Role and Services of DMOs in Destination Marketing

This report discusses the principles of marketing planning and its support in destination marketing. It also analyzes key elements of destination marketing campaigns and the use of digital marketing tools. Additionally, it explores the role and services of DMOs in marketing a destination and the challenges they face. The report focuses on specific destination examples from the US and UK.

DESTINATION
MARKETING

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
1 Principles of marketing planning support the marketing of a destination using specific
destination examples....................................................................................................................3
2 key elements of a range of destination marketing campaign examples to analyze how
successfully campaign objectives were met................................................................................4
3 Different digital marketing tools used for promoting and advertising a specific destination. .7
4 Role and services of DMOs in marketing a destination...........................................................9
5 Challenges faced by DMOs in marketing destinations...........................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
A destination marketing organization is an organization which promotes a location as an
attractive travel destination. DMOs are generally tied to the local government infrastructure,
often with funds being generated by specific taxes, such as hotel taxes, membership fee and
sometimes government subsidies. This report contains issues such as principles of marketing and
its support in destination marketing. Elements used in the success of destination marketing
campaign with its examples. Digital marketing tools that are used by the organization. Roles and
services that are played by the organization in the aspect of digital marketing and the challenges
faced by the DMOs (Bastiaansen and et.al., 2018). This report will analyze the principles of
marketing planning of two different countries that is US and UK. The countries are situated in
North of America and one in England. No of tourists in USA is more than 75 million people and
the DMO used for this country is Destination Council of US. On the other hand UK invites more
than 35 million people for tourism and the DMO of the country is European Travel Comission
(Murray, Lynch and Foley, 2016).
1 Principles of marketing planning support the marketing of a destination using specific
destination examples.
1.1 Principles of marketing planning
Setting the budget-
This is a difficult aspect for DMOs and it is necessary to set an appropriate budget.
Mostly they set the budget on the basis of domestic tourism. This is why it is necessary that the
organization conduct a research and analyze the data of international tourism so that budget can
be maximized. Research will help both UK and USA to set the budget on the basis of people
they serve and on the basis of resources they have.
Identifying the target markets-
If the organization want to leave the competition behind then it is necessary that they
understand the needs of the audience they have targeted. It is also necessary to understand the
requirement of international tourism in order to attract consumers. It is best that they collaborate
with regional tourism or discuss this with them so that on the basis of that data extracted market

of the organization can be segmented. If they target particular areas then it will be easy and
sorted for them to implement and work on the promotional activities (Avraham, 2016). It is
necessary to understand the needs and wants of the people from both the countries so that they
can attract more people.
It is necessary to choose marketing planning because it will help them to take out the strategies
which are used by the competitor destination and why more people are visiting their place.
Marketing plan will help the marketers of destination marketing to make a blue print for
the factors that are assessed with the strategies of marketing and advertising so that the specific
destination can be promoted with the right destinations. Plan of marketing can also be assessed to
make an effective technique so that resources can be utilized in the best manner through which
they can achieve their set goals and objectives.
1.2 Importance of destination marketing planning
 In order to compete with other destinations it is necessary that the country plan their
strategies before and take them after they have done an analysis in the market so that they
can increase the awareness of the destination and increase the level of visits from tourists.
 Planning of destination marketing will also help to attract travelers and they can tie up
with the local dealers and suppliers so that more of them can be influenced.
 With the help of proper planning cross promotional campaign can be held so that
business can influence them by offering packages such as complementary travel on the
deals that are specific.
 By proper planning they will be able to assess their current position and offer them deals
and discounts on the basis of that so that they can attract more people into that.
Destination marketing of both the countries is making sure that they are aware of the needs of the
consumer and what they want from the destination. On the basis of that both UK and US are
constantly engaged in development so that they can meet with the level of satisfaction of people
and increase the level of tourism of each other (Zhang, Cheung and Law, 2018).

