Strategic Role of DMOs in Sustainable Tourism Development Assignment

An Analytical Evaluation of the Strategic Role of DMOs in Sustainable Global and Regional Tourism Development

INTRODUCTION

Tourism refers to the business of the offering and managing holidays and commercial services for individuals who are visiting different place or country. Tourism is considered as one of the major contributor to the country’s economy. Destination management organisation (DMO) plays a major role in improving the tourism activities and business so that they can earn high revenue and boost economy (Perez, 2022). DMO is highly important as it makes sure that destinations adapt to changing market situations consistently, developing trends and sustainability requirements, therefore enhances the country’s tourism industry. DMOs conduct the market research, draft strategies and sustainable approaches like green tourism, crowd management, promotes local traditions and values. This significantly contributes in the economic development, social impartiality and environment protection. Destination management organisations make marketing strategies and co-ordinate with the stakeholders. This in turn provides assistance in addressing the challenges such as; climate change, digital disruptions and changing preferences of customers in domestic and international tourism terms.

In the today’s dynamic and competitive tourism sector, it is necessary for the DMOs to adapt to and apply different management practices. By performing work in an excellent manner, destinations can attract lots of customers and convince them to choose particular destinations for spending their holidays. Due to the growing environmental impact, it has become crucial for the DMO’s to change their practices and incorporate more sustainable approaches. Through the means of sustainable practices, the DMO’s can preserve the environment and contributes in maintaining the cultural & social norms and beliefs. In this manner, the essay is going to explain about the role of Visit Britain, a UK’s destination management organisation in both regional and global tourism development. The essay will focus on strategic, environmental, social and economic contributions of the DMOS by using different relevant examples of other destinations. Further, the essay will include several frameworks like SWOT, Tourism Area Life Cycle, tourist typology etc. to explain DMO operations.

TASK 1

Strategic Value of Tourism with increasing demand for sustainability

Tourism as a Strategic Asset

Tourism is considered as strategic asset and critical contributor to the economic stability, cultural preservation and communal unity. Tourism is the vital industry and many businesses such as; food and beverage, hotels, tour operators etc. operate under this industry. It provides lots of job opportunities to the local people that contribute in improving the economic conditions of the people (Boniface, Cooper and Cooper, 2021). In economic terms, tourism drives growth by direct expenses from customers on products and services at both global and international level. Tourism activities enable the tourists to explore the heritage sites of particular destinations. When people from different countries know about the culture of particular destinations then it directly contributes in enhancing the value of heritage sites and cultural preservation. For example: Visit Britain drafts marketing strategies which encourages tourists to go museums, castles, historic houses and art galleries (Pechlaner, Philipp and Olbrich, 2025). It helps tourism destination to boost and create awareness related to the cultural aspects. Social cohesion or unity means amount of connectedness and harmony between people within the society. Tourism also contributes to social cohesion at local and international level. Through tourism activities, tourists who belong to the different regions connect with the local people of the destinations. It offers opportunity to the locals for sharing their cherished sites, values, traditions along with natural landscapes with the tourists which further helps in improving the inclusivity, diversity and reduces inequality between societies. For instance: Edinburg a popular tourism destination of UK is known for their history, culture and arts (ARCADIS, 2017). Tourism destination promotes their culture to grab the attention of foreign people.

Economic Contributions

Tourism is one of the major contributors to the world’s gross domestic product (GDP). In the year of 2023, travel and tourism industry contributed around 9.9 trillion USD to global GDP (Statista, 2024). Although, tourism industry faced downfall in Covid-19 pandemic time but after support from governments and destinations efforts, tourism industry gets recovered. A projected 1.4 billion global visitors were recorded which is an increase of 11% over the year 2023. Further, global visitors arrivals are projected to boost 3%-5% in year 2025 compared to year 2024. Like other destinations, UK tourism also struggled in pandemic but Visit Britain made strategies and provided support to the tourism. In UK, travel & tourism sector contributed around £280 billion to economy in the year of 2024. In addition to this, international tourism is anticipated to increase 3.7% yearly over the next 10 years (UNWTO, 2025). Tourism industry has provided millions of job opportunities to the people and is continuously creating lots of employment opportunities. Tourism related businesses have provided almost 4.1 million jobs to the people and highly contributed in improving the life of people (WIITC, 2025). By earning enough wages, people become capable enough to enhance their living standards and fulfil the basic needs. For example, there are lot of hotels, restaurants and travel organisations that offer jobs every year. Tourism businesses pay taxes to the UK government which further utilised in local infrastructure development as well as strengthens local economy. Additionally it helps to preserve local traditions, cuisines, norms and beliefs and reduce the poverty as well as inequality.

