Developing a holistic framework for analysis of destination management and/or marketing organizations: six Danish destinations

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a holistic framework for analysis of destination management and/or marketing organizations (DMOs) and explores how these work in a highly complex tourism environment. Six destinations are investigated through 61 qualitative interviews with representatives from tourism businesses and organizations. The analysis reveals a number of important factors, including whether the DMOs are focused on survival or development, on experiences or communication, and on internally or externally oriented governance. Finally, it reveals that Danish DMOs constantly negotiate between their various roles at the destination, creating discrepancies between ideals, goals and practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Destination management and/or marketing organizations
• DMO
• framework
• holistic
• management
• marketing
• tourism

Acknowledgments

My sincere thanks to Professor Henrik Halkier, who worked with me on the project that led to this paper. His experience, guidance, comments and good mood played an important role in making this paper possible. A big thanks also to Professor Dianne Dredge, who provided useful comments and guidance on an early version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the the European Regional Development Fund.