2 key elements of a range of destination marketing campaign examples to analyze how
successfully campaign objectives were met
2.1 key elements
 It is necessary that organizations such as European Travel Commission needs to identify
their target audience so that they can describe their services to their potential clients. The
services needs to be designed in such a manner that it influences the consumers. They
need to be differentiated on the basis of demographic so that right and suitable type of
campaign can be suitable according to it.
 It is necessary to plan that what can be done in the time of vacation. All of it depends on
the destination that is offered by the company and that is LA. There are other factors
which needs to be taken out by the company such as planning for a foodie junction,
taking a vacation for adventure and thrills or just for the purpose of nightlife, or walking
miles on the beach. It is up to the European Travel Commission to assess the destination
and attributes it offers so that they can present it to the campaign (Bokunewicz and
Shulman, 2017).
 It is necessary that the organizations come up with reasons for the potential customers
that make sense to them as going out on a trip is pretty expensive and not many of them
consider it as an option.
 In order to make the campaign successful it is necessary that the timing of conducting the
campaign is selected after evaluation. It is necessary that planning must be done in
advance so that more and more travelers can be convinced to go on a trip to LA. If they
conduct the campaign and promote their brand at the time of festive season and offers
need to be made so that consumers can be attracted towards the deal made by the
company (Camilleri, 2018).
2.2 Destination Marketing Campaign of USA
Campaign must describe the path of the destination, its route in a clear way. Every consumer
knows where is LA but the route that helps them to reach there from a different path that what
matters. The reason behind this is consumers will always prefer inexpensive trip and a little
detour won’t change that. It is necessary to focus on the aspect of brand messaging as it will help
the organization to deliver the details in person or through advertisements which highlights all

the information about the information of a location so that it eases consumers to plan a trip. For
example- the last campaign conducted by the company was known as A snowy day in LA. The
destination was North Lake Tahoe it was a never seen before place and the campaign was just to
raise the awareness for the destination. The message of the brand to their consumers was they
will be able to go to a quick and easy trip from Los Angeles which would be a change of
environment for them. The citizens of LA were chosen because it is near the North Lake Tahoe
region (Séraphin and et.al., 2016).
In order to make the campaign successful they took the help of vehicles that was wrapped
with 4 foot tall snow drifts so that they can overcome the path of 30 high locations of traffic.
They also took the help of social media and put the event live on Facebook in order to assess the
impression of the company. This strategy helped them to gain more than 150,000 reactions and
interaction between the ambassadors of the brand and the travelers (Griffin and et.al., 2017).
2.3 Analysis
Analysis USA UK
SWOT Analysis Strength-
 Excellent and thriving
places to explore.
 Industry and sector of
tourism is very
lucrative.
Weakness-
 Cost of holidays and
the ban imposed on the
citizens of other
country affects the
strategies of
destination marketing.
Opportunities-
 The country has many
points to pull the level
Strength-
 High convenience for
travel.
 Enough resources to
provide products of
high quality.
Weakness-
 Innovation is low and
lack of attention on the
statistics of the data.
 Not flexible to meet
with the changing
demand and wants of
people.
Opportunities-
 Avail the potential for

of increase and release
it in the market against
their competitors.
Threats-
 High level of
competition from other
countries.
products that are
innovative.
 Focus on the potential
of tourism that is based
on culture.
Threats-
 Restrictions on Visa is
affecting the travelers
to visit the country.
 Access to finance is
low.
TALC stage Success stage Growth and development
stage
Competitors Canadians Indians
Unique Selling Points Different places to explore Value for money
Planning
Vision/ Mission To attract more tourists every
year.
To invest in the sector of
tourism so that people visit
comes by themselves.
3 Different digital marketing tools used for promoting and advertising a specific destination
Utilize all aspects of social media-
It is necessary because of the impact it leaves on the minds of the target audience. In the
sector of tourism online platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest can help them to
influence people for making a decision to visit a destination on holiday, with hotel and explore
their activities and point of attractions (Line and Wang, 2017).
Leverage visual media-
There is a huge amount of competition for this aspect on online platforms but DMOs has
many ways to influence people and gain advantage over their competitors. They have a different

