Bill Geist's Zeitgeist

The New Way to Negatively Position DMOs

As we've noted previously, Destinations International's white paper on The New Tourism Lexicon is a critical guide on how those of us in the Destination Marketing space should explain our work and defend against unsophisticated and agenda-fueled attacks.

Over the past couple weeks, I've been picking up on a new tactic being used by those that seek to redirect tourism taxes to other uses. Instead of referring to a DMO's annual budget, they are beginning to utilize cumulative totals to encourage outrage among a populace that can be goaded into anger over the most minor of slights.

While I've seen it in no less than 5 destinations over the past three months, I'll direct you to Stillwater OK, where the City has recently put its Destination Marketing contract up for RFQ. After suffering the slings and arrows of community discontent with that decision, the Mayor there wrote an op-ed piece to defend the City's action. And, rather than saying that the City invests an annual sum each year into its award-winning DMO, he doubles down and says "Visit Stillwater has received more than $3.5 million in fees to provide marketing services (at least he didn't say "given," which we normally see).

This is an intentional move on the part of public officials to cause Joe and Jill Public to respond, "Say what? The City is giving an organization millions of dollars for something I don't care about?" Joe and Jill wouldn't be outraged at $800,000...but millions? Now you have their attention.

If critics begin quoting cumulative numbers in your town, your response need be swift and direct. And, the necessity to establish more effective ROI measurements has never been more immediate.

Sure, Let the Embassies Run Tourism Promotion

OK...I may be missing something in the translation. But, this article from Travel Pulse certainly sounds like Mexico's new administration is moving ahead with shuttering the State Tourism Office and offloading tourism promotion to the country's embassies around the world.

Somebody tell me I'm misreading this...because this isn't even a WTF.

There simply are no words.

Missed it By That Much

When I first starting getting links to a "story" out of an Atlanta metro newspaper serving, as they refer to it, "communities which encompass several of metro Atlanta’s wealthiest ZIP codes and most desirable neighborhoods," I just passed it off as being from an unsophisticated reporter who didn't understand how destination marketing works, and so he'd write about it. But then, I read it again.

In a piece entitled "Hotel Taxes Seek "Free Money" with Few Strings," a reporter for The Reporter utilizes innuendo as the basis of a story where there really is none. But, he has found two sources that, on the surface, sound credible to give his story just enough air to keep it afloat. So, let's break it down:

The writer leads by suggesting Destination Marketing Organizations are one of the ways communities "take advantage of the endless flow (my emphasis, as I giggle at the thought of boatloads of money coursing through Atlanta's suburbs) of revenue from taxing outsiders rather than local citizens." Except, no one reading the article is being taken advantage of...so where is the foul?

He goes on to report that his two experts say there are no strings on these revenues requiring any proof of ROI. And that is blatantly false. While I can't claim that every DMO in America operates under an agreement with a local government that requires an annual accounting of ROI, I certainly have never worked with one which doesn't. And we count over 200 DMOs among our clients. One expert also claims "the assumption that visitors can be taxed without negative impact on the hotel business may be faulty." Hold that thought for a moment.

First off, the manager of the Office of Research at the Georgia Department of Community Affairs said, “We don’t have any metrics to gauge effectiveness.” And, I'm quite sure the Office of Research at the Georgia Department of Community Affairs doesn't (because it's not their money, so why would they?)...but that doesn't mean that virtually every DMO in America isn't measuring progress and productivity. Our industry Trade Association offers its members a starter template of suggested productivity measures that lists over 30 things a DMO should be tracking (and we know a DMO that tracks over 100 indicators...monthly).

The other expert is a researcher from Berry College (and a contributor to a Georgia Policy Think Tank) that recently released a study which suggests that hotel taxes may actually have lowered statewide monthly average hotel rentals by 92,000 rooms. And, I have no doubt that he may be right. But, that wasn't a locally imposed Room Tax with a clear expectation of local ROI. He based his findings on the effects of a draconian $5-a-night fee on hotels that the State Legislature blindly passed in the dark of night to fund transportation improvements. Apples and Kumquats, my friend.

Here's the deal...you can get pretty much anyone to claim they are an expert in destination marketing because they once took a vacation or attended a conference. This is a story without a point...fueled by experts without a clue.

Or...to be fair to the two experts: Could they have been quoted out of context by a reporter with an agenda?

We may never know...but, in the end? This dog don't hunt.

 

 

 

The Role of the DMO Board

We talk of it often. How today's DMO Boards seem to struggle with their role.

Some seem to believe it's benign oversight. Others think they should be directing Sales & Marketing.

The best DMO Boards, as we contend in Destination Leadership, open doors, make things happen and advocate for destination development and organizational support.

Which is pretty much what Bill Hoffman says in this great post on GuideStar.

Just in a different way.

 

Sometimes, Loyalty is Over-Rated

I'm on a flight back to "the compound" after a great day ideating the future of Destination Marketing with members of the Texas Association of Convention & Visitors Bureaus (thanks for the invitation and kind welcome, y'all).

