makes it easier for the tourist to reach destination as well as local businesses to do business effectively (Gutic, 2022). In addition, the DMO focus on evaluating the current tourism trends, identifying the needs and preference of the tourist and accordingly includes services at the tourism destination for the growth of the industry. For instance, adventures activities is demanding in the tourism as a result DMO of the UK invest in boosting adventure tourism to increase the number of tourism within the UK.

Infrastructure Development

Destination management organization is responsible for ensuring that a destination has a quality tourism infrastructure such as accommodation, transportation and attractions. For example, Visit Britain make partnership with the transportation authority to develop the roads, transportation such as railway, flights and so more to enhance the experience of the tourists. For infrastructure development as well as management of the destination, the responsible authority effectively plans for sufficient investment to make the destination more attractive and beautiful place. The regional tourism destination plan of DMO`s includes making the place more attractive by investing in natural landmarks, developing and promoting heritage sites by collaborating with the concern tourism and development authorities (Foris and Bivolaru, 2022). In addition, the DMO`s within a tourism development plan considering the needs of the tourists develop infrastructure. For instance, in high demanding seasons lack of proper accommodation creates a problem and impacts tourists experience, thus within TDP, DMO`s sourcing funds publicly and privately focus on infrastructure development, to make the destination more sustainable, accessible as well as competitive. Infrastructure development by the DMO`s leads to increase revenue for the destination, crucial for enhancing UK`s economy as well as providing better experience to the tourists.

Human Resource Management

Destination management organization plays a crucial role in effective management of the human resource within the tourism sector. DMO`s with the help of effective management as well as infrastructure development leads to grab several tourist effectively boost employment within the regional and international market. For instance, Visit Britain by organizing tourism programs effectively prepares local businesses to handle unexpected business situations ensuring the well-being as well as safety of the tourists. In addition, Singapore Tourism Board emphasize on implementing training programs by bringing together community members, local businesses and other stakeholder (Fedyk et al, 2021). The training programs aids in improving the skill and knowledge of the tourism business like how to deal with tourist, to maintain business with efficiency and sustainability and increase profitability within the business. The DMO`s fosters a sense of unity as well as collaboration within the destination. In addition, the visit Britain focus on effective marketing of the destination by creating attractive campaigns in order to increase the number of visitors at the destination, to significantly support the local businesses. In addition, DMO`s organize events to increase employment opportunities for locals as well as increasing footmarks of tourism so that local businesses able to earn a good amount of profit

Natural Resources

Natural resource management refers to management and maintenance of the stability of the ecosystem. It includes preventing damage to environment as well as avoidance of over-consumption of natural resources. The DMO namely Visit Britain of UK effectively manage natural resources by preserving wildlife and natural habitats via furnishing responsible tourism guidelines that includes prohibition on damaging natural sites and charge penalties on breaking of rules. On the other hand, Singapore tourism board for ensuring sustainability and declining environmental impacts build partnership with the business related to accommodation, hotel, restaurants and so more to ensure them using eco-friendly practices within the business (Idisondjaja, Wahyuni and Turino, 2023). The DMO significantly furnish recycling and composting facilities within tourism areas and use plastic-free campaigns and educate businesses about responsible waste management practices. These initiatives of DMO`s not only preserves or protects natural resources but also promote environmental awareness a within local community and businesses. Apart from this, DMO`s for natural resource management encourage public transportation as this have smaller carbon footprint as compared to private vehicles. The sustainable transportation declines direct and indirect impacts on the environment, leads to preserve natural sites and aids in effective management.

Sustainability and Green Tourism principles

Currently, DMO`s works in promoting sustainable tourism practices as well as integrating green tourism principles within the Tourism Development plan. DMO`s focus on encouraging and using sustainable as well as green practices within the tourism. The UK DMO London & Partners to motivate sustainable practices within the tourism sector implement policy regarding using green practices. DMO within the UK for sustainability and green tourism makes mandatory for the businesses to use waste management, water management, 3R policy as well as energy-efficiency techniques to effectively decline the negative environmental impacts as well as to preserve the natural resources in significant manner (Wagenseil, Wyss and Huck, 2022). Further, Singapore board of Tourism to promote sustainability and green practices within the tourism provide sustainable certification to the hotels to motivate them to focus on eco-friendly practices. This approach of DMO also aids the tourism businesses to grab the attention of wide range of customers. In addition, Singapore Board of Tourism for green tourism makes necessary to use energy efficient and renewable energy sources, sustainable transportation, waste and water management to minimize environmental impacts. Inclusion of sustainable and green tourism principle within the Tourism Development plan aids in reducing carbon emission cause by the tourism sector in different destinations.

CONCLUSION

Summary of key points

This essay concludes about critical review of the role of DMO within regional and international tourism development with emphasized on local UK tourism and international tourism of Bali. Role of DMO was analysed that involves promotion of local destination as a vibrant and attractive travel destination. In addition to this, DMO performs the multiple roles related to development and marketing of tourism destination. Along with that it manages strategic partnership with public departments, tourism industries and agencies for effective management and promotion of destination. Economic contribution, cultural and social importance and environmental impact was analysed within context of regional and international tourism. Application of various theoretical concepts such as TALC, carrying capacity, SWOT analysis and Tourist Typology was applied within context of DMO (Visit Britain) context. At last, role of DMO in the development of regional tourism destination plan was concluded.