and unique selling point that it can easily motivate other people to make a decision after seeing
photos and videos of other people. For instance Travel Alberta is a suitable aspect to this
situation as they leverage the video and increase the reach of it. Other than this they portray their
whole experience of the trip on their You Tube channel.
Paid Ad Campaigns-
Companies dealing in the sector of DMOs can take the help of online platforms such as
Facebook, Instagram etc. directly just by establishing an account on each of the page. It is simple
to conduct a campaign on these platforms. It is necessary that company assesses the insights on
the content they have shared and strategy they have undertaken. The cost per click varies and it
relies on the brand. For instance Facebook charges $ 0.63 which is the cheapest source available
where as Google charges $ 15 per click (Jiang, Ramkissoon and Mavondo, 2016).
Social proof-
It is necessary that company has positive reviews about the destination on the internet.
Most of the people look for reviews before making a decision. TripAdvisor, Google and Yelp are
the ones on which people read the experience and review of places before they take a final
decision. It is necessary that DMOs comes into a collaboration with these companies and share
experience of users with them which includes pictures and videos so that brand can be promoted.
This will help to create a impression of the brand in the eyes of consumers (Mariani, Di Felice
and Mura, 2016).
Address the negative-
If company receives any review that is negative then it is necessary to respond them in a
planned manner. Response must include all the points that are raised by the reviewer. It is
important and useful that company allows them to advice and share it with others as this will
create an impression and help them to counter the impact of the situation. Reviews which are
positive also need to be responding in a positive manner (Gretzel and Fesenmaier, 2016).
Incentivize reviews-

Review helps the company to form their social base and proof that the service offered by
them meets the level of expectation of people. Also they are considered as the aspect which helps
in influencing the campaign of marketing. Positive word of mouth of people automatically makes
the event of marketing a success. This strategy will allow people to be the marketers and sellers
of the brand and in return companies just have to offer them incentives to those people (Ketter,
2018).
4 Role and services of DMOs in marketing a destination
The overall sector of tourism and travel creates one in 10 jobs that helps to generate 10.4
per cent of the GDP of the world which is more than $ 8 trillion. The responsibility of attracting
people to a specific place and collect a decent amount which benefits the economy is done by the
destination marketing organizations. These organizations exists today more than 100 different
forms but all of them has one purpose to serve and that is to manage the duties regarding
convention travel and expand it into the form of leisure travel with time. The duties of these
organizations has also evolved with time as these firms no longer are only concerned with
attracting the consumers as there are other duties as well. In order to face the competition it is
necessary to build the brand on a strong base so that they can work for their mission. In order to
do that they need the support of their stakeholders. Earlier the role of DMO was to focus on the
aspect of advertising on traditional basis, development of campaign and details of distribution
with other points of interest (Okumus and Cetin, 2018).
In order to expand the area of leisure tourism it is necessary that company engages in
collaboration so that they can Now they have many opportunities which enable them to
communicate. Also they need to go out from the city and gain new experience so that they can
offer it to their fellow clients. It requires to have contacts from hoteliers, stakeholders and the
owner of the restaurants and to tap into every possible asset. The DMOs make mistake when
visitors appeal for a destination they focus more on the area of management rather than focusing
on the area of marketing. The company is working on their plan of tourism which helps them to
leave their competitors behind so that they can achieve the long term growth in the market. This
will be done so that need for achieving the growth can be balanced and it can develop
sustainably. In order to achieve that organization needs to change their methods of marketing on
the basis of clients and the situation they are dealing with. For instance if they are dealing with

dispersal campaigns that influences people to visit the places or spots that are less famous or
events happening at the destination.
5 Challenges faced by DMOs in marketing destinations
There are different types of challenges faced by DMOs such as
Internal and External Dynamics-
Any natural disaster or changes in weather can lead to change in plans of visitors from
visiting the spot. It is not easy for the companies who deals in this sector to attract them back as
these trips are expensive. It is necessary that the DMOs conduct a research on quantitative and
qualitative basis so that the chosen destination can be branded on the basis of that. For instance
Florida’s Paradise Coast is the suitable example as it is position and branded with the right
strategy. They are thinking of changing it to Love, Paradise and they will see if that gets along
with the minds of consumers.
Employee requirements-
It is necessary that companies dealing in this sector add more strength into their field of
employment so that they can put more efforts. This way they will be able to increase the sales,
sports, public relations etc. it is necessary that salaries and benefits provided to the employees
must be compared instead of this companies compete for visitors which needs to be changed. It
is necessary that employees working in the company gets a title for the talented employees on the
designation of marketing professionals (Marasco and et.al., 2018).
Technological factors-
Company faces the challenges of sufficient staff time so that they can make them work
with their full potential in order to add and comply with the new data base management system.
Companies dealing in this sector are also facing the challenges with the department of IT in order
to get support from them which meets the level of communication internally as well as
externally.
Seasonal factors-

