Think Like A Visitor

  One of the biggest misconceptions in destination marketing organizations is that an effective board meeting is one that delivers the most information. CEOs often arrive with dozens of pages of financial reports, marketing updates, committee notes, research summaries, and staff activity reports. The assumption is simple: if board members have more information, they'll make better decisions. In reality, the opposite is often true. The challenge facing today's DMO board is rarely a lack of information. It's information overload. Board members are volunteers. Most are business leaders with demanding careers who may only devote a few hours each month to governance. When every meeting feels like drinking from a fire hose, strategic conversations are replaced with operational questions, and opportunities for meaningful leadership disappear beneath stacks of reports. One of the CEO's most important responsibilities isn't simply managing the destination—it's managing u...

One of the biggest misconceptions in destination marketing organizations (DMO) is that an effective board meeting is one that delivers the most information. CEOs often arrive with dozens of pages of financial reports, marketing updates, committee notes, research summaries, and staff activity reports. The assumption is simple: if board members have more information, they'll make better decisions. In reality, the opposite is often true. The challenge facing today's DMO board is rarely a lack of information. It's information overload. Board members are volunteers. Most are business leaders with demanding careers who may only devote a few hours each month to governance. When every meeting feels like drinking from a fire hose, strategic conversations are replaced with operational questions, and opportunities for meaningful leadership disappear beneath stacks of reports. One of the CEO's most important responsibilities isn't simply managing the destination, it’s managing ...

One of the greatest strengths of a destination marketing organization (DMO) is its ability to bring people together. Hotels, restaurants, attractions, elected officials, business owners, community organizations, and residents all have a stake in the destination's success. Naturally, DMO leaders want to keep everyone informed. But there is a point where communication stops building relationships and starts creating noise. Many destination leaders assume that more communication is always better. More newsletters, meetings, surveys, committee updates, and requests for participation. And if every message is labeled "important," eventually none of them feels important at all. This is stakeholder fatigue, and it is becoming increasingly common. The signs are often subtle at first. Attendance at meetings begins to decline. Email open rates fall. Surveys receive fewer responses. Advisory committees struggle to maintain participation. Partners stop returning calls as quickly as th...

Every destination marketing organization (DMO) spends time preparing for crises that originate outside the organization. Economic downturns. Hurricanes. Public health emergencies. Political controversies. Changes in travel patterns. Yet one of the most disruptive events a DMO can experience often receives the least attention: the sudden loss of its CEO. Whether caused by retirement, illness, resignation, or an unexpected opportunity, leadership transitions can quickly expose weaknesses that have been hidden for years. If important relationships exist only in one person's phone, or financial processes live only in one person's memory, or strategic direction depends entirely on one individual's experience, the organization isn't resilient, it's vulnerable. Building organizational resilience means ensuring the DMO can continue to operate effectively, regardless of who occupies the corner office. Succession Planning Isn't Just for Retirement Many boards assume succe...

  One of the most overlooked questions in destination marketing isn't, "What should we do next?" It's "What should we stop doing?" Every destination marketing organization is filled with programs, events, publications, partnerships, and traditions that once made perfect sense. Many were successful. Some were innovative. Others were created to solve a specific challenge that no longer exists. Yet year after year, they remain in the budget, on staff work plans, and on board agendas simply because they've always been there. That isn't strategy. It's inertia. Peter Drucker frequently described strategic abandonment as one of management's most important responsibilities. He believed organizations should regularly examine everything they do and ask a difficult question: If we weren't already doing this today, would we start doing it now? For DMO leaders, that question can be surprisingly uncomfortable. Legacy Programs Have Hidden Costs Ev...

Destination Marketing Organizations are relationship-driven businesses. Success depends on collaboration, creativity, trust, and a shared commitment to serving visitors, stakeholders, and the community. While DMO leaders spend considerable time building external relationships, one of the most difficult leadership challenges often emerges internally: managing an employee who has become toxic to the organization. Toxic employees can be found in organizations of every size. They may be high performers, long-term staff members, or even individuals with strong industry knowledge. What makes them toxic is not necessarily their job performance but the negative impact they have on workplace culture, morale, teamwork, and organizational effectiveness. For a DMO President-CEO, ignoring the problem is rarely an option. The first responsibility of leadership is to objectively identify the behavior. Toxicity can take many forms: constant negativity, gossip, undermining coworkers, resistance to chan...