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A destination marketing organization or convention and visitor bureau promotes a town, city, region, or country in order to increase the number of visitors. It promotes the development and marketing of a destination, focusing on convention sales, tourism marketing, and services.
Such organizations promote economic development of a destination by increasing visits from tourists and business travelers, which generates overnight lodging for a destination, visits to restaurants, and shopping revenues. Convention and visitor bureaus are the most important tourism marketing organizations in their respective tourist destinations, as they are directly responsible for marketing the destination brand through travel and tourism "product awareness" to visitors. DMOs produce billions of dollars in direct and indirect revenue and taxes for their destinations' economies with their marketing and sales expertise.[1]
Destination marketing organizations are often called travel, convention, visitors, or tourism bureaux, welcome centers, information centers and more. Regardless of the name, these organizations offer many services to the traveling public.
The Association of Australian Convention Bureaux (AACB) consists of 15 city and regional bureaux, dedicated to marketing their specific region as business events destinations to intrastate, interstate, and international markets. The bureaux also promote Australia as a whole.
The Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA)[2] is a not-for-profit agency of the Barbados government's Ministry of Tourism. The authority maintains 11 global offices focused on promotion and event marketing to tourists about Barbados. The offices are located in the nations of: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The German Convention Bureau (GCB) represents the interests of the German tourism industry. The GCB markets Germany as a destination for conventions, meetings, events and incentives, both on a national and international level and is the place to contact for anybody planning an event in Germany.
Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) is a statutory organization of the Republic of Korea (South Korea), under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and is commissioned to promote tourism in South Korea.
The VR Convention Bureau (VR CB) is a non-profit organization that markets tourism in North East Italy, as a meetings and conventions destination.
In the United States, convention and visitor bureaus (CVBs), financed through bed taxes or their members, perform destination marketing. Every U.S. state and almost every larger city and county has its own CVB.
Although many government and chamber of commerce bodies also market destinations to visitors and meeting planners, most U.S. convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs) are independent non-profit organizations.
Typically, a convention and visitors bureau provides information about a destination's lodging, dining, attractions, events, museums, arts and culture, history and recreation. Some even provide bus services, insider tips, top ten attraction and activity lists, blogs, photos, forums, free things to do, season-specific activity suggestions and more. The organization works with tourists and meeting planners to provide valuable information on their local area. Their goal is to help make a visitor's trip or a conference attendees' meeting a much more enjoyable and rewarding experience. In many locations, they work closely with a convention center that will offer large spaces for larger meetings, trade shows, and conventions than can be accommodated in a single hotel. Usually, these organizations also have a local office where one can find maps, brochures, travel professionals, local insight, visitors guides, souvenirs and more.
A convention and visitor bureau's marketing initiatives are typically achieved through the following: trade association marketplaces, web pages, advertising, distribution of promotional and collateral material, direct sales, hosting familiarization tours for journalists and travel industry personnel, and sponsoring other hospitality functions. The target decision maker of these marketing initiatives is not typically a resident in the community. Most often, if visitors are going to spend the night in a hotel, they reside at least 100 miles away. Thus, the marketing activity usually takes place or is directed outside the convention and visitors bureau's community. Convention and visitors bureaus in larger destinations often will market nationally and globally, while smaller cities may focus just on their state or region.[3]
The Puerto Rico Convention Bureau (PRCB) is a non-profit organization that markets tourism in Puerto Rico, as a meetings and conventions destination.
TravelG8 and Travelgate.net, Destination Marketing anno 1994, promotes all major countries looking for Scandinavian travellers. Scandinavia & Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland) is the third largest market in Europe.