Challenges and future considerations

Destination management organisations like Costa Rica and Singapore face the issue of climate change and over tourism. Because of popularity of these places, many people visit the place and use transportation and natural resources in excessive manner which increase the problem of environment pollution and climate change. Rapid development of technologies has impacted the tourist’s behaviour and shift their behaviours into more tech-friendly, eco-friendly and sustainable tourism. It is crucial for the DMOs to focus on the changing behaviour of tourists and make possible modification in services so that more people attract and visit destinations even in off season. It will also help to overcome the issue of over tourism.

Recommendations

From above observation, there are few recommendations for the DMOs to improve their roles so that it will ultimately help to improve tourism industry.

Invest in technologies – It is suggested to the DMOs to invest in advance technologies to improve effectiveness of tourism sector. They can invest in IoT sensory to collect the valuable data and information regarding tourist. DMOs can use the data management platforms to handle the different information from multiple sources which will help in decision-making process and application of more efficient strategies.

Boost collaboration with stakeholders – DMOs can enhance the coordination with stakeholders through effective communication. It is crucial for the destination organisations to provide information about ongoing and upcoming projects to the stakeholders. It will help to enhance the trust of stakeholders as well as to achieve the positive outcomes.

Focus more on sustainability approaches – Destination management organisations need to implement sustainable methods to contribute in protection of environment. DMOs can focus on green tourism, community-based tourism and rural tourism to promote sustainability. They should focus on waste management to reduce waste and pollution.

Concluding thoughts

Overall, destination management organisations play the most valuable role in the tourism industry. They use their knowledge, expertise and competencies to market and manage tourism destination so that many people visit destinations and contribute to development of economies of the countries. DMOs are highly important as they help the firms within the travel and tourism sector to accomplish their objectives. They direct and coordinate the different activities and integrate the factors of marketing mix to promote tourism destination. They also promote and support the sustainable tourism through making sure the appropriate use of natural and local resources. They facilitate in attracting investment and provide opportunities to local businesses and communities to grow.

REFERENCES

Books and Journals

Boniface, B. Cooper, R. and Cooper, C. 2021. Worldwide Destinations. The Geography of Travel and Tourism. 8 thedn. New York: Routledge

Fedyk, W., Sołtysik, M., Oleśniewicz, P., Borzyszkowski, J. and Weinland, J., 2021. Human resources management as a factor determining the organizational effectiveness of DMOs: A case study of RTOs in Poland. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 33(3), pp.828-850.

Foris, D. and Bivolaru, I., 2022. Stakeholders’ Opinion Regarding the Role and the Importance of DMO in the Development of Tourist Destinations. In Advances in Tourism, Technology and Systems: Selected Papers from ICOTTS 2021, Volume 1 (pp. 385-395). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.

Gretzel, U., 2022. The Smart DMO: A new step in the digital transformation of destination management organizations. European Journal of Tourism Research, 30, pp.3002-3002.

Gutic, J., 2022. Tourism recovery plans by UK Destination Management Organisations (DMOs): a new sustainable chapter, or a return to business-as-usual?. In The Emerald handbook of destination recovery in tourism and hospitality (pp. 481-496). Emerald Publishing Limited.

Idisondjaja, B.B., Wahyuni, S. and Turino, H., 2023. The role of resource structuring, marketing, and networking capabilities in forming DMO orchestration capability toward sustainable value creation. Cogent Business & Management, 10(3), p.2288381.

Kim, S., Whitford, M. and Arcodia, C., 2021. Development of intangible cultural heritage as a sustainable tourism resource: The intangible cultural heritage practitioners’ perspectives. In Authenticity and Authentication of Heritage (pp. 34-47). Routledge.

Kim, S., Whitford, M. and Arcodia, C., 2021. Development of intangible cultural heritage as a sustainable tourism resource: The intangible cultural heritage practitioners’ perspectives. In Authenticity and Authentication of Heritage (pp. 34-47). Routledge.

Morrison, A.M. 2023. Marketing and Managing Tourist Destinations. 3rd edn. New York: Routledge.

Perez, W. 2022. Tourism Destination Management. New York: States Academic Press.

Ryan, C. 2020. Advanced Introduction to Tourism Destination Management. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Von Magius Mogelhoj, H. 2021. Overtourism: The Role of Effective Destination Management. New York: Business Expert Press.

Wagenseil, U., Wyss, M. and Huck, L., 2022. The case of sustainable tourism development in alpine destinations: Importance, implementation, and the role of the local DMO. Tourism Planning & Development, pp.1-23.

Online

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• Bryan, 2023. How DMOs Can Manage Overtourism? Available through: <https://about.hootboard.com/destination-marketing/how-dmos-can-manage-overtourism/>.

Cititravel, 2024. WHAT IS CITITRAVEL DMC? Online Available through < https://cititraveldmc.com/about-us/ >

Statista, 2022. Total contribution of travel and tourism to employment in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2019 and 2022. Online. Available through: <https://www.statista.com/statistics/598098/travel-and-tourism-employment-contribution-united-kingdom-uk/>. 

The value of tourism in England. 2024. Online. Available through: <https://www.visitbritain.org/research-insights/value-tourism-england >

• Truyols, M., 2023. The 6 phases of a tourist destination’s life cycle. Available through: <https://mize.tech/blog/the-6-phases-of-a-tourist-destinations-life-cycle/>.

Visit Britain, 2024. The DMO review. Online Available through < https://www.visitbritain.org/resources-destination-partners/dmo-review >

About Visit Britain. 2024. Online. Available through: < https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/42107/pdf/>.