There is a season for this business which is a growth period of destination marketing
organizations. The time of the season is in January. The issue is that planning process for
holidays has been widened. If the consumers want to go out in spring or summer they will book
it in November. In order to overcome this challenge they need to promote the destination at the
time of slower season.
Legislative Factors-
There have been many numerous changes in the past few years by the governor which
relates to advocacy for the state tourism such as Florida. This situation states that it is necessary
that legislators making decisions that are related to this aspect must be educated so that they
understand the importance of tourism. These type of regulations will make changes in the
formality of Visa and Passport which will change the minds of the consumers (Li, Robinson and
Oriade, 2017).
CONCLUSION
From the above studies it has been concluded that it is necessary that DMOs take effective use of
digital marketing strategies so that they can promote the brand in a better way as the reach of it
has no end. Other than this it is necessary that before making a decision a thorough analysis of
the market and the target audience has been done so that suitability of the strategy and its success
ratio can be taken out. There are many challenges and criticism faced by the DMOs but it can be
reduced by responding them in a proper way and come up with a counter measure that satisfy
their needs and wants.

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Li, S.C., Robinson, P. and Oriade, A., 2017. Destination marketing: The use of technology since
the millennium. Journal of destination marketing & management, 6(2), pp.95-102.
Marasco, A., and et.al., 2018. Exploring the role of next-generation virtual technologies in
destination marketing. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 9, pp.138-148.
Okumus, B. and Cetin, G., 2018. Marketing Istanbul as a culinary destination. Journal of
Destination Marketing & Management, 9, pp.340-346.
Mariani, M.M., Di Felice, M. and Mura, M., 2016. Facebook as a destination marketing tool:
Evidence from Italian regional Destination Management Organizations. Tourism
management, 54, pp.321-343.
Griffin, T., and et.al., 2017. Virtual reality and implications for destination marketing.
Bastiaansen, M., and et.al., 2018. My destination in your brain: A novel neuromarketing
approach for evaluating the effectiveness of destination marketing. Journal of destination
marketing & management, 7, pp.76-88.
Séraphin, H., and et.al., 2016. A marketing research tool for destination marketing organizations'
logo design. Journal of Business Research, 69(11), pp.5022-5027.
Hanna, P., and et.al., 2018. Tourist destination marketing: From sustainability myopia to
memorable experiences. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 9, pp.36-43.
Bokunewicz, J.F. and Shulman, J., 2017. Influencer identification in Twitter networks of
destination marketing organizations. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology.
Jiang, Y., Ramkissoon, H. and Mavondo, F., 2016. Destination marketing and visitor
experiences: The development of a conceptual framework. Journal of Hospitality Marketing
& Management, 25(6), pp.653-675.
Ketter, E., 2018. It’s all about you: destination marketing campaigns in the experience economy
era. Tourism Review.
Line, N.D. and Wang, Y., 2017. A multi-stakeholder market oriented approach to destination
marketing. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 6(1), pp.84-93.
Avraham, E., 2016. Destination marketing and image repair during tourism crises: The case of
Egypt. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 28, pp.41-48.
Gretzel, U. and Fesenmaier, D.R., 2016. Customer relations 2.0–implications for destination
marketing.
Camilleri, M.A. ed., 2018. Strategic perspectives in destination marketing. IGI Global.

Zhang, T., Cheung, C. and Law, R., 2018. Functionality evaluation for destination marketing
websites in smart tourism cities. Journal of China Tourism Research, 14(3), pp.263-278.
Murray, N., Lynch, P. and Foley, A., 2016. Unlocking the magic in successful tourism
destination marketing: the role of sensing capability. Journal of marketing
management, 32(9-10), pp.877-899.