Executive Summary

The pandemic has revealed a lot about tourism and the way it is managed in destinations worldwide. From Venice to Virginia Beach, the first half of 2020 has highlighted the importance of tourism on a destination s economy, and in some places exposed where its strategy might be unsustainable in the long term.

The scope of work for Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) broadened massively to keep up with the changing trends and patterns owing to the pandemic. In this report we examine the pre-Covid setup of DMOs, how DMOs evolved during the pandemic and how they make sense of what the future holds.

We conducted a survey in December 2021 of about 100 professionals from destination management organizations (including Convention Visitors Bureau) globally to analyze the functioning of DMOs across five key facets: funding, revenue, expenses, staffing levels, and marketing. For each of the facets we have assessed the trend from the pre-Covid to the postCovid phase.

We found that funding, revenue and expenses are expected to increase in 2022 compared to the last two years, in line with the macro travel recovery trend. However, at this point it is crucial for DMOs to diversify their funding and revenue sources along with allocating their expenses in a targeted manner. Staffing levels are expected to more or less reach 2019 levels in 2022. Digital marketing is expected to remain the dominant marketing channel going forward, although marketing approaches like partnership marketing, cross-DMO collaborations and community marketing are expected to show better results in the near future.

As DMOs continue to find their footing in the new travel landscape, DMO functions are expected to broaden even more with increased emphasis on sustainability initiatives, airport route development, and stakeholder engagement.

Furthermore, we interviewed executives from seven key DMOs. Through our survey and discussions with industry stakeholders we gauged the recovery timeline of the traveler volume and discussed the pace of recovery by origin and purpose. Consensus is that full recovery is expected only after 2024.

The overall goal of the report is to highlight the lessons learned through battling the crisis and the fundamental areas that can contribute to a sustainable recovery and growth.