Destination Marketing Organizations Missions

DMO Mission Statements

Destination marketing organizations (DMO) play a crucial in promoting tourism through marketing various destinations to potential visitors and tourists. Similar to Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), DMOs are organizations that promote regions, countries, cities or towns to help increase the numbers of visitors or tourists. As a result, these organizations establish mission statements that guide their marketing or promotional initiatives and activities. The mission statements of destination marketing organizations differ depending on the specific organization and its vision. This paper examines the mission statements of various North American Destination Marketing Organizations to identify common themes and differences.

Common Themes in the Mission Statements

An analysis of the mission statements of various North American Destination Marketing Organizations demonstrated some common patterns or themes. One of the common themes from the analyzed DMO mission statements is a focus on marketing the respective destination to potential visitors or tourists. Each of these organizations focuses on marketing their respective regions, cities or towns as a suitable destination for potential visitors and tourists from across the globe. This indicates that direct marketing organizations focus on marketing various destinations as suitable places to visit.

The second theme identified from the analysis is that the mission statements focus on increasing the number of visitors to their respective places. In essence, the main goal of the marketing initiatives and activities undertaken by each of these destination marketing organizations is to increase the number of visitors. Most of the analyzed mission statements clearly state that their major goal is to increase the number of people and tourists visiting their respective places.

The third common theme is improvement of the economic growth of the respective region, city or town. As these organizations help increase the number of visitors to their respective places, more people visit them. The increase in the number of visits in turn translates to creating vibrant economic growth. Therefore, a crucial component of the mission statement of destination marketing organizations is to focus on promoting economic growth of their particular region, city or town.

Dissimilar Mission Statements

Despite identifying some common themes in the mission statements of various North American Destination Marketing Organizations, there were some dissimilar mission statements to most of the other DMOs. One of these dissimilar mission statements was evident in the case of Roseville Visitors Association, Minnesota. While the organization’s mission statement included the identified common themes, it was slightly dissimilar to the others because it incorporated the leadership role the organization assumes in providing excellent visitor experience through collaboration with community and business partners. This was unlike the other mission statements that do not incorporate the leadership role and collaboration with community and business partners.
The second dissimilar mission statement was in the case of Henderson, NV Department of Tourism. Unlike most of the other destination marketing organizations, the mission statement of this organization included providing a wide range of cultural and artistic opportunities to visitors of Henderson and its community. Some of these opportunities include concerts, visual arts exhibitions, performances, civic events, and festivals. The mission statement of Atlantic City CVA also incorporated such events i.e. world class entertainment events unlike the other destination marketing organizations included in this analysis.
The third dissimilar mission statement was evident in Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitor Authority’s case. Even though this organization’s mission statement incorporated the identified common themes, there was slight difference in the sense that the organization focuses on attracting overnight visitors. Unlike the mission statement of most of the other DMOs, the mission statement of Reno-Sparks Convention Visitor Authority specifically states its focus on attracting overnight visitors to Reno Tahoe lodging properties.
Link between Common Themes and DMOs Role
The common themes identified in the mission statements of the selected North American DMOs perfectly fit the role of these organizations as the destination’s umbrella organization. As shown in the mission statements, these organizations are not-for-profit establishments, but simply represent a particular destination. Salazar (2014), states that DMOs are non-profits whose main responsibility is to represent a particular destination and promote its long-term development through the use of a travel and tourism strategy. These mission statements shows the primarily responsibility of these organizations as establishments that market and brand destinations for potential visitors (Pike & Page, 2014). The organizations seek to promote the long-term development of communities in the specific regions, cities or towns through stimulating their economic growth.
In conclusion, destination marketing organizations are organizations that are mandated with the responsibility of promoting a country, region, city or town in order to increase the number of its tourists or visitors. As evident in the analysis of mission statements of some North American DMOs, these organizations focus on marketing/branding a destination, increasing the number of visitors, and stimulating economic growth. However, some of these organizations may have dissimilar missions including promoting cultural events and performances.
References
Pike, S. & Page, S.J. (2014, April). Destination Marketing Organizations and Destination Marketing: A Narrative Analysis of the Literature. Tourism Management, 41, 202-227.
Salazar, D. (2014, October 8). What is a Destination Marketing Organization? Retrieved September 20, 2017, from https://prezi.com/rzubfiz-pzri/what-is-a-destination-marketing-organization/