DMOU: Destination Marketing Organization University

This year’s NFL Draft was a stone cold win. The biggest first day crowd in history. The biggest global television audience ever. And, it placed Detroit on the world stage for three sensational days. Ummm, Detroit? On this episode of DMOU, we meet Claude Molinari, who describes the philosophy behind recasting the Motor City’s narrative and the tactics Visit Detroit is employing to set Detroit up as...

Destinations International has long held that boycotting States over legislation that runs counter to an Association’s values has the unintended consequence of hurting the very people we purport to support. And, Tampa Bay’s selection as this year’s Annual Conference site certainly raised some eyebrows in some quarters. DI has countered by saying this year’s event will serve as a Case Study in show...

One would be hard pressed to identify a destination with more assets in the pipeline than the Greater Raleigh Region. $400 million Convention Center expansion, $75 million HQ Hotel, $300 million in Arena Upgrades, $75 million Sports Complex…and more. Visit Raleigh’s Denny Edwards joins us to tell the stories behind how so many projects came to fruition. From Conventions to Sports to Major Events…y...

For some destinations Esports is a mystical new market that they’re just not sure how to address. For others, they may believe the early adopters have already sown up the opportunities. On this episode of DMOU, Esports expert Ed Tomasi de-mystifies this exciting new market and shares how virtually every community can assess where in the sport’s ecosystem they reside and whether they can thrive. Ed...

The philosophies that underpinned the art and science of the Destination Marketing world changed 15 years ago this Summer. That’s when Maura Gast first uttered those now famous words, “ If you Build a Place …” On this edition of DMOU, Maura shares the backstory of how her “Building Blocks” came to be and how the entire community development sector is coming around to recognize that “it all starts...

One of the newest marketing opportunities out there is NIL (Name / Image / Likeness)…and we touched on it briefly in Episode 122 with Experience Columbia SC’s Kelly Barbrey. On this edition of DMOU, we sit down with Destination Ann Arbor CEO Sarah Miller to hear how they have entered this arena and what they believe the future holds for them and other DMOs in this space. We also discuss her experi...

Sister Cities. Many communities maintain such relations but how many maximize the opportunity before them? On this episode of DMOU, Mary Kay Wydra (Explore Western Mass) and Carline Boland (Dingle Peninsula Tourism Alliance) share their sensational experience of developing a bi-continental relationship that drives culture, heritage and significant visitation between the two destinations.

On this very special edition of DMOU, Destinations International’s Chief Social Inclusion Officer Sophia Hyder Hock shares the evolutionary shift from EDI to a more inclusive platform in which DMOs can move beyond silos to develop truly welcoming initiatives. We talk about how this concept came to fruition and how DMOs can successfully utilize new resources through the Social Inclusion portal of t...

Community engagement has never been more important than it is today for Destination Marketing Organizations. And, after a public debate that called into question the importance of Explore Fairbanks to its community, the DMO has a stepped up its outreach. CEO Scott McCrea joins DMOU to discuss his DMO’s recent foray into local radio, their work in welcoming service men and women to town each week a...

You’d have to have been living under a rock to not have seen the international media attention VisitLEX has received after sending an interstellar message of welcome to the TRAPPIST-1 solar system. On this episode of DMOU, we hang with VP of Marketing Leslie Miller to get the inside story on how the initiative came together and how it plays into the broader campaign to build brand awareness for Le...

There's a reason why Chamber-DMO combos aren't as prevalent as they were in the '80s and '90s...and that's because they generally don't work all that well. But, the ones that do, tend to rock their communities. Cheryl Kilday is the CEO of Destination North Myrtle Beach and, on this episode of DMOU, she shares how she has cherrypicked the best aspects of both models to create a community asset that...

After over 45 years in the Tourism trenches, Randy Fiveash retired last year for the second time after a sensational career in the Destination Marketing world. From his local DMO work in places like Branson, Myrtle Beach and Gatlinburg to leading State Tourism Agencies in Kentucky and Connecticut, he’s seen it all…and, on this episode of DMOU, we learn his life lessons that still resonate today. F...

As we kick off a new year of conversations on DMOU, we start you off with a bang. Visit Lauderdale’s Stacy Ritter is a force of nature…and has been an unapologetic voice against some of the policies coming from the current State’s political leadership that have caused some conventions and events to cancel bookings in her destination. We talk about how the culture of the community and the DMO simpl...

