Organization promoting tourism to increase number of visitors
A destination marketing organization (DMO) is an organisation which promotes a location as an attractive travel destination. DMOs are known as tourist boards, tourism authorities or "Convention and Visitors Bureaus".[1] They primarily exist to provide information to leisure travelers. Additionally, where a suitable infrastructure exists, they encourage event organizers to choose their location for meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions, collectively abbreviated as MICE.[1][2]
DMOs are generally tied to the local government infrastructure, often with supporting funds being generated by specific taxes, such as hotel taxes, membership fees, and sometimes government subsidies.[1] However, in many cases, the observed decline in tourism following cutbacks to public-sector expenditures has motivated the tourism industry to create a private sector coalition in order to provide the functions of a DMO.[3][4]
With the arrival of the internet more and more Destination Management Companies adopted the term "visit"
and added it as a prefix to their city or country name. The phenomenon started in America in 1995 / 1996
and spread over the world with major organizations like the London Tourist Board
adopting the concept after the turn of the century.[5][6]
References