Social and Cultural Influences

Tourism related activities have a high influences on the society and culture of the destinations. Destination management organisations play a strategic role in cultural exchange by motivating the people to know about the different culture. DMOs make marketing campaigns to grab the attention of the people and arrange the facilities for them so that they can enjoy the throughout their stay in city or town (Ryan, 2020). For instance, Maldives a well-known tourism destination showcases their vibrant and rich culture by organising events such as; Maldivian Cultural Nights. During this event, locals from close regions come together to host engaging experiences for tourists which allow for cultural exchange (Travel Trade Maldives, 2024). Tourism organisations provide jobs for all people including young people, women, tribal individuals, ethnic minorities and marginalised groups. This approach helps to bring different groups together which further help to reduce discrimination and inequality. For example, Visit Britain promotes and supports the England’s countryside to challenge the global perceptions and motivate visitors to travel around the country. When tourists go to the rural or village places then they meet with the local people and know about their traditions and also share their culture. Moreover, tourism protected the intangible cultural legacy through the means of education and training programs. For instance, New Zealand has established training centres for traditional music, folk dance & arts and educates the artists to represent their culture at tourist attraction place. Destination management organisations also provide information on their website so that people become able to know the culture of country where they are going for holidays.

Balancing Environmental Impacts

It is one of the crucial function or aspect of the destination management organisations. Tourism organisations are highly responsible for environmental impact. Sometimes tourists also do not care of wild life as well as maintenance of attraction point and misuses natural resources. Tourism related activities create many problems such as; climate change, pollutions, overconsumption of natural resources and many more. It is the accountability of DMOs to use different ways and approaches to reduce the environmental impacts at the same time achieve economic benefits. Now, DMOs are encouraging the tourism businesses like hotels, airlines, tour operators and tour guides to use renewable energy to operate their business operations (Gretzel, 2022). It helps in reducing the environmental impact by decreasing the utilisation of natural resources like energy and water. The tourist destination makes sure that resources are utilised in an appropriate manner in order to avoid the problem like scarcity of valuable resources. Digital technologies have made it possible for destination management organisations to protect the environment. For instance, New Zealand commits to promote sustainable tourism by using smart sensors and internet of things (IoT). These tools facilitate tracking of environmental impact like foot traffic in environmentally sensitive regions. DMOs set the limits on number of tourists to attraction points specially national parks and wild life sanctuary. By this approach tourism destination saves planet while generating income from the tourism activities. Education is also a good approach used by the DMOs like VisitBritain to increase awareness regarding environment among local and global tourists.

TASK 2

Integration of Strategic Frameworks in DMO Operations

Tourism Area Life Cycle

Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) was developed by the Butler which contains 6 stages such as: exploration, involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation and decline/rejuvenation. Exploration: The first stage is based on exploration in which the very few tourists visit the destinations. Tourists often make their travel arrangements and pattern of visit is inconsistent. For instance: Some regions of Canadian Artic are falling into this category where few tourists visit places. Involvement: In this phase, the number of people who are visiting the area is growing. Local businesses also see economic advantages in offering tourism services. For example, there are numerous islands where tourist number is increasing. Development: Under this phase, tourists visit frequently at particular destination and the region becomes largely recognised as popular tourist decoration (Butler, 2024). For example: Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI) puts lots of efforts to improve tourism in Maldives and it becomes famous destination. Consolidation: It is the phase where visitor’s number is greater than residents and local economy is ruled by tourism. Barcelona is the best example of consolidation stage as tourists are visiting this place in high manner. Stagnation: It is a phase where several attraction points have reached the highest capacity and cannot develop any further. For instance: Numerous regions in Singapore that had comparatively stagnant performance from the last some years. Decline or rejuvenation: In decline stage, the destination is no longer capable to compete with other attractions. However, due to efforts and support of DMOs some regions are completely changed to attract the more customers.

