Destination Management & DMO Stories. A focus on commercial strategies.

Destination
Management &
DMO Stories
Matteo Ciccalè
Milano 22.04.2013
1 Il turismo in rete. Semplicemente

The Group: Opera21
Economics & HC 2011
Turnover 63 MI
Employees 700
The Branches
Economic Figures Clients
2011
>1000

Opera21 Tourism References

Programme
 Introduction
 Destination Management Organization
 Destination Management System
 New Distribution Challenge
 Destination 2 Distribution
 The role of the DMOs in the Value Chain
 International Case Studies
 Italian Case Studies

Introduction
 In a highly competitive market such as the current one, the tourists are becoming more
demanding, requiring attractive information in terms of completeness and accuracy,
conveyed through a variety of channels.
 They pretend to choose a destination, to select a particular product and buy it, and all
through a single on-line automated process.
 In this sense, the tourists experience the destination "in their mind" well before arriving at
the chosen destination, in other words, they experience "virtual" emotions before the real
one and absolutely this cannot be underestimated by those who work in the tourism
promotion.

The Tourism Product
 The tourism product is a complex product, composed of local attractions and
services, which complement each other. In the creation‟s phase of the product, in
the sense of a global phenomenon, two components contribute to the process:
 the Public
 the Private
 The tourism industry for its particular nature should thus be seen as a Tourism
Community.

The Tourism Community
 The Tourism Industry is made of a number of multi-dimensional businesses,
caractherized by completely different attributes, business model, technology level
and culture.
 This kind of community makes very difficoult to organize activities which concern
communication, cooperation and collaboration between actors.
 The Tourism Community includes:
 A number of government departments
 Other official bodies
 Residents, whether they are employed in tourism or not
 Businesses – from the smallest owner-managed business to the largest
corporations, and including the carriers and the intermediaries (such as agents,
tour operators, conference organizers, etc); and their trade representative bodies.
And…
 CUSTOMERS! whether leisure visitors or business tourism clients.

.
Organizzazioni
Turistiche Nazionali
Organizzazioni
Turistiche Locali
Organizzazioni
Turistiche Regionali
Linee Aeree
Autonoleggi
Bus / Ferrovie / Navi
Agenzie di viaggio
Incoming Agents
Tour Operator
CRS di gruppi /
consorzi
Glob. Distr. Syst. /
Comp. Reserv. Syst.
Ricettività Ristorazione Attrazioni
Shopping e
servizi
Servizi di supporto
al turista
Agricoltura ed
enogastronomia
Artigianato e
prodotti locali
Cultura e
tradizioni
Natura e
ambiente
Servizi di supporto
alle persone
Organizzazioni
sportive
TURISTI
POPOLAZIONE LOCALE
STAKEHOLDEREINFLUENZATORI
Autorità pubbliche /
DMO
Intermediari Trasporti
Fornitori Primari
Fornitori Secondari
The Tourism Community

Destination Management Organization

 The World Tourism Organization (2004)
defines DMOs as the organizations responsible
for the management and/or marketing of
destinations.
 Tourism is a rapidly evolving industry that has
become increasingly competitive in the global
marketplace and, as a sector, is facing a state
of transition.
 The role of the Destination Marketing
Organizations (DMOs) world-wide is changing
from that of a supplier of information to an
enabler of e-business.
 For DMOs, this transition means becoming a
instead of just a Destination Marketing
Organization.

DMO Today
 Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) are increasingly faced with the
prospect of diminished levels of government funding, with the requirement to
offset this through capitalizing on commercial opportunities arising from an
evolving e-business environment.
 The objective for the DMO is to be the facilitator of Destination teamwork, so
that the interdependent elements of tourism are drawing up and working to a
common agenda, supporting each other, and avoiding duplication.
 DMOs are moving away from using technology purely for its functionality and are
required to provide a significant level of strategic thinking to address their
commercial role.