One of the suggestions I offered was to jettison programs and tactics that no longer provided value, no matter how successful they had once been. My example was the intentional cannibalization of Apple's monster-selling product, the iPod. 350 million iPods had been sold worldwide when the plug was finally pulled on the line (with the lone exception of the iPod touch), earlier this year.

Steve Jobs knew what he was about to do with the release of the iPhone in 2007. Combining a phone and music player would ultimately make the iPod superfluous. And, because Apple could sell iPhones at a higher price point, Steve was willing to take the risk of killing off what was, at the time, one of the most popular products the company had ever released.

Conversely, Sears clearly didn't know what it was doing, according to this fascinating piece in Successful Meetings magazine. Instead of changing with the shifting marketplace, they instinctively doubled down on keeping their most loyal customers. Which, as we all witnessed this year, was the wrong move, despite earning a brief reprieve from a bankruptcy court earlier today.

So, what's holding you back?

Three Sides to Every Story

It's one of my favorite Don Henley lyrics:

There's three sides to every story, babe. There's yours and there's mine and the cold hard truth.

It's a pretty universal truth...and one that is playing out in Santa Clara CA, where the City has announced its intention to cut its contract with the Chamber of Commerce there to provide management services for its Convention Center and Destination Marketing services.

The City's "truth" is an audit of the Convention Center. The Chamber's truth is that, for decades, no one had indicated any dissatisfaction with the job it was doing.

And, the "cold hard truth?" Hell if I know...but there's something pretty powerful about this story and this analysis in the region's alternative newspaper.

Maybe it's that I'm consistently amazed when government utilizes outside "audit" firms that have no concept of the industry in which we work. Maybe it's that a blind devotion to political agenda derails the success of so many destinations (and the citizens who depend upon a professionally guided destination marketing strategy for their livelihood).

And maybe, just maybe, there will come a day where our cities are managed by individuals who are actually trained professionals that care more for their communities than their contributors and re-election plans.

 

 

The Evolution of the DMO

On this World Tourism Day, we celebrate the positive impact, both fiscally and socially, that travel visits upon every one of us on this planet. At the same time, we must be increasingly mindful of the challenges that poorly planned tourism can have on regions not prepared to handle large numbers of visitors.

And, at the heart of it all is the Destination Marketing Organization, the agency that provides the inspiration and incentive for consumers to choose and consume a community, region or nation. 

Sojern's Richard Black penned a great op-ed piece for PhocusWire called a DMO's Guide for Finding the Metrics that Matter.

So worth a read.

Hold 'Em, Never Fold 'Em

I have no idea if this is a URL that the Bismarck-Mandan CVB once held and discarded...but, it's a cautionary tale that should encourage every DMO to camp out on (and never release) any URL that remotely could be associated with their organization or destination.

The Bureau has recently discovered that someone has posted an imposter website (potentially to trick unsophisticated consumers to share personal data) with a URL that certainly looks like it might be theirs. But it isn't.

Hey, I know you're never, ever gonna use that URL you thought was a good idea back in 2003 (but wasn't)...but, do NOT let it slide back into the public domain! If I had a Franklin for every former DMO URL that has been repurposed into some type of foreign click-bate site...well, let's just say I'd have enough money to comfortably knock off for a month in a villa on a hilltop over a picturesque bay in the tropics.

I know it looks like a waste of money to hold 'em. Trust me. It's not.

David Burke

It's been years since we last spoke...but I never thought that last time would be.

David Burke, the long-time GM of the Breakers Palm Beach died unexpectedly last week. In a world of hospitality professionals who are generally nicer than the general population, David was one of a handful of tourism executives that stood out among a crowded field. I always looked forward to our time together when our careers connected us...and I'll now, once again, not be able to tell someone how much they meant to me.

And to so many others. To whit...this quote from his obit in Smart Meetings: 

“The first day on the job here...in your orientation class, first thing is you do a half-day of community service,” he said. “It’s all about ingratiating yourself into the community and doing what’s right. It’s so much fun working for a company that can do the right thing all the time.”

Yeah...we lost a huge heart.

Rest, David. And, we are all better for the way you lived your life.

Changing the Conversation

After Dubrovnik imposed restrictions on cruise lines, the Vice Chair of Royal Caribbean began a dialogue with the city's Mayor and jointly developed a solution to the community's fear of over-tourism. Adam Goldstein offered the story during a panel discussion at the World Travel & Tourism Council Global Summit in April

Virtuoso CEO Matthew Upchurch responded, "I do think it’s an interesting approach to say, 'What do you want? Don’t tell me what you don’t want.' When everybody focuses on what they don’t want, it’s always somebody else’s responsibility. When it’s what I want, it makes me focus."

He went on to say, "The over-tourism report suggests DMOs should be destination management organizations rather than destination marketing organizations. The problem is, we live in a world where it’s actually hard to manage people anymore: You’ve got to inspire them to do the right thing."

Brilliant...and the rest of the panel discussion, moderated by Travel Weekly's Arnie Weissmann, can be found here.