Strategic Planning Tools

A destination management organisation is responsible for making the informed decision and planning future. Strategic tools like SWOT and PESTEL can be apply by the DMO to make good decisions and strategies.

SWOT analysis

Strengths: DMO like VisitBritain can identify the unique attractions and natural beauty in the market and take it as strengths to attract global or regional tourists. Weaknesses: Through identifying the weaknesses like limited accessibility and fluctuations in seasonal demands, DMO can the make decisions to overcome it. Opportunities: Opportunities like emerging markets and technological developments can be used by the VisitBritain while future planning. Threats: By knowing about the other competitive destination’s strategies, DMO can reduce the threat and improve tourism in UK.

PESTE analysis

Political: Favourable visa rules and political stability can be beneficial for the DMOs to attract foreign tourists. Economic: Inflation and disposable income can have and high impact on tourism and DMO can overcome this problem by offering affordable tour packages. Social: The growing demand for sustainable tourism can be fulfilled by VisitBritain through the means of ethical and sustainable approaches. Technological: The rise of digital platforms like mobile applications and chatbots can be helpful for VisitBritain to offer personalised services (Muzwardi and Simbolon, 2024). Legal: DMOs need to navigate new rules and changes in existing one so that they can avoid legal problems. Environmental: DMO can promote the eco-tourism which can include hiking, safari, bird watching, rural tourism and camping and contribute to protection of environment. It would definitely grab the attention of international tourists.

Carrying Capacity Management

Carrying capacity refers to the maximum quantity of a particular population that an environment can endure on the basis of available resources. Carrying capacity is necessarily the greatest number of people who can survive in a geographic location. In terms of tourism, it is crucial for the destination management organisations to focus on carrying capacity of particular destination or attraction. Nowadays, large number of tourists is visiting the specific destinations die to high level of marketing. Consequently, DMOs are facing the problem like over-tourism which damage the attraction points (Von Magius Mogelhoj, 2021). For example: Costa Rica, a popular destination is experiencing the over-tourism issues which further creates environmental and community related challenges. Ecological footprint concept can be utilised by VisitBritain to measure the carrying capacity. The concept would be helpful to monitor the resources used by tourists and know how many people visit the specific destination. DMO can make strategies like limit the number of tourists for particular destinations as it would help in diminish over-tourism (Santos and Brilha, 2023). Tourism organisation can promote the off season tourism and motivate the tourists to visit places in in off season instead of peak season by offering discount etc. By creating destination management plan, VisitBritain, Costa Rica and other destinations can make sure the long-term viability. DMOs play a pivotal role in promoting the ethical tourism approaches among the tourists. It may involve educating tourists, using sustainable transportation options as well as promote eco-friendly tourism activities. The strategies would absolutely facilitate the DMOs to manage the carrying capacity and reduce over-tourism.

Tourist Behaviour and Typology

It is obvious that all the tourists have different demands & requirements regarding tour and they choose services accordingly. To improve tourism and make large base of loyal customers, DMOs must have knowledge about different type of tourists so that they can offer services that meet the need of diverse individuals. Cohen’s typology can be useful for the DMOs to know the different tourist behaviour and tailor own services. Cohen’s typology involves four types of tourists such as; drifter, explorer, individual mass tourist and organised mass tourist. For example, Barcelona which has rich culture often attracts the Explorer who wants to experience new culture. Further, Costa Rica makes marketing strategies and offer services that attract the Drifter who want adventure in their tour. By knowing the different behaviours of tourists, the destination management organisations can focus on speciality of their region and can convince the tourists to choose particular destination (Kusumawardhana et al, 2023). For instance, VisitBritain can offer the different tour packages and group travel packages to attract Organised Mass Tourist because they often prefer pre-packaged tours. The primary focus of this kind of tourists is safety, convenience and stress free travel. Furthermore, VisitBritain can offer organised tours, familiar environments and guided trips. These offerings can be helpful in increasing the interest of individual Mass Tourist in UK when they plan their holidays. Tourism typology is the best way to tailor the services according to the tourist demands by knowing their motivations and behaviours. This would help in enhancing the tourist experience and promotes sustainable tourism.