DMO e-Business
 The DMO has a particular responsibility to
tourism suppliers – to act as the integrator of
the many elements of the destination product
and present them to the marketplace under the
umbrella of the destination brand.
 E-business provides an ideal way of doing this
more effectively.
 E-business has been defined as: “improving business through connectivity”(1) and “the
use of Internet technologies to improve and transform key business processes” (2)
Source:(1)PriceWaterhouseCoopers; (2)IBM

DMO e-Business
 A key focus of e-business is transformation of the value chain linking the tourism supplier
(or service provider) to the customer. This brings in:
 e-marketing exploits the Internet and other forms of electronic communication to
communicate in the most cost-effective ways with target markets and to enable
joint working with partner organisations, with whom there is a common interest;
 e-commerce is the sales activity undertaken through electronic distribution
channels;
 e-distribution is the incremental market access achieved by distributing tourism
supplier information to customers through multiple electronic routes to market.

E- Commerce penetration

Destination Management System

 Moving along the transitional path towards an e-enabled environment makes clear the
need to transform organizational functions, enabling DMOs to work in a fully
integrated way, through the use of common systems.
“Destination Management Systems are systems that consolidate and distribute a
comprehensive range of tourism products through a variety of channels and platforms,
generally catering for a specific region, and supporting the activities of a destination
management organization within that region. DMS attempt to utilize a customer centric
approach in order to manage and market the destination as a holistic entity, typically
providing strong destination related information, real-time reservations, destination
management tools and paying particular attention to supporting small and independent
tourism suppliers.”
Destination Website Effectiveness – A Delphi Study-based eMetric Approach, Proceedings of the Hospitality Information
Technology Association Conference, Frew, A.J. and Horan, P (2007), HITA 07, Orlando, USA

 Destination Management Systems have been designed to assist DMO, CVBs and
Tourist Offices in capitalizing on their own reservation potential, thus generating more
income for tourism promotion for their region.
 It handles information and reservations between tourist boards, service providers and
consumers. DMS should provide multi-product reservation capabilities such as
accommodation, packages, excursions, transfers and other products on a “pay per
booking basis”. This services can be updated at any time through an extranet.
 The system should enable the Destination Management Organization to sell its
products through it‟s own call-and information centers and online on the Internet for end
customers or professional travel agents. All should be done from one system.

Destination Management System: Hotel Availability
 The focus in the first instance is on providing hotel booking transactions:
Each accommodation provider has direct access to the Availability Extranet, allowing
them to manually update their room allocation as required and therefore building up a
repository of available stock. The provider can indicate if this is a guaranteed or indicative
allocation.
 The guaranteed method means that the rooms can be sold directly to the
public through the site, without any interventions.
 The indicative method requires the provider to confirm availability before
the room can be sold, and offers a flexible approach for establishments who
still wish to take advantage of this sales channel without having to commit
guaranteed stock.

Destination Management System: Hotel Availability
 In both of these methods, the provider simply logs into the extranet and can
then update number of units, cost and basis against each of their room types for
the current week. This information can then be copied simply from one week to the
next, so the updating process is made simpler.

Destination Management System Values
 A key driver of change in the commercial sector is the need to demonstrate and add
value to the distribution value chain.
 In general, the commercial sector – particularly the airlines and major hotel groups –
has made heavy use of information technology, whilst technology implementation
across the DMO value chain has been relatively limited.
 Commercial hotel groups have been strong on transactions and weak on
destination information. With the DMO value chain, it has been the reverse.
Generally, there has been little or no interaction between these two sets of value
chains.
 The situation is now changing; thanks to the DMS it is now realistic for any player within
the system to communicate electronically with any other. Thus, at a general level, the
opportunity exists for greatly increased business-to-business (B2B) communication
and for increased direct selling to consumers.

DMS – Consumer Side Added Value
 On the consumer side, now DMOs can optimize their position as holders of significant
content and brand equity, differentiating themselves from direct competitors.
 They can add value to consumers positioning the destination brand as the reference
point for travel research and booking. In practice, this means providing:
 Unbiased, comprehensive, high quality information to increase consumer
confidence;
 A safe and secure transaction environment;
 Exclusivity based on price, local knowledge, customized packages and offers.

