What Model Fits a Municipality DMO?

Regardless of where you are, Municipality DMOs Destination Marketing Organizations are regulated, required to follow the laws, and under those laws are performing a governmental function.

In Arizona, the Offical DMO is the city or town, a Municipality. The Municipality is the DMO, Destination Marketing Organization. The City or Town is the automatic administrator as the local government.

Counties with voter-approved Tourism Tax may have a County DMO acting as a government Tourism Authority. Under A.R.S. § 5-802 Formation of Authority. The authority is regarded as performing a governmental function. A.R.S. § 5-802 Formation of Authority
Arizona State Laws outline the foundation and structure. These authorities have appointed citizen volunteers who are on the Board of Directors. The board is appointed to achieve a balanced representation. Acting as a government, all records are public.

Title 41 – Arizona State Government § 41-2306 Tourism fund
The Arizona Office of Tourism administers the account under the law for the State of Arizona.

Municipality Destination Marketing is much more than marketing.

• Define the destination, Sedona. The destination is the legal municipality
• Define the vision for the municipality’s destination
• Data, research, and analysis. Includes benchmarking peer municipality destinations.
• Strategic fit-  How the municipality DMO matches its resources and capabilities with the opportunities in the external environment.
• Brand positioning, the unique value of Sedona as a destination
• Target markets the destination. Target marketing includes education and resources. 
• Experience and product development: Open Space, Parks, Attractions, Activities, Amenities, Accommodations. Traffic, Trash, and Quality of stay are all part of the experience,
• Access to the Designation, getting to the designation, and navigation through the designation. Parking, Shuttles, getting to and from attractions, and events are all part of access.
• Attitude toward the environment, cultural, social, and environmental aspects.
• Marketing, Promotion, Awareness & Education for the designation
• Amenities, services, and infrastructure the designation provides, improvements, building, maintaining.
• Environmental stewardship, Education, protecting the environment.
• Capability and development
• Leadership and structures. Assuring the leadership and systems are in place,
• Risk and crisis management. Understand the risks & prepared to handle the crisis
• Measuring success. Measuring success also allows us to improve continuously.
• Adjusting any of the above to improve the environment, experience, capacities

The legal Destination entity for Sedona is the City of Sedona. We have no county tourism authorities here. So that makes it only one legal government accountable for Destination Marketing.

What is the difference between Municipal Destination Marketing versus Businesses that do Business-Designation Marketing?

Municipality Destination Marketing Management is a complex process with many moving parts. It is critical for Municipality DMOs to keep the information, knowledge, and performance metrics centralized to maintain a clear Public Policy that solves potential problems while maintaining a balanced, operating efficient, and effective tourism management program.

Businesses that generate destination business marketing come in all shapes and sizes. Business models are not regulated. They are not limited or restricted to being in a location in the tourism industry. The primary purpose is to target businesses to increase sales. The simple measurement of return on investment (ROI) is the typical metric. There are of course internal units of measure that would provide individual businesses insight into their success, and business operation. A business that uses destination marketing represents Business owners, Marketing companies, investors, and trade associations – business associations whose members are businesses. Some may be similar to a chamber, in today’s world we see many groups targeting a destination as their businesses are in or service the destination.

Why aren’t Trade Associations considered a CVB, Convention Visitors Bureau?

CVB Convention Visitors Bureaus are multi-government contracted vendors.
The Municipality Destination manages, limits, and restricts a CVB in order to maintain a government Tourism Policy following State guidelines. The Municipality hires a CVB as the government DMO places restrictions on CVB membership to be in the Tourism industry, and enforces accommodation, resorts, and spa exclusivity. The CVB can be multiple Municipality organizations under the control and direction of the Municipality. They typically report to a department at the city level. The tourism policy and programs are Municipality, the destination with all the moving parts centrally controlled, monitored, and developed by the municipality.

Sources: State of Arizona, Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority, Arizona Office of Tourism, City of Scottsdale, City of Paradise Valley, City of Prescott, City of Flagstaff.
Donna Joy’s Research Tracker contains hyperlinks to sources.
Donna Joy can be reached at donna@donnajoys.com (928) 282-4635