Bringing Community Partners to the Table
There is rarely a Strategic Planning process we lead that doesn’t produce a community interest in more hotels, restaurants, retailers and nightspots. And yeah, anybody building a destination would love to have more of all of these assets.
But, here’s the problem. Destination Marketing Organizations are generally not designed to possess the talent on staff to attract such businesses. Even if we did, where would we find these entrepreneurs? There aren’t exactly a plethora of trade shows for wannabe distillers or restauranteurs to connect with destinations wanting to make a deal. And, when it comes to attracting more hotels, many of our existing lodging partners are likely to give us a pretty stern stink-eye if we’re utilizing room tax revenue to create newer and shinier competition for them.
So, as much as we would like to fulfill this community need and desire, most DMOs are just not is a position to do so. So…who is?
The easy answer is the Economic Development agency in town. However, they find themselves in a similar quandary. Hospitality acquisition has not typically been a target market for them because these types of businesses haven’t, to date, appeared “important.” EDCs are more predisposed to pursuing manufacturing, technology, logistics and healthcare concerns. Big scores. Big workforces. Big employee paychecks and corporate property taxes. Hotels and nightspots? Not worth their time.
But, here’s where those of us on the DMO side can help our EDC brothers and sisters be stars in our communities. They may not have realized it yet, but they’ll be hard pressed to score that major win if the community doesn’t have a vibrant culinary and nightlife scene for the C-Suite and employees to enjoy if they locate in your town. If all your hotels are select service, where are these executives going to host potential employees they’re trying to lure and big-name clients they hope to ink (the Quality Inn?). Thus, it behooves an EDC to add hospitality businesses to their target industries to provide the base for their pitches.
For an EDC to be successful, they need a vibrant community to be the magnet. It’s no longer the community with the best shovel-ready land or the best incentive package (although those offers can certainly turn heads). No…today it’s often the HR Director that takes the first look at a potential community and that person is looking for Quality of Life and Place. And, that’s where EDC pros can utilize the expertise of their DMOs in the their pitches and negotiations. Lean on their DMO’s experience in community Brand Management (why recreate the wheel?). And work with DMO pros on designing site inspection routes that produce the best aesthetic face forward.
And, DMOs can also be invaluable in providing hospitality industry data to Economic Development interests so they can begin to better understand our side of the economy and know what types of projects would be most beneficial to the travel sector’s needs. And, as hospitality and entertainment businesses are generally enjoyed by residents more than a new logistics company on the edge of town, EDC relevance increases with a whole other side of their community with which they rarely interact; one that DMOs have discovered can be critical to future governmental, corporate and community support.
I'm not saying that DMOs lead the charge for talent acquisition, though Destination Cleveland is doing just that. To paraphrase CEO David Gilbert, EDCs are great at B2B communication. Potential residents / workers are not a B; they're a C. And nobody does B2C in our communities like a DMO. Just saying.
As our collective understanding of our communities becomes more sophisticated, DMOs really need to develop significantly more synergistic relations with those can help us build out the product we desperately need with which to compete for visitors, talent and investment. And, we’re past waiting for an invitation to have these conversations. If it hasn’t happened yet, time's up. Make the first move.