DMS – Supplier Side Added Value
 On the supply side, DMOs have an opportunity to add value in the form of incremental
support, services and third party affiliations from one source that the supplier would
otherwise not easily get access to.
 Supporting and building the destination „brand‟ umbrella under which suppliers can
extend their marketing reach
 Developing a central resource on the complete range of products within the
destination
 Maximizing distribution either direct to consumers or through onward distribution
via third parties that would be difficult or impossible for the supplier to achieve on
his/her own
 Providing the ability to conduct secure, automated transactions
 Provision of a suite of business services and distribution choices

DMO
Booking
• Dynamic packaging
• On-line Booking
• Channel Manager
• Management System
Web Site
• SEO/SEM
• Social MKTG &
Reputation
• Mobile Application
• Affiliate
• Call center
Multichannel
distribution
• GDS
• Retail Chain
• GDO
• New Actors2.0
Content
aggregation
• Accomodations
• Events
• Itinerary
• Focus
Business
intelligence
• Reputation Analysis
• Customer Profiling
• CRM

Destination Management System - Modules
 Product Management
At the heart of the DMS is the Tourism Product Database. This database holds
information about all accommodation, places to visit, events and tourist facilities
that are likely to be of interest to visitors planning a holiday in your destination
 Enquiry Management
Primarily this module is used by the Call Centres and Tourist Information
Centres (TICs) to manage the full range of calls, bookings and brochure
requests that are received.
 Visitor CRM
to manage all the consumer information that is accumulated from the Tourism
Offices, Call Centre and Web Site activity on a day-to-day basis. For all
departments it will also act as a Customer Relationship Management tool
providing the user with the usual audit trail of communications with each and
every prospective visitor to the region.
 Business CRM
Customer Relationship Management tool

Destination Management System - Modules
.
.
 Reporting
The Management Reporting module provides reporting tools across the whole
spectrum of activity of the system and covers all the Key Performance Indicators of
a Destination Management Organization (DMO).
 Availability Management and On-line Bookings
An important goal of any DMO is to facilitate real-time online bookings for its
providers and the key to this is up-to-date information about room availability.
 Accomodation On-line Booking: A key part of being able to sell
accommodation stock through a destination site is being able to access provider
availability. The DMS offers an availability extranet for providers to facilitate the
gathering of this information. It also offers the possibility to connect directly to the
property management system.
 Payment and Settlement The DMS is typically integrated with a 3rd Party
payment provider for the processing of credit card transactions. The system
takes the card and payment details at the time of booking and stores them in an
encrypted format ready to be verified and processed.

DMS Operation Management Key Feature
Product Management Key Feature Enquiry Management Key Feature
 Types of Accommodation,
 Events,
 Attractions,
 Eating and drinking
 Conferences and Weddings Venues,
 Activities,
 Entertainment,
 Facilities,
 Retail,
 Transport,
 Towns and Villages
 Beaches etc.
 Managing the Enquiry Queue
 Brochure Requests
 Book a Bed Ahead
 Over the Counter Booking
 Telephone Booking Enquiry
 Web Booking Post Processing
 Information Requests (e.g. What to Do?)
 Fullfilment

DMS CRM Key Feature
Visitor CRM Key Feature Business CRM Key Feature
 Quick Add Wizard enables a DMS user to
quickly create a new consumer record,
simultaneously checking for an existing record
to prevent duplicate data.
 Lifestyle Interests of each consumer
 History of all conversation details
 Demographic Profiling
 Booking History
 Brochure Request and Fullfilment History
 Market Source
 Preferred method of Communication
 Opt-In/Data Protection
 Sophisticated search and selection by all above
criteria
 Search results can be compiled into Mailing
Lists, the complete data set for which can then
be exported (in CSV format) for mail merges, e-
Mail outs, labels etc.
 Registered Date
 Created and Amendment information
 Various notes fields
 Link to Rapid Address Lookup Software
 Quick Add Wizard enables a DMS user to
quickly create a new business record,
simultaneously checking for an existing record
to prevent duplicate data.
 Many to Many links between organizations and
contacts
 Roles, Responsibilities and Special Interests for
each Contact
 History of conversation details
 Sophisticated search and selection by various
criteria
 Search results can be compiled into Mailing
Lists, the complete data set for which can then
be exported (in CSV format) for mail merges, e-
Mail outs, labels etc.
 Joined / Renewal Dates (if a Member of the
DMO)
 Financial Contribution and History
 Various notes fields

DMS Reporting and Online Booking Key Feature
Reporting Availability Management and On-line
Bookings
 Monthly Booking Analysis
 Failed Bookings
 Monthly Brochure Request Analysis
 Call Centre User Reports (Performance
Evaluation)
 Customer Analysis Report
 Geographical Booking Analysis
 Hotel Booking Analysis
 Hotel Booking Summary
 Hotel Stock Availability Report
 Market Source Analysis (Campaigns/Special
Offers)
 Key Performance Indicators
 Accomodation On-Line Booking
 Payment and settlement

DMS – Tourism Office Outcome
 The Look & Feel is studied for
operators and professionals to
make the research as
accurate as possible.
 It allows to use the same
functions and options of the
BtoC version.