TASK 3

DMOS and Strategic Developments of Tourism Destination Plans (TDPs)

Role in TDP Creation

Destination management organisations make the tourism development plans so that they can conduct the tourist activities in an effective way. DMOs take into account different internal and external aspects while making the tourism related plans. While making strategies and plans, they involve all related stakeholders and encourage them to give ideas. It helps DMOs to make strategies related marketing and other activities (Morrison, 2023). For instance, Costa Rica has an outstanding DMO which is known as Costa Rica DMC (Tourism Analytics, 2023). The tourism management plan of the Costa Rica focuses on three major factors such as; sustainability, innovation and inclusiveness. Furthermore, VisitBritain has outstanding tourism action plan that support the tourism industry in UK and attracts global tourists. The TDP involves various policies, marketing strategies and sustainable initiatives. The plan looks to promote the position of the country as well as social, economic and environmental factors. The action plan pays attention to increase appeal of the Britain to global and regional tourists and enhance connections among country’s major attractions and tourism destinations (Visit Britain, 2025). Tourism growth plan involve the prioritised actions and discovers stakeholders who are responsible for their delivery.

Infrastructure Enhancement

Destination management organisations are liable for planning and upholding major tourism infrastructure including accommodations, tourist’s attractions and accommodations. DMOs make sure appropriate planning and organisations for sustainable development of tourism. It helps them to uphold its economic feasibility and its cultural, social and environmental integrity. DMOs do research in order to identify the available resources and allocate it in a proper manner to carry out operations. DMOs arrange the transportations facilities for the tourists so that when they come in particular destination they do not face problems to go one place to another (Khan et al, 2021). For example, In UK, there are many transportation options such as; cars, trains, buses etc. that can be chosen by tourist according to their preferences. In addition, DMO ensures that people find accommodations services on official tourism website in the country which suit their budget. The duty of DMO is to make sure that tourists are provided tour experiences which are at minimum, highly memorable and satisfactory. Tourists can find different types of tour packages in different prices that help visitors to choose holiday package. VisitBritain highly focuses on maintenance of the tourist attractions and also make sure no one can harm the environment by their activities.

Workforce Development

It is obvious that without an excellent workforce, DMO cannot operate their activities. Destination management organism highly invests in human capital development so that they can build outstanding team. For DMOs like VisitBritain, Costa Rica, Maldives etc., development of workforce along with capacity building are necessary elements of sustainable tourism growth. For instance, VisitBritain conducts the training programmes for the workers so that they can improve their skills and learn about latest market trends. By training programmes, DMO makes sure that they have a valuable set of skills, knowledge and capability to deliver outstanding experiences to the tourists (Roach, Lewis-Cameron and Brown-Williams, 2023). DMO offers on-going education as well as certification programmes. They emphasis on customer services competences for the frontline employees that help them to offer excellent customer services to global tourists. Under capacity building, DMOs emphasises on strengthening public-private association, digital technologies and marketing efforts. Destination management organisations bring all stakeholders along with the local communities while making the strategies. Different stakeholders provide different ideas that facilitates to make DMOs to make informed decisions. Workforce development is necessary for upholding the flourishing tourism sector. Training programmes, improving partnerships and supporting sustainable tourism make sure that destination stay relevant and competitive.

Natural and Environmental Stewardship

Destination management organisations holds a valuable place in maintaining ecosystems, biodiversity and carbon footprints. DMOs profoundly concentrate on protecting environment through saving natural surroundings as well as wildlife. They make the guidelines and rules which need to be followed by everyone, including tourism businesses, local people and tourists. DMO collaborates with the conservation organisation for environment-friendly programmes and initiatives. They promote wildlife viewing to make sure that visitors enjoy natural world during their tour without disturbing the wildlife including plants and animals (Day, 2024). By this approach DMO directly contributes to more sustainable tourism. For instance, Japan has strict laws and policies concerning to safeguard the national parks and natural sites. VisitBritain applies the practices such as; eliminating single-use plastics, motivating sustainable seafood and handling fishing activities. It facilitates to safeguard marine biodiversity and grab the attention of environmentally conscious tourists. Destination management organisations encourage tourism businesses to renewable energy and water efficient technologies to save the water and energy for future generations.

