Destination Management Partnerships – the saviour of domestic tourism marketing?
Comment by destination management consultant, Ken Male.
Regional Tourist Boards are encouraging local authorities to work with their neighbours to jointly promote destinations and form Destination Management Partnerships (DMPs).
There are some obvious advantages, but also some potential problems.
The reduction of overhead staff, economies of scale, and the creation of brand managers are positives. Also it will be possible to employ specialists for activities such as event managers, campaign mangers, e-commerce specialists, and so forth.
Another benefit is that larger UK holiday destinations that have dwindling numbers of hotels suffer a decline in the number of players contributing to their promotional budget, so by widening the number of partners and spreading the geographic boundaries, budgets are boosted.
It looks like such developments can only be a win, win scenario. But isn’t there always a ‘but’?
The local authority that currently takes full responsibility for the tourism activity will be entering into an arrangement where it will transfer its financial contribution to the DMPs.
If budgets are tight, the first thing to come under scrutiny is the payments made to outside bodies. There is a real risk that such funding will be more politically acceptable to cut than if the tourism activity were an integral part of the council.
Another problem is that a major cost of their tourism activity is running Tourist Information Centres (TICs). It is here that some dramatic savings are required. Some authorities currently spend in excess of 90% of their entire tourism budget running their TICs, and the partnership route has yet to identify savings in this activity, although organisations such as the Tourism Management Institute are actively engaged in finding solutions to this problem.
And finally, as the RDAs take on a more strategic role for tourism the RTBs will become increasingly marketing focussed. They will be competing with the new DMPs for the private sector support in funding for campaigns.
So the message is to watch this development, make your views known and ensure that the future produces something built on the strengths of the past adjusting to the realities of the present.
Ginny McGrath
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