DMS – Web Services Outcome

DMS – Mobile / Kiosk Outcome
 Web sites and Visitor Centers are the 2 most obvious channels through which
tourism product is made available. However, in this increasingly digital world,
applications are required to deliver visitor information through a whole range of other
devices including kiosks, mobile handsets, hotel TV, etc.
Mobile
Kiosk

New Distribution Challenge

 A newly unexplored opportunity for Destinations is the distribution of content
and inventory to third parties.
 More specifically, the opportunity is opened up for DMOs to act as an
intermediary in consolidating the full range of destination products (particularly
the small - and medium-size enterprises, which most need DMO support), and
distributing it electronically to third parties, such as travel agents and other players
in the travel trade.
 Currently, there is much inefficiency in the management of the value chain.
Many small - and medium – size companies are using incompatible e-business
processes, ICT systems infrastructures as well as data exchange models. It
results in a difficulty to be distributed through global BtoB channels such as GDS,
GDO, Tour Operators, etc.
 A Destination Management System can facilitate the distribution offering a
unique technology system to the whole range of content providers, allowing
easier integration with third parties, such as the GDS.

 On the internet, DMOs can promote their destination as an electronic content
provider, offering equal opportunities of visibility to local SMEs.
 DMOs have still not explored the possibility to distribute and promote their
destinations through GDS which provides the main links to systems of tour
operators and travel agents worldwide.
 The main cause is the lack of technology of DMOs and the need to choose the
right partners for a complex project as the global distribution involves.
 Developing a capability to distribute content and inventory to third parties means
that a DMO must be able to establish a critical mass of hotels and other forms
of accommodation, an excellent level of data quality, and significant levels of
inventory.

 Developing a consistent level of inventory is key to the success of distribution
through third parties and can often be difficult to achieve.
 The key is to deliver sufficient volumes of bookings to incentivize suppliers to keep the
inventory up to date. Suppliers will generally only do so when there are sufficient
bookings being received, but in a start-up situation it takes time to reach a critical mass
of bookings.
 This is the main reason why is crucial the choise of an important Global Distributor and
a reliable Technology and Consulting Partner.

 Nowadays most of the Destinations reach the same level of richness in terms of
on-line contents and information, tourists are bombed with images and videos that
make them, on one hand, aware of what they are going to see, on the other hand,
completely lost about what they prefer to see.
 Comes into play the professional role of the Travel Agent who is able to
recognize the expections and economic boundaries of a customer addressing
the right offer to the right person.

Destination 2 Distribution

 Destination 2 Distribution is the partnership project of Amadeus Italy and
Travel2one/Opera21 for the commercial development of the Destinations‟ offer.
 Through the integration of the platform XDMS (contents, portal, booking B2C) Opera21
with the Amadeus B2B local and international distribution platforms, we want to
progressively provide the opportunity to aggregate and promote the distribution of
tourist products and cultural proposals of the Italian territory through the Amadeus
national and international professional distribution network.

 DMOs that wish to encourage inbound tourism to their destinations cannot limit
their service to the provision of information; they need to facilitate bookings
and reservations through all channels.
 For the firts time, the entire industry of tourim professionals get access to a
unique local destination content, that goes beyond the traditional GDS offer,
such as independent hotels, accommodations, local events and potentially
ground transportation, ancillary services, etc.
 DMOs have the possibility to communicate directly with the sellers of their
products: travel agents, tour operators, etc. They can promote and push
marketing campaigns in specific markets and seasons, addressing special offers,
informing about events, activities and the entire range of information available
through the Destination Management System.
 An high quantity of quality information is reachable through a BtoB channel,
offering the whole spectrum of services and products of a territory.

