The End of 2020
Traditionally, this is the time of the season when many of us would reflect fondly on the year just past as we look to the New Year. This year, many of us will look back in anger, sorrow and disgust.
However, permit me to break ranks with those who do…for, I will be looking back with pride at a Destination Marketing sector that pivoted on a dime to race to the aid of their hospitality and community partners. And, it’s not like this was a coordinated effort. DMOs in towns and metros far and wide simply did it…almost as if an invisible hand was guiding them all to ignore their DNA and turn inward to assist local businesses in a myriad of ways.
Or, just maybe, DMOs across the land jointly discovered a previous unidentified genetic marker that was already baked into our DNA that was just itching to manifest itself. Because, that’s at the root of what Destinations International’s Jack Johnson has been espousing for the past couple years…that DMOs must be a Shared Community Value. And, this was the moment it all became clear…as DMOs were THE community agency that most rapidly responded as the government’s response to the ‘VID began impacting local businesses. For that, I couldn’t be more proud to be affiliated with this sector of community development and the professionals we are thrilled to call friends and comrades.
So now, as we look to an uncertain future (but one with at least a few rays of hope), we ponder what 2021 will look like. And, earlier this month, we turned to our “Signals Nation” for signs of what may behind Door Number 2. Neither were good news to our ears when they were suggested…but, after spending some time pondering them, both signals carry with them opportunity.
The first was actually the absence of a signal where there should have been one. A DMO pro whom we often turn to for his innovative take of Destination Development shared that, after a robust Summer, the conversations surrounding our industry’s work toward Diversity, Equity and Inclusion had gone radio silent. A week later, Destinations International released its call for DMO CEOs to commit to the CEO Pledge. Kudos to Al Hutchinson, John Percy, Kellie Henderson, Co-Chairs of the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Committee and DI’s Melissa Cherry for their for their visionary work on this project (and, we’ll be featuring Al as a guest on DMOU next month).
The other signal was one that we predicted earlier this year (and that precipitated our position paper on the New Model for Community Development). As DMO funding began to evaporate as a result of the shutdown of travel, we fully expected that talk of merging DMOs with other agencies and entities would begin. That only a handful have closed their doors, the reality that this existential crisis will drag on through the first half of 2021 is all but assured. And, with reserves depleted and income slow to recover, conversations can easily be based on fearful desperation and not strategic logic.
As we’ve been saying for some time, the logic that should be in play in any discussion of a merger or collaborative alliance has nothing to do with any of the reasons we’ve typically heard when these debates were happening before the pandemic. It shouldn’t be about eliminating duplicative staff to maximize resources. It shouldn’t be because the work of one agency is seen as more important than another. And, it shouldn’t be because one entity has space in their building.
As we look toward an economic recovery that could take years, logic should point to how such a comeback is most likely to occur…and that will happen when people begin to travel again. At this moment in time, like no other in our history, we will rely on the infusion of other people’s money into our communities…and, that happens when people from outside our regions visit us, do business in our communities or attend an event. As Maura Gast famously said a decade ago, “it all starts with the visit…and that visit doesn’t happen without us (the DMO)."
This in no way should be construed as challenging the value of Chambers of Commerce, Economic Development Agencies, Downtown Associations, Convention Centers or any other community development-focused organization. They all play a critical role in our communities. But, folding a DMO up under the auspices of any one of these is backward, considering the job at hand.
And, that’s where the opportunity exists for DMOs; to take the new year to reframe the traditional assumptions that other entities are somehow more effectively positioned to manage the work of a DMO. As we hurtle headlong into 2021, it’s pretty clear that the way we’ve always done some things will change. Shouldn’t the outdated notion that DMOs aren’t as important as their peer agencies be left in the dumpster fire that was 2020?
And, as we bid good riddance to a bad, bad year, Terri and I wish you all the best for ’21. Mask (and Vax) up, y’all.