Last week, we introduced the Destination Think model for destination management. It’s a visual representation of our philosophy for modern destination marketing. It’s based on our learnings over the last five years and best practices that we see in the industry. The reception to this new model has been phenomenal, and over the next months we’re going to explain the elements of it in detail.

Benchmarking

Part of the introduction is a benchmarking product, called the Destination Assessment. With this benchmarking product, we analyze the current state of how your DMO operates in the context of the model we introduced. Each section of the model has numerous evaluation points. For example: your approach to your target audience, brand, differentiation, advertising, social channels and much more. A second part of the benchmarking evaluates your in-house operations, systems culture and so on. The combination of the two gives you a snapshot of where your organization is, and the areas in which you can and should move forward.

Starting point for multi-year planning

The reason why this assessment is so valuable is that it serves as a great starting point to create a multi-year roadmap for your DMO’s activities, departments and the way you work with industry partners. The assessment includes the range of activities your DMO can engage with, and specifics about each level of where your organization is at.

Fit with strategy

The assessment and benchmarking tool is not a strategy. It’s an assessment of your activities against our philosophy and best practices. It doesn’t tell you your competitive edge, how you will win and grow tourism. Your strategy is your unique focus. The assessment and benchmark provides you with a snapshot of how likely your organization is to succeed, and serves as a starting point to create a multi-year roadmap to move you closer to to success.

A snapshot of our Destination Assessment

Next post in this series: The Destination Management and Marketing Model part 3: Storytelling
Previous post in this series: The Destination Management and Marketing Model part 1: Introduction

We have created an assessment for destinations based on our model that shows priority areas for your organization’s development. Click here to contact our team and to establish a benchmark for your own destination.