Destination 2 Distribution FVG Case Study
 TurismoFVG is the Destination Management Organization of Friuli Venezia Giulia, a
region in the north-est of Italy, which has among its objectives to develop the regional
tourism system providing guidelines and collaborating with all actors.
 Turismo FVG facilitates the promotional and marketing activities thanks to the
Opera21/Travel2one‟s technology platform XDMS. (content, portal, B2C booking).
 Turismo FVG through the integration of the platform XDMS with the Amadeus B2B
local and international distribution platforms, intends to progressively make available to
their tourist and cultural resources, the opportunity for a strategic and targeted
distribution in target markets.
 The portal aggregates a range of content such as events, exhibitions and about 2000
accommodations (hotels, cottages, B&B, farm houses, campings etc.) which will be
distributed through the Amadeus International Network.

Hotels Search Engine

Hotels List

Hotels Map

Events Search Engine

Hotels Search – Special Offers

Event Search Engine

Events List

Events Map

Events and Linked Hotel

The role of the DMOs in the value chain

 Distribution Service Provider
Distribution Service Providers own or are responsible for managing their own technology and
offer a transactional booking service with real-time online bookings. The role is highly
commercialized, and the DMO is at liberty to negotiate and create third party distribution
partnerships on behalf of its suppliers. This role may differ in some aspects depending on the
commercial role of the DMO.
 Representation Intermediary
In this role, technology is outsourced to a preferred third party and suppliers have the option to
be distributed through this third party. The DMO has limited responsibility for technology or
operational management. Ensuring inventory levels are maintained can be more difficult
because supplier attention may be diverted to other Distribution Providers which also provide
them with bookings. In this role, the DMO has less control over the supplier-consumer value
chain, and suppliers have more choice in distribution.
 Booking Facilitator
Where a DMO may not wish to become involved in transactions, or adopt a commercial role, it
can facilitate transactions – providing a product search facility (ideally with inventory
associated to it) and then passing on the booking to the supplier. A Distribution Provider may
take the opportunity to manage the role of booking provider on the DMO‟s behalf. This role
may differ in some aspects depending on the commercial role of the DMO.

 The type of transactional model being adopted by DMOs is closely related to the political,
legislative and bureaucratic situation and may change region by region or state by state.
 For instance, in Italy is not allowed to the PA to gain any kind of net income from economic
activities, even in the case of acting as a facilitator of transactions.

International Case Studies

VisitScotland

VisitScotland
 The website www.visitscotland.com is the official site of VisitScotland, the National Tourist
Board of Scotland. The company behind www.visitscotland.com (e-Tourism Ltd) operates
as a private/public partnership with a role of Distribution Service Provider.
 The company is in the final stages of completing the build of a proprietary booking
engine, and has plans to develop the content and inventory for white labelling to third
parties. Significant effort has been put into communicating the booking functionality to
suppliers, and other players in the tourist board domain such as Area Tourist Boards
(ATBs), and TICs have access to the booking interface.
 As a private/public partnership, the company has a commercial imperative to deliver
revenues, and is developing a distribution capability to allow white labelling of the product
in the future as the booking capability matures. In the interim, suppliers will be
encouraged to maintain inventory levels on the booking engine, and quality control
processes are in development to ensure that the site has rooms available.
 This will give the company an opportunity to earn revenues from third parties, serving
those third parties with real time booking capabilities and offering the supplier additional
distribution and exposure that they would not otherwise achieve on their own.
Source: Destination Management Organisations - Getting in the Way of Business By Ally Dombey, Roger Carter and Gaelle Renault
Sep 2003

Wonderful Copenhagen

Wonderful Copenhagen
 Wonderful Copenhagen (WoCo) is the official convention and visitors bureau of Greater
Copenhagen. WoCo has adopted a booking strategy of outsourcing its booking
technology, and has recently launched an online booking facility through its
website, www.visitcopenhagen.dk, and call centre.
 A Swedish company, Visit Technologies, developed the booking engine. The launch of the
web-booking engine represents an extension to the previous booking capability available
through the call centre
 The technolgy does not allow to compare hotel rates but it just give the possibility of a SSO
to the Hotel landing page.
 Commission is charged on each booking and shared between WoCo and Visit
Technologies. Visit Technologies developed the booking engine for Copenhagen based on
the prospect of future revenues, therefore there were no development costs incurred. Third
parties can also use the system.
 In this scenario, the commission split is worked out between Visit Technologies, the hotel
and the third party, with no further commission being generated by WoCo.
Sep 2003