Sustainability Integration

Destination management organisation prioritises the sustainable initiatives to reduce the environmental impact and contribute to society welfare. They promote ethical practices which improve quality of life of local people. By focusing on green tourism, DMOs save the natural resources and culture. Further, DMOs collaborate with the environment-friendly transportation services like electric vehicles rentals with hybrid buses in order to reduce the carbon emission. The collaboration with transportation services helps in fuelling the economic growth by attracting the eco-conscious tourists (Yrza, and Filimonau, 2022). For example: Scotland is highly passionate regarding keeping the destination clean and tidy. The country provides the training related to eco-driving to enhance the fuel efficiency. However, Costa Rica faces sustainability related issues because of mass tourism which could also reduce their competitive edge in increasing sustainable tourism sector. However, Costa Rica is stressing on utilising recycled products so that they can reduce environment impact. Further, destination management organisations make focus on waste management as tourism activities are highly responsible for generating waste in an excessive manner. For instance, VisitBritain developed the waste management policies and also provides guidance to the restaurants to cut food waste. DMO is also paying attention on minimising the electronic waste. Further, England has completely banned the single-use plastic which facilitates to reduce waste generation and carbon emission. However, current sustainable initiatives are not enough, destination management organisations need to apply many other solutions to make tourism more sustainable worldwide.

CONCLUSION

Key findings

As per above essay, it is concluded that destination management organisations are considered as invisible backbone of the tourism industry. They pay attention on each detail of tourist journey from accommodations to transportation and cultural tours. They make marketing strategies to promote the destination along with its attractions, culture and traditional cuisine in all over the world. It helps to convince the local as well as global tourism to book holidays which further help to improve the global economy. There are several businesses operates under the tourism industry which provides numerous job opportunities for the local people which helps to improve their quality life and economic situation. It has identified that tourism is the activity where tourists with different culture and values meet that helps to reduce inequality and improve social cohesion. DMOS put full efforts to protect the cultural heritage and maintain the environment and community. Moreover, it has discussed that DMOs like VisitBritain uses the tourist typology to make the tour packages and marketing strategies in order to fulfil the needs of different types of tourists.

Emerging challenges

From analysis, it had figured out that there are many challenges faced by the tourism destinations. Destinations often experience the geopolitical issues which highly impact the revenue generate by tourism activities. Conflicts between two countries is major problem which prevent the global tourists to go to other country for vacation purpose. In addition, technological disruption is one of the main issues encountered by the tourism organisations. Emerging technologies have forcing the tourism businesses to adopt and apply the new technologies. It sometime creates problem like data breaches and technical faults that adversely influence the tourists. Tourism industry builds greenhouse gas emission in excessive manner which are increasing the climate crisis. Climate change is not only impacting the environment and society but also affecting the industry itself. Over time, the preferences and requirements of the tourist are changing which is concerning issue for the destination management organisations. Now tourist wants affordable, comfortable and sustainable tourism that force the companies to adapt to changes.

Future recommendations

There are some recommendations for the DMOS which would be helpful to improve their role:

• It is highly recommended to the DMOs to take benefits of artificial intelligence and data analytics. By using the technologies, organisations can gather valuable data and information regarding tourist behaviour and tourism patterns which would help to make informed decisions.
• DMOs must concentrates on multi-stakeholder partnerships that would facilitate to accomplish sustainability. They can make partnership with public and private sector so that they can help to apply the sustainable practices.
• It is recommended to destination management organisations to increase their efforts to incorporate sustainable principles. They should engage with stakeholders and local societies. DMO must promote and support the local businesses to foster the long-term benefits for local people and tourists.

