This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner.
In today’s dynamic travel landscape, destination organizations face a myriad of challenges that require innovative solutions and robust support. They are tasked with promoting their destinations amid rapidly changing consumer behaviors, heightened competition, ongoing impacts of political and economic uncertainty, and various global events.
Despite these obstacles, destination organizations must continue to “clearly demonstrate the value and importance of their work to elected officials to safeguard their funding and ensure organizational stability,” said Gretchen Hall, chief operating officer at Destinations International (DI).
To navigate these complexities and maintain support from their communities, destination organizations need access to advanced tools and resources that enable them to effectively engage with potential visitors, leverage data-driven insights, and implement strategic marketing initiatives.
SkiftX spoke with Hall about how destinations can enhance their ability to attract visitors, boost local economies, and maintain a competitive edge in an ever-evolving industry.
Meeting Selection to Maximize Value
Prospecting is a key part of destination organizations’ or CVBs’ role in ensuring a steady stream of event business into their communities. However, these organizations often struggle with identifying and targeting the most suitable meetings and events for their locale due to a lack of comprehensive, accurate data.
DI’s Meetings Information Network (MINT+) database, created in partnership with Simpleview, aims to enhance destination organizations’ efficiency by facilitating precise targeting of business events. Hall explained that it provides access to a rich repository of historical and future booking data, which “enables destination organizations to strategically prospect and tailor their sales efforts, optimizing the pursuit of valuable business events.”
The database is currently utilized by over 140 destinations and uses pattern matching to make personalized recommendations for meetings the destination may want to consider. In addition, data is standardized to make it more searchable and comparable for destination sales teams.
Visit Pasadena, for example, leverages MINT+ to identify and target accounts that align with their community’s needs, and Hall noted that it has significantly enhanced their business event strategy and improved their team’s operational efficiency.
Kristin McGrath, executive director at Visit Pasadena, shared a testimonial in which she named MINT+ her most valuable tool for prospecting and researching business event opportunities.
“The query builder feature allows us to find and target accounts that best align with the needs of our community,” she said. “Taking a strategic approach to prospecting has increased the efficiency and effectiveness of our sales efforts. MINT+ is one of the best investments Visit Pasadena makes each fiscal year.”
Data-Driven Decision Making
Being data-focused is essential for destination organizations and CVBs to demonstrate their value within the community. Effectively using statistics and data through storytelling can powerfully illustrate the critical role of destination promotion in attracting visitors.
The Event Impact Calculator (EIC) quantifies the economic value of events and calculates their return on investment to the community in terms of spending, jobs, wages, and taxes. With this data, destination organizations and CVBs are better equipped to advocate for the development and growth of the events and meetings sectors. Continually updated, the EIC leverages the unique Tourism Economic data sources to maintain an industry-wide standard and has analyzed over 500,000 events to date.
“By enabling precise calculation of an event’s financial benefits, the EIC helps destinations advocate effectively for the value of events, informing stakeholders and policymakers about the significant contributions these events make to local economies, including the broader economic benefits of events, beyond direct tourism revenue,” Hall said.
Explore Edmonton uses the EIC to help them communicate the value of events, showcasing how events drive local business growth, employment, and tax revenue.
“By illustrating the direct and indirect impacts of events within their community, they have effectively engaged local stakeholders and secured necessary support for future events,” Hall said.
Sustainable and Inclusive Growth
Another challenge destination organizations face is effectively implementing and promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion within their organizations and communities. At the same time, they need to navigate a rapidly changing tourism landscape with strategic planning and sustainable practices.
DI’s Social Impact Assessment Tool equips destination organizations with a framework to evaluate and enhance their equity, diversity, and inclusion practices. The tool is free for DI members to access at any time but also includes add-on premium tiers for extra services such as comprehensive reporting and a personalized consultation with DI’s Chief Inclusion Officer.
“By providing a comprehensive set of metrics and benchmarks, the tool helps organizations assess their current initiatives, identify areas for improvement, and implement effective strategies to promote inclusive growth,” Hall said.
Michael Martin, CEO at Tempe Tourism, praises the Social Impact Assessment Tool, noting, “It not only guides our DEIA strategies effectively but also provides a comprehensive dashboard that helps us monitor our progress and identify areas for improvement. This tool is indispensable for tracking our initiatives and ensuring proactive changes, making it a fundamental resource in advancing our commitment to social inclusion.”
When it comes to sustainable development, DI’s DNEXT program provides a structured framework that supports destinations in developing long-term strategic plans that incorporate sustainability and resilience.
Hall explained that it “guides destinations through a systematic process to assess their current practices, set strategic goals, and implement effective management and operational strategies that ensure long-term sustainability and adaptability to changing global and local conditions.”
Additional Resources
Beyond these core tools, DI collaborates with partners to offer additional specialized resources, including the Accessibility Playbook, which guides destinations in enhancing accessibility; the Longwoods International Partner Program, which provides key market insights through tailored research; Symphony, a platform offering data-driven decision support; and Wayfinder, a destination management tool that enables organizations to measure, monitor, and improve destination stewardship capability and outcomes.
DI’s comprehensive suite of resources offers a wide range of valuable tools — with the goal of equipping destination leaders with the data, strategies, and perspectives needed to navigate and excel in the complex global tourism landscape. Leveraging these tools and proactively evaluating their organization’s achievements and goals against industry benchmarks will help destinations positively impact their communities and better serve visitors.
“Each product is targeted to meet specific needs, ensuring destinations can access the right tools for any challenge they face,” Hall said.
For more information about Destinations International’s suite of destination tools, click here.
This content was created collaboratively by Destinations International and Skift’s branded content studio, SkiftX.
