I have worked at both a regional DMO as well as various attractions during my tourism career. I have seen how successful partnerships work, and drive visitation. But I have also seen relationships between DMOs and attractions that were civil, but with subtle turf wars over information and progress. I wrote an ebook last year and here are some excerpts to help everyone see how tourism looks through another organization’s eyes. By working together, you will beat the competition, have more visitor and employee more people. I have a link for the free ebook in the article – please share with others!
DMOs- Here is some information your attractions would like you to know:
Understand their business cycle
When your attraction partners are in their busy season, all their energy goes towards welcoming the visitors and keeping staff scheduled, trained and effective. If you schedule big partner meetings or training sessions during their busy season, you will probably have a small turn out. Instead, host a kickoff event to start the season, check in and see if there is anything you can be doing to help in the busy season, and wait for the slower season to ask for sit down meetings and strategy sessions.
Make sure your staff has been to partner attractions and restaurants
An engaged and knowledgeable DMO staff is a big benefit. When they take time to get to know an attraction and spend an afternoon enjoying it, not only will they be better advocates for the property, but the attraction will appreciate the effort. Make sure you have multiple contacts at each attraction and know the hierarchy of the teams.
It makes an attraction feel good about their DMO when they know that all the staff have visited and can speak about it. Ask your attractions for complimentary tickets for your staff- I bet they will be thrilled to offer it! And make sure your staff lets someone at the attraction know they will be visiting. I always tried to come out of my office to say hi to industry visitors.
Understand your partner’s budget cycle.
No one has unlimited budgets- every penny is allocated. So having your marketing plans in advance directly impacts their ability to take part in programming. I worked for a DMO whose budget ran from April 1- March 31. We would often approach attractions in the summer for our latest programs and the attractions would have to scramble to participate since their budgets were set in late fall to begin on January 1. Set up an Excel spreadsheet with partner information such as this so you can work to their schedule as best as possible.
Attractions would like you to offer training and educational programming since they have limited budgets.
Offer various levels of training- for newcomers to the industry as well as information for experienced staff. The majority of attractions are small businesses with limited budgets for training and education. Perhaps they have money set aside to go to the annual state tourism conference, but that might be it. If you can offer more training for them, it is a win-win for both. They will have better-trained staff and you will have partners whose staff understand the tourism industry, business practices, and tourism sales and marketing strategies. You will look like a leader when you can offer training, and the fact that it will be local and cost-effective will make attractions want to participate.
Introduce them to key regional tourism partners and state tourism staff.
Offer opportunities for your partners to network in your area with influential people they might not meet otherwise. When I worked at a small family owned attraction, I never thought I would meet the head of the state tourism office. It made me feel important, and like I wanted to get more involved and do a better job. You get to interact with key influencers every day. When they come to your area, make sure they get to meet some of your stakeholders. Say notable things about them and their attraction and I can guarantee you that you will have an advocate for life.
Offer opportunities for the attractions to help at tradeshows.
Most attractions don’t have extensive trade show budgets. Having your partners in your booth, or at a show with your financial support is a winning strategy. Provide training so their staff are comfortable and effective in the tradeshow environment.
- Even with technology and social media, trade shows are still an effective sales tool in the tourism industry. Whenever possible, offer booth space to your partners so they can learn how to promote your area as well as themselves. This stretches their horizons and makes them appreciate your work even more.
- I think it is good for them to see the competition out in the marketplace. To be effective, you should provide a training workshop that explains how to sell, how to speak about other attractions in the area and how to close a sale. You do this every day, they do not. They will look to you for expertise and leadership. Provide it and you will have a loyal partner.
Set up sales missions to key markets.
These are business development opportunities they might not be able to create themselves. Provide pre-sales mission training and information on meetings.
- Beyond tradeshows are sales missions where you and your partners will go to tour operator offices. A DMO has a better understanding of how these calls should work and who to call on. Again, offer a training workshop on what tour operators are looking for. Help set them up for success. I am also a big believer in charging a fee. Having skin in the game makes everyone more motivated.
If you have visitor centers, make sure all staff and volunteers are familiar with the attractions.
It sounds so simple, but it always surprises me when someone at a visitor center says they have never been to a location. Make the time to get everyone trained on the top attractions, and how to get to them. I did some ‘secret shopping’ at a regional visitor center where we paid to have our brochures distributed. I asked the gentleman about my attraction and he told me it was” not that easy to get there from here.” When really it was. Not everyone uses GPS so being able to give directions is still important.
Attractions will feel more comfortable sharing visitor data when they know it will help them get more business, and won’t cause them to lose business to their competitors.
- I have worked at a DMO so I know how hard it is to get data from partners. But I have also worked at attractions where the DMO asked us to fill out a form with all the group tour companies that visited in the last month. I never filled it out because it wasn’t made clear to me how that information would be used and shared.
- I worked with the NY State Division of Tourism years ago to develop a group tour tracking program and was able to come up with a 3-step program that built trust while it collected basic data. It started by just asking what state or country the bus groups were coming from. The state rejected the plan because they wanted to get much more data, but without building trust with the attractions, and the plan was never implemented.
Hosting FAMS can be an expense for attractions
Sure, hosting a FAM at an attraction can be cost-effective if only the price of admission is being given away. But often there are genuine costs associated with hosting a FAM, and attractions have very tight budgets. Consider asking yourself “Is there a very good chance that my partner will get business from this within the next year to 18 months?” If not, reconsider the ask. Your partners are looking to you to check and make sure they really have the potential to drive business.
Final Thoughts
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