The tourism industry has changed. Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) tools have changed too. To compete in today’s industry, a DMO must have the latest marketing technology. Over-tourism, with too many people descending on destinations during peak seasons, and the COVCID-19 pandemic have DMOs focusing on more than just promotion. Now, DMOs need to manage tourism as well.
A shift towards growing tourism revenues in more intelligent ways
Most destinations today need to be more strategic in who they market to, where they live and how they travel. For example, knowing who travels when and for what reason will allow a DMO to increase shoulder season occupancy. Understanding the mix of local, regional, and destination visitors allows a DMO to adjust marketing tactics to increase visitors’ revenue. New tools are needed to create more intelligent marketing plans. SMG Consulting and Triple Point have developed a new, model-based approach for this purpose.
We provide an iterative learning process
Scenario modeling and strategic planning intends to maximize economic and social benefits, such as tax revenues, while minimizing negative impacts such as traffic and pollution. Tourist economies achieve success in different ways. Some may focus on a critical attraction, such as a shoreline or a National Park. Others may offer more diversity. Many destinations experience seasonal volatility, some more than others. Our approach integrates economic modeling and scenario planning to improve marketing strategy and, perhaps more importantly, to learn from the monitoring of actual results.
A unique economic model for simulating future outcomes of alternative marketing strategies
This process begins with defining goals and objectives. Next, we gather the right data and build a model of your economy. We have decades of experience gathering the necessary data. We know where to find it, how to organize it, and create economic models with it. We can build a model of your destination quickly and efficiently. In many cases, we find more data than previously known.
Developing Future Scenarios of Your Destination’s Economy
Our modeling will account for where guests come from, how long they stay, and other key metrics. In order to increase mid-week occupancy and even staffing levels throughout your destination, you may want to consider an aggressive out-of-state marketing strategy. The chart below shows a hypothetical example of increasing the share of destination visitors over time. In this scenario, the share of destination visitors has grown to over 60 percent by 2030 and revenue from $49 to $54 million.
Having an estimate of increased revenue allows more informed decisions about the amount of marketing budget to allocate to this strategy. Additionally, the costs and benefits of this alternative can be compared to other options under consideration.
Make Better Decisions
Our approach integrates economic modeling and strategic planning to inform and improve decision making. We simulate alternative scenarios that would result from changing marketing plans and tactics. We compare these scenarios to one another and a baseline to develop a final strategy. We monitor the performance of the executed strategy and make adjustments. In this manner, strategic planning becomes an iterative and ongoing process of making better and better decisions.
