In this
Newsletter It's not just about destination marketing anymore. Destination Marketing Organizations---principally CVBs-- are beginning to focus on product development opportunities that can enhance and revitalize their communities for tomorrow's consumer. Here are some important steps to guide your future direction. |
"One of the common failures of urban planning today is a tendency to overlook tourism infrastructure needs and opportunities," cautions industry planning expert Jeff Sanford, the immediate past chair of the International Downtown Association. "The result is a measurable loss in economic growth--at a time when most municipalities can ill afford to lose anything. For the good of the community, the tourism industry must be a partner in the planning process," Sanford urges. When you think about it strategically, destination product development is really all about producing financial performance, economic impact and market share for your destination. That's why some savvy CVBs are pushing the envelope and taking the next operational step to assure their mission's success through catalytic infrastructure development. Perhaps you have a perceived need for a conference center, a convention center headquarters hotel, a major new attraction, performing arts center—even just wayfinding and pedestrian signage or welcome center programs that can synergistically boost tourism. Whatever the need, if you're seriously interested in actively supporting the development of new infrastructure development in your community, here are some initial steps that will provide guidance in getting started. 1. First, formalize your CVBs interest and commitment to destination development. You can do this best by first receiving buy-in from your board, and then memorializing it in a written objective that helps fulfill your mission statement. Hopefully, you've already annunciated your CVB's principal objectives that support your mission, including: creating customer awareness and interest, increasing visitor length of stay, producing stakeholder partnerships, and providing a research base for industry analysis. Now, add this objective: 2. Next, ask appropriate government and industry leaders for a "seat at the table" for your CVB. After all, you are certainly one of the community's major stakeholders and it's really critical that you pro-actively have such an ongoing presence for community destination development. For example, if your city is planning a signage program, your unique perspectives for the visitor and your business stakeholders will be critical to the program's success. That is because you best understand your customer's needs, particularly the first-timers; From way-finding signage to welcome center visitor orientation to brochure information, you know their informational and motivational requirements for visitors that signage must support and help fulfill. And that is just one example of what you offer, and why you consistently need to be in the room for these development discussions and decision-making. 3. Be equipped to offer counsel and direction about optimum methods for producing future initiatives. It's not enough just to have that seat at the table. Sometimes government will create special advisory committees or task forces for project development. That's fine—but when these citizen groups become the end-all in the process, it can sometimes quickly go off track and end up becoming a disaster. For example, several years ago, one unnamed city mayor appointed a local committee to evaluate and make recommendations on a proposed location for their pro baseball park. Discussions by the well intentioned but unschooled committee members languished so long that the current team left the city, and no formalized recommendation was made that carried the weight of professional assessment. Since then, the Mayor has left office and the city's replacement team has dropped from AAA to AA status. Nearly a thousand miles away, another community appointed another well-meaning committee—this time to assess new uses for a former arena facility. That was nearly five years ago, and little progress has yet to be made. In both of these unfortunate situations, there was no traditional master planning, no reliable pro-formas, no guidance from industry experts who do this work for a living every day. This may be where you come in—advