Convention & Visitors Bureaus (CVBs) CVB experts have been helping meeting plann
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Convention & Visitors Bureaus (CVBs)
CVB experts have been helping meeting planners, business travelers and leisure tourists find the perfect location and fit for more than 100 years. They are the quintessential source of information about hotels, facilities, attractions, restaurants and activities, and should always be the first contact when planning your event. All CVBs are not-for-profit organizations primarily funded by their local governments, usually through a portion of hotel occupancy taxes. Their mission is to promote the long-term development and marketing of a destination, focusing on convention sales, tourism marketing, and services. As the tourism marketing arm of the destination, the CVB is responsible for creating public awareness about their destination and, ultimately, booking the meeting and event business that feeds the economic engine of the region. And, because their services are funded by local stakeholders, they are free to the planner.
To quantify the impact of the sales and marketing efforts of the CVB to its community, Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) commissioned a study by Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics Company, entitled Measuring the Impact of the DMO Group Sales Channel. The findings for the 2014 calendar year show 22.5% of all group room night demand in the U.S. comes through CVB sales channels. The DMO share has increased 2%, with 41.5 million group room nights booked for future events.
Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs)
Essentially, the terms CVB and DMO are interchangeable. Referred to as CVBs for many decades, destination marketing organizations began identifying themselves as DMOs in an effort to convey a less bureaucratic connotation to the traveling public. Similarly, many CVBs, such as VisitPittsburgh, Meet Minneapolis and San Francisco Travel, have replaced the traditional “Convention & Visitors Bureau” portion of their name with a more descriptive, action-oriented name. Like many other re-named CVBs, “Experience Columbus” now identifies with the more contemporary DMO designation, but is still happy to acknowledge that it is the region’s convention and visitors bureau.
In 2005, the International Association of Convention & Visitor Bureaus (IACVB) changed its name to Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI), partly in recognition of its international members which are often structured and named differently than their US counterparts. DMAI’s website, e-information, and printed materials consistently refer to DMOs.
Every CVB is a DMO, but, technically, not every DMO is a convention and visitors bureau: some destinations have no meeting facilities and consequently market to leisure travelers only; some focus solely on meeting and convention business and leave transient tourism marketing to other entities.
Changing a brand takes time and most meeting professionals automatically refer to “CVBs,” so we anticipate continued use of “CVB” into the future. The important point is no matter what you call them, CVB/DMOs are uniquely qualified to be the best first point of contact for any meeting or event because of their comprehensive view of the destination, local expertise, extensive in-market relationships, and complimentary services.
Destination Management Companies (DMCs)
DMCs provide their services to the customer for a fee. According to ADME , the Association of Destination Management Executives, a DMC is a “professional services company possessing extensive local knowledge, expertise and resources, specializing in the design and implementation of events, activities, tours, transportation and program logistics.”
You may choose to engage the services of a DMC after you have confirmed the hotel and facilities in a specific destination to “manage” the destination for you. Planners may have a multi-year contract with a large destination management company to organize events and provide transportation regardless of the chosen destination, similar to how they contract with audio-visual providers and decorators.
DMCs are often valuable members and/or supporters of the local convention and visitors bureau.
As seasoned meeting professionals know, the success of any one program is contingent upon many successful collaborations and partnerships. A unique perspective comes into play from Annette Gregg, CMM, MBA, Vice President of AlliedPRA Corporate West, who also severed in a CVB management role for a number of years and understands the valuable connection between a DMC and a CVB.
ADVANTAGES
1. DMCs are More Positive: As compared to U.S. meeting planners, DMCs rated their strengths, opportunities and outlook more favorably.
2. Views on Strengths: DMCs viewed their own strengths as helping to ensure events are of high quality, handling unexpected requests and crisis management. However, meeting planners viewed DMCs’ top strengths as possessing local knowledge and saving time for planners.
3. Views on Weaknesses: DMCs believed their greatest weaknesses were the value of their resources being misunderstood and a lack of collaboration with other DMCs. Meeting planners believed DMCs’ biggest weaknesses were lack of creativity over time and offering replaceable services.
4. Agreement on Threats: DMCs and meeting planners both agreed that Internet search engines and hotels’ in-house DMCs were major threats to their relationship. Social media was considered both a threat and an enabler, offering opportunities for promotion and education.
Disadvantages
1. Need to build strong, dynamic networks of local expertise and vendors.
2. Proactively use social media technologies to provide more convenient services with information accessible across different platforms.
3. Provide a satisfaction guarantee for DMC services.
4. Build stronger international site inspections to highlight language, cultural and legal differences.
5. Develop and better promote DMC’s risk management services.
6. Work with larger DMC consortiums to create regional, national and global partnerships; but don’t lose unique, customizable programs that local DMCs are known for.
7. Develop informational programs and demos that raise the visibility and clarify the value of DMC services
Explanation / Answer
What are the Role of a destination Management company compare to convection and visitors bureau ? Advantages and disadvantages? What are the Role of a destination Management company compare to convection and visitors bureau ? Advantages and disadvantages?Related Questions
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