Interview: Rethinking Destination Marketing in the Age of Better Data and Airbnb
Photo Credit: Skyline of Chicago, IL. DMAI's DestinationNEXT program is designed to bring a city's private and public stakeholders together to formulate destination marketing strategy. Flickr / Nick Harris
Skift Take
According to DMAI's new CEO, the organization needs to package its destination marketing products better, and improve its promotion of signature digital tools like DestinationNEXT.
At the IMEX Frankfurt meetings industry trade show last week, Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) showcased its online DestinationNEXT assessment tool during a session attended by convention bureau executives.
The tool is the result of an expansive, multi-year effort designed to get elected officials, destination marketing organizations (DMOs), business stakeholders, and academic leaders together to determine where they agree on the effectiveness of their cities to attract leisure and convention visitors, and where they don't.
Don Welsh, the new CEO for DMAI, coming over from Choose Chicago; Paul Ouimet, the architect of DestinationNEXT; and Anja Loetscher, director of the Geneva Convention & Visitors Bureau, shared their views on the value of the DestinationNEXT platform as the cornerstone of DMAI moving into the future.
Dozens of DMO C-suite executives have told Skift that the key to a destination's ability to attract conventions relies on gettin