Concluding thoughts

It can be said that DMOS drive the development of economy, society and environment by tourism. They develop and promote the new products and services related to the tourism which attract tourist and contributes in generating the high income. DMOS learned from Covid-19 pandemic and other global crisis and tends to make focus on strategic improvement. The strategies help them to become resilient so that they can face similar kind of crisis and uncertainty in future and maintain competitive edge in the tourism industry. DMOS are highly focusing on adapt to latest market change, ever-changing tourist demands and digital technologies so that they can be able to offer great experience to visitors. Now, organisations also stressing on green and eco-friendly tourism by adopting renewable energy, reduce waste and carbon emission to contribute to environment, society and economy at both regional and global level.

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REFERENCES

Books and Journals

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

Butler, R., 2024. Tourism destination development: the tourism area life cycle model. Tourism Geographies, pp.1-9.

Day, J., 2024. Destination stewardship and sustainable urban tourism. In Handbook on sustainable urban tourism (pp. 276-290). Edward Elgar Publishing.

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.

Khan, M.R., Khan, H.U.R., Lim, C.K., Tan, K.L. and Ahmed, M.F., 2021. Sustainable tourism policy, destination management and sustainable tourism development: A moderated-mediation model. Sustainability, 13(21), p.12156.

Kusumawardhana, I., Bhaskara, G.I., Masnadi, I. and Patria, T.A., 2023. The rise of individual mass tourist and explorer: Study of tourist typology and motivation for travel. In E3S Web of Conferences (Vol. 426, p. 01093). EDP Sciences.

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

Muzwardi, A. and Simbolon, G., 2024. SWOT and PEST analysis in tourism management in Bintan Regency. Indonesian Tourism Journal, 1(1), pp.82-92.

Pechlaner, H., Philipp, J. and Olbrich, N., 2025. Destination governance: The new role of destination management, stakeholder networks and sustainability. In Handbook on Tourism Governance (pp. 94-115). Edward Elgar Publishing.

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

Roach, C.M., Lewis-Cameron, A. and Brown-Williams, T., 2023. Organizational Resilience In Public Sector Organizations: Destination Management Organizations. Journal of Health and Human Services Administration, 46(1), pp.26-49.

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

Santos, P.L. and Brilha, J., 2023. A review on tourism carrying capacity assessment and a proposal for its application on geological sites. Geoheritage, 15(2), p.47.

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

Yrza, B. and Filimonau, V., 2022. Integrating sustainability in destination management plans and policies of a post-Soviet state. Tourism Planning & Development, 19(4), pp.316-338.

Online

ARCADIS, 2017. A vision for Edinburgh. [Online] Available through < https://www.arcadis.com/en-gb/insights/blog/united-kingdom/graham-hill/2017/a-vision-for-edinburgh >

Statista, 2024. Total contribution of travel and tourism to GDP worldwide 2019-2034. [Online] Available through < https://www.statista.com/statistics/233223/travel-and-tourism-total-economic-contribution-worldwide/ >

Tourism Analytics, 2023. Costa Rica: National Tourism Development Plan 2022 - 2027. [Online] Available through < https://tourismanalytics.com/blog-posts/costa-rica-national-tourism-development-plan-2022-2027 >

Travel Trade Maldives, 2024. Celebrating Unity: The Maldives’ Unique Blend of Culture and Hospitality. [Online] Available through < https://www.traveltrademaldives.com/celebrating-unity-the-maldives-unique-blend-of-culture-and-hospitality/#:~:text=The%20Maldives%20Islands%20showcase%20their,featuring%20flavours%20and%20unique%20dishes >

UNWTO, 2025. Latest Tourism Data. [Online] Available through < https://www.unwto.org/un-tourism-world-tourism-barometer-data >

Visit Britain, 2025. Developing a Destination Management Plan or Tourism Growth Plan. [Online] Available through < https://www.visitbritain.org/resources-destination-partners/developing-destination-management-plan-or-tourism-growth-plan >

WIITC, 2025. Invest Now or Pay the Price: UK Tourism Losing its Global Position. [Online] Available through < https://wttc.org/news-article/invest-now-or-pay-the-price-uk-tourism-losing-its-global-position#:~:text=The%20UK's%20Travel%20%26%20Tourism%20sector,MN%20jobs%20(11.3%25)3 >