Tourism Bureaus Need to Stop Thinking Like Tourism Bureaus
Photo Credit: Salt Lake City has created new methods for financing its tourism board. Visit Salt Lake / Emily Sargent
Skift Take
Tourism bureaus are under increasing pressure to validate the business case for their funding, so they're expanding their role and reworking their business model.
The primary role of tourism bureaus is to choreograph the overall destination experience, because with all of the talk about Google, Uber, and TripAdvisor, they aren't going to develop a Restaurant Month promotional campaign during a destination’s slow season.
That’s according to Bill Geist, chief instigator at DMOproz in Madison, Wisconsin, who works with destination marketing organizations (DMOs) to develop new business strategy. Previously, Geist was president of the Greater Madison Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Most DMOs are involved in some type of product and destination development, such as creating restaurant months, acquiring new airline routes, supporting meetings and convention infrastructure expansion, and developing large special events. The original DMO mandate revolved around driving economic development and quality of life for the entire destination, including both the local business community and local residents.
But because the majority of DMOs rec
