Bill Geist's Zeitgeist

DMOs = Hokum?

It will be an interesting couple of days in Dallas.

For those that have not been following along, the City recently conducted an audit of Visit Dallas. "Scathing" is the word being used to describe the findings. But, to be fair, the audit found just as much wrong with the City's oversight of its contract with the DMO as it did with Visit Dallas. That said, the media is focusing the majority of its attention on the DMO, essentially giving the City a day-pass. It's hard to bang on bureaucrats. Much easier to target the CEO. Lazy journalism at its finest.

This is not unlike what has been happening in Santa Clara, where the DMO is being vilified when the City never set goals or expectations for the organization. And in Stillwater OK. And, in a bunch of places. It is the season, apparently.

But, once again, a Dallas politician blurts out the age-old saw: "They believe this hokum of advertising that is supposed to be reaping millions of dollars for the city is more important than filling potholes.”

Filling potholes, Police and Fire, the Homeless. Insert any hot button part of a City's program of work. It's always designed to position one of the only non-resident tax generators as somehow frivolous against the very programs it helps fund...because Joe and Jill Public are easily led. Smart politicians know this. Ethical ones are handcuffed because they don't have the facts with which to fight back (and, that's on us).

But, marketing is hokum? 

Except when running for City Council, apparently. The $100,000 or so the Councilman had in his war chest in 2017 was, ostensibly, for marketing. 

$100,000 would fill a lot of potholes, eh Phillip? 

Are potholes really the issue for most residents in Dallas? Or are jobs and a fertile landscape for entrepreneurs more important?

Just sayin...

 

The School Start Date Conundrum

I know I'm too close to this debate, having fought this battle in Wisconsin years ago (and consulted other States over the years)...but, honestly, it's a pretty black and white question.

When the majority of parents (and, in many cases, teachers) support a post-Labor Day School Start AND it benefits the State's economy...what is left to say? Local control zealots (who are in the distinct minority) cry out that we are sacrificing our children's education to benefit tourism businesses...but not a single study has shown that Post Labor Day School starts result in lower test scores. Indeed, here in Wisconsin, the schools that started post-Labor Day scored higher than those that started school in August before we legislated a uniform start date.

The debate has shifted into high gear in Maryland, where the Governor mandated a post-Labor Day start and the legislature is now pushing back.

Last week, Governor Hogan opined, "inexplicably, they are attempting to reverse this policy, but we simply cannot and we will not allow misguided and misinformed legislators and special interest groups to turn back the clock and ignore the will of the people of Maryland."

Opposition party Senator Paul Pinsky questioned why people are afraid to give local officials a choice.

Which I find delightfully absurd. State politicians always think they are smarter than local officials...except on this issue.

Hey, Paul? It's time to look out for the State's economy AND the interests of the electorate...and not the School Board Association lobby.

As the Caution Lights Flash More Incessantly

Among the top 14 international long-haul destinations around the world, only one (Turkey) performed worse than the U.S. from 2015-2017. Tourism Economics President Adam Sacks avoided the over-used phrase "perfect storm" as he coined an even better one: "a triad of factors" impacting America's lackluster performance.

"The global economy is slowing, most currencies have weakened against the dollar and U.S. policy and rhetoric have damaged sentiment. We see the latter two to be the prevailing factors over the past two years," he added. And, digging deeper into the country-by-country results really highlights how negative perceptions toward the U.S. are evident in significant travel declines from the Middle East, China and Germany. Indeed, growth in inbound travel from China completely stalled in 2018, after averaging an annual growth rate of over 20% for the past decade. 

The article from Forbes is here. The Executive Summary is here.

Hang on, babies...

Like Anyone Cares

It is a custom for new gubernatorial regimes to plaster their names on the welcome signs into their States.

Why?

Visitors don't give a shit who runs the State they have chosen to visit. Roughly half of the residents returning to the State don't support the incumbent. So, why go to the extraordinary expense of updating the signs after a change in leadership?

No...really. Why? For all you politicians that campaigned on cutting government waste...why?

I'm waiting for an answer.

That I'll likely never get.

 

A New Role for Today's DMO

I can't remember the first time I said the words, "it's not just about heads in beds." Hard to believe, but its likely been 15 years...maybe 20.

It wasn't because I was prescient. It was because I was given the gift of working for a Destination Marketing Organization that chose to dive into leading a community-wide effort to build a Frank Lloyd Wright designed Convention Center. That wasn't what DMOs did in the '90s. But, I knew that what we accomplished in Madison was the future for DMOs.

Today, the most effective and innovative DMOs are intimately engaged in destination, community and economic development. And, as we suggested last month in the Z-News, hunger and homelessness need to be next on our agenda.

Here's a sensational article from the Northstar Meetings Group on how leading DMOs are addressing this increasing social crisis.

We all need to join them.

 

 

Now it's Getting Serious

As the U.S. Government shutdown moves into record-breaking territory during a philosophical pissing match between petulant children that somehow convinced a majority of voters that they were sane and responsible adults, the fallout is beginning to produce dire consequences for American business.

Both sides should be ashamed that the federal workers that look to them for their livelihood are working (or not) without pay. That should be enough for the best and brightest among them to say "screw it" and look for work in the private sector. I know I would.

The shutdown is also costing the U.S. Economy billions. Small businesses are particularly at risk. But, nobody seems to care.

But, now comes word that craft brewers are being forced to sit on new beers because the federal government has to approve all new labels before the brews are available to the public. And, that department has been deemed non-essential and shuttered for the duration.

Non-essential?

In whose world?

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.

A Voice of Reason in a Sea of Insanity

Wisconsin taxpayers are on the hook for $4.5 billion to bring a plant to the Badger State that may employ 13,000. New York City promised $3 billion to Amazon to get half of its HQ2. The arms race shows no sign of slowing...that is unless Mayors and Governors begin to more carefully judge the public blowback to such subsidies on their own tenure.

Richard Florida recently opined on the practice on CityLab, calling on this nation's Mayors to grow a spine and just say "no,"

It's worth a read...

The Ego of Destination Marketing Funding

Government officials in Charlottesville and Albermarle County have been weighing in over the past few months on ways to make the Destination Marketing Organization there more responsive and accountable. Not that it wasn't. But, a handful of people are bound and determined to remold the organization and its work.

As a re-branding process approaches its conclusion, a County Supervisor is demanding that the name of the County be included in the logo, using a pretty common train of thought: “We are paying half the money, almost, and, yes, people in Oshkosh may not know about the name of Albemarle County, but...how we help them to learn that name is to see them together.”

So, if the County supplied "almost" half of the budget of Meet Minneapolis, should Hennepin County be included in the logo? If the County supplied "almost" half of the budget of the Greater Madison CVB, should Dane County be included in the logo? And, if the County supplied "almost" half of the budget of Memphis Tourism, should Shelby County be included in the logo?

To what purpose? 

Logos and destination identifiers aren't designed to educate. They are designed to inspire a visit.

You want people to know about Albermarle County? Inspire a visit to Charlottesville...and that's not achieved by jumbling the message with superfluous information that only serves to support your geographic ego.

Just sayin...

How Long

OK. Last year's year-end song was wishful thinking. Apparently, most of us are frogs in slowly warming water.

So, as we bid farewell to 2018, we shift gears to a path on which we may be more able to congregate.

This is Jackson Browne's "How Long."

Here's to a New Year of compassion.