The Iowa City/Coralville metro population is roughly 175,000...and yet they host global events on an annual basis. In our last episode of 2023, we welcome our friend Josh Schamberger, CEO of Think Iowa City, to share his thoughts on the evolving role of Destination Marketing & Leadership Organizations and why the size of a destination means very little when you execute like no place else. It's...

Over the past 5 years, observers of Puerto Rico Tourism’s comeback from hurricanes, earthquakes, Zika, the Pandemic and political turmoil have marveled at the brilliant efforts of Discover Puerto Rico in guiding that renaissance. CMO Leah Chandler shares the remarkable story of a start-up DMO that took its time to understand its existing brand awareness, and then strategically built out a series o...

Josiah Brown ( Famous Destination Marketing ) is one of this sector's newest thought leaders. We had the opportunity to work with Josiah on a destination assessment project in 2018 and were instantly taken by his "outsider" grasp of the intricacies of Destination Marketing. In this episode, we go deep on his take on what DMO pros get wrong when explaining the power of what we do...as well as his t...

After a brief travel-induced hiatus, DMOU is back with a wide-ranging conversation with New York City Tourism + Conventions' Fred Dixon. As Chair of Destinations International, Fred has laid out an ambitious agenda for his year including DEI and Accessibility, Global growth, Member sustainability and a renewed emphasis on meetings and business events. We discuss these topics and more...including a...

It was 2011 when several DMO pros in Illinois began discussing the potential to introduce State legislation to add Tourism Improvement Districts into their funding mix. Earlier this year, that legislation finally passed and was signed into law. Rockford Area CVB CEO John Groh and Visit Quad Cities CEO Dave Herrell return to DMOU to share the up and down story of persistence, negotiation and being...

If there is a short list of thought leaders in the DMO world, Rick Antonson is always on that list. He was our first guest 20 years ago on the DMOU Teleseminar and our first guest on the the resurrected DMOU Podcast (and that says a lot). On this episode, he’s back to talk Destination Marketing…but also to share thoughts about his latest book, Train Beyond the Mountains: Journeys on the Rocky Moun...

As Destination International’s Advocacy Summit is just around the corner, there’s no better time to talk with Visit Rapid City’s Brook Kaufman who, when she was with Visit Casper, ran and won a seat on her County Board. On this episode, you’ll hear why Brook thinks that more DMO pros should run for office…as well as her experiences during the last Total Eclipse of the Sun and how, as the first non...

PCMA CEO Sherrif Karamat is one of the deepest thinkers in the business events space. And, not unlike those old EF Hutton commercials , when Sherrif talks, I listen. So, when he said that DMOs were falling behind his members in the adoption of AI at Destinations International’s Annual Conference this summer, that was more than enough to earn an invitation to DMOU. Join us for a fascinating discuss...

Experience Columbia SC's Kelly Barbrey joins DMOU to share how her DMO has reimagined the traditional Ambassador program into a sensationally high-profile strategy that utilizes select residents as subject experts to share the destination's stories. She also outlines the success of the Pimento Cheese Passport campaign and her organization's initial foray into NIL Sponsorship of Collegiate Athletes...

When the moderator went to the audience this year at the Annual Convention of Destinations International asking, " what keeps you up at night, " Lviv's Olena Pavlyuk held out her mobile device and replayed a recording of an air raid siren. In this fascinating episode of DMOU, Olena shares how war has changed her community into one of volunteers, how Lviv has become a hub for medical tourism throug...

Almost half of American States have legalized the recreational use of cannabis...but many DMOs in those States struggle with ways to promote the advantage they possess against States that don't. In this episode of DMOU, we talk with Brian Applegarth, the foremost expert in the intersection of cannabis and tourism, about how to escape the stigma...and focus on the health, wellness and inclusionary...

Each year at the Annual Convention of Destinations International, we roam the halls asking a single question. This year, that question was how DMOs were beginning to utilize Artificial Intelligence (or AI). In this episode, you'll hear from a handful of DMO pros on how they are using AI to jump start ideation and save time in the composition of written communiques. And, as you'll hear, this is jus...