Bill Geist's Zeitgeist

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. 

Trust Us...it'll Qualify

For every really cool story in DMO-land (like yesterday's)...there are the bone-headed, the politically devious and the sensationally unsophisticated tales that make one wanna scream.

One of the latter occurred last week when the York County SC Council voted to purchase 1,900 acres for a recreation site along the Catawba River for $21 million. Part of the funding package being proposed will see the budget of the Destination Marketing Organization there slashed by 43%.

Now, one must always be cautious when working off of media reports. There could be an agenda on the part of the writer. The reporter could be clueless as to what they are hearing. But, what I see in this story is purposeful political misdirection and a calculated belief that the State laws restricting the use of Tourism-related taxes can be bent to the Council's will.

If you want to go down the rabbit hole and read the sad tale, your links are here (the DMO issue) and here (the residents' take).

But, here's the Cliff Notes version: The land is being purchased for conservation purposes. That does not qualify it for Tourism Taxes.

1,900 acres, however, is a lot of land. If thoughtfully designed, the parcel could become a tourism draw. Thus, Tourism Taxes could be utilized.

But...and, it's a big one. There are no plans for the land other than acquisition. At least not publicly shared. And, that the County does not have a Parks and Rec Department, the chance that even a part of the tract evolves into a tournament-grade sports complex appears remote. Indeed, work is already underway for a Sports Park in another part of the county.

The Assistant County Manager says, "I don't have any guilt about a drastic cut to the CVB."

And, that speaks volumes.

Sigh.

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.

 

 

 

Signs and Smartphones

My friend Amir Eylon (Longwoods International) shared this newspaper article with me last week...and I honestly could go a couple different ways with the positions on both sides of the argument.

The most egregious comment first: A City Council member, in voting against his town's Tourism Committee's informed recommendations, said these words: Lodging tax revenues have paid for a lot of advertising, while this (wayfinding signage) is actually something useful for the city. 

He obviously hasn't been briefed on The Halo Effect, which clearly indicates that tourism advertising increases the likelihood of entrepreneurial investment in a community (something one would think he would support).

The same article, however, has this same city council member saying wayfinding signs are important because he doesn't own a smartphone.

It's always a problem when elected leaders believe their life experience is shared by their constituents...because it often isn't. Just as members of the Tourism Committee erred by thinking everyone does own a smartphone, as they rejected a proposal to fund wayfinding signage.

Smartphones have nothing to do with the question of wayfinding signage. The real question is whether you have more than one attraction in your community (and Wapakoneta does). Thus, if I'm coming for the Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum...GPS won't tell me that there is also the Bicycle Museum of America or the Temple of Tolerance. Wayfinding signage does. 

Virtually every comment in the article is wrong...but, in the end, the City Council likely did right.

Amazing.