SPECIAL REPORT
Destination Marketing Organizations
Tourism and Destination Marketing: Smart Investments
for Immediate Returns
As municipalities struggle with lag-
ging revenues, budget deficits and ongo-
ing demands to provide citizens vital
services, destination marketing and tour-
ism investment may be perceived as
frivolous. Nothing could be further from
the truth.
As its community’s primary tourism
marketing body, a destination market-
ing organization (also called a DMO or
sometimes called a convention and visi-
tors bureau), masterminds the market-
ing of its locale to business and leisure
travelers. Through its focus on tourism
marketing, sales and servicing, and the
resulting dollars brought in by those
efforts, DMOs play a significant role in
the long-term economic development of
its destination.
At the end of the day, DMOs are
investment accounts for communities —
not a cost to communities — and their
efforts deliver real dividends to local
governments, businesses and residents.
Destination marketing efforts don’t
compete with public service programs;
they actually bring new revenue into
local areas to help pay for them.
Think about it this way — every
new traveler that the DMO attracts to
your city spends money in local busi-
nesses including hotels, restaurants,
shops and attractions and becomes a
temporary tax payer contributing to
the city tax base.
New visitors pump cash into local
businesses and public coffers, enhance
the lifestyle of residents and importantly
in this economy, create jobs. In fact, the
job creation from the travel and tourism
industry continues to be one of the few
bright spots in U.S. employment figures.
Tourism marketing is one of the
smartest, most efficient and immediate
returns for generating new community
revenues. Both the positive impacts of
marketing and the negative effects of
eliminating marketing are well-docu-
mented.
When Colorado cut tourism invest-
ment to zero, its share of U.S. travel
plummeted 30 percent within two years,
creating a revenue loss of more than $2
billion annually.
Destination marketing is an investment.
JOB CREATION
The U.S. Labor Department’s
latest figures show while overall
employment continued to slow-
ly improve in April, the travel
industry added 20,000 new jobs,
bringing the industry’s total direct
employment to 7,584,000. Since
February 2011, travel employ-
ment has increased by 150,000.
The St. Lou is ... Growing Local Tourism Workforce
St. Louis’ hospitality industry con-
tributes to an improved quality of life for
the region’s 2. 8 million residents — and
it doesn’t cost them a dime.
The St. Louis Convention & Visitors
Commission (CVC), the official destina-
tion marketing organization for St. Louis
City and County, is funded by taxes paid
by visitors on hotel rooms. The region
welcomes 21.4 million people annually
for business, leisure travel, meetings and
conventions, and these visitors leave
behind about $4.33 billion — “new”
money that’s pumped into the region’s
economy each year.
Travel and tourism ranks among the
top 10 industries in St. Louis City and
County. It creates jobs for more than
80,000 people and pays industry wages
of $2.51 billion to area residents. It also
generates an additional $801 million to
federal, state and local tax coffers. Each
household in St. Louis City and County
receives $844 a year in tax savings as a
result of the travel and tourism industry.
In addition to working with a num-
ber of groups to help improve the qual-
ity of the regional workforce, the CVC
offers financial assistance to students
who wish to pursue careers in the hos-
pitality industry. Seniors at all St. Louis
area high schools who are interested in
pursuing careers in hospitality or the
culinary arts can apply for the monetary
scholarship or various internships within
the CVC. The internships help students
learn and improve communications,
problem solving, teamwork, computer
applications, and interpersonal skills.
Each year, Forest Park Community
College, the CVC and Levy Restaurants
(America’s Center convention complex
catering) partner with Clyde C. Miller
Career Academy, North Technical,
Normandy, and South Technical high
schools to showcase their hospital-
ity studies and culinary arts programs.
During National Travel and Tourism
Week, the CVC and partners present
a High School Culinary Competition
that challenges students’ skills in a high-
energy “Iron Chef” type of contest.