Switzerland Tourism

Switzerland Tourism
 Switzerland Tourism, through www.myswitzerland.com, has adopted a role combining the
development of a relationship with a primary booking provider while still offering hotels
the option to receive bookings from the site via other booking providers where those
relationships exist. The primary booking partner on MySwitzerland.com is the company
Switzerland Destination Management (SDM). Switzerland Tourism has a 24% stake in
SDM and a commission fee is charged on all bookings. Booking revenues are split
between the two companies.
 SDM has tight control processes for data quality and inventory management. This has
supported their ability to create third party partnerships with over 400 affiliates who use
the SDM data and inventory.
 SDM will interface with an affiliate using a combination of solutions depending on the size
of the affiliate and its revenue potential. Interfaces with minor affiliates are generally based
on simple links from the site to the SDM booking engine. Proprietary interfaces are
developed with major affiliates based on the Open Travel Alliance (OTA) standards.
Currently, 20% of SDM revenue is generated from the MySwitzerland.com site, the
remaining 80% is generated from affiliate partnerships.
Sep 2003

Italian Case Studies

Italian Case Studies
 Italy differs from international case studies for the complex legislation and bureaucracy of
the country, region by region laws may change and so does the role of DMOs.
 Tourism Offices or DMOs cannot be involved in transactions, thus adopting a commercial
role, but it can facilitate transactions providing a product search facility and booking
engine in the DMO‟s website.
 The consumer have the possibility to look and book in the same «environment», having
guaranteed the quality of information and secure transaction.
 Usually DMOs try to trade off between the needs of the customers and the suppliers, it
results in complex but secure transaction processes which imply a so-called «pre-
autorizathion» of a symbolic amount of money in order to check the validity of the crediti
card,

Love VDA

Love VDA
 Turismo VDA is the Regional Office for Tourism of Valle D‟Aosta and promotes an online
booking facility through its website, www.lovevda.it, and call centre. It allows the booking
online with a guarantee by credit card, the payment is fully made at the
accommodation.Travel2one is the provider of the DMS.
"Valle d'Aosta Booking does not charge on your credit card. The credit card is required to
guarantee your reservation. An amount of € 1.00 will be temporarily blocked on your credit
card for the sole purpose of verifying the validity and availability, it will be back by the middle
of the month following the month of the reservation.”
 Do not ask for commissions to the accommodation
 They also sell through the call center of the Office Régional du Tourisme
 They are developing a dynamic packaging tool with accommodations, services and
ancillaries, in order to match the increasing desire of the demand for “all inclusive
packages”
 They make available to consortia / destinations and individual suppliers the possibility to
use the booking widget displaying it on their websites

Turismo FVG

Turismo FVG
 TurismoFVG is the Destination Management Organization of Friuli Venezia Giulia. It
promotes an online booking facility through its website, www.turismofvg.it, and call centre.
It allows the booking online with a guarantee by credit card, the payment is fully made at
the accommodation.
“The data of your credit card are required by Turismo FVG only to verify the validity estimates
without charge. In order to safeguard and encrypt your credit card information when in transit
to us, we use the "Secure Socket Layer" (SSL) and https (http secure). Only in case of No
Show, fees not refundable or tariffs that provide for advance payment or deposit, TurismoFVG
may disclose, subject to verification and safely, the number of credit card only if the
accommodation provided in the general conditions of the same.”
 Do not ask for commissions to the accommodation
 They make available to consortia / destinations and individual suppliers the possibility to
use the booking widget displaying it on their websites
 Turismo FVG is the first italian DMO to approach the distribution through third parties. It
has adopted a distribution strategy of outsourcing its booking management through the
GDS. Travel2one operates as a Distribution Service Provider.

Grazie!
Matteo Ciccalè
matteociccale@gmail.com
mciccale@opera21.it
Matteo_ciccale

Destination Management & DMO Stories. A focus on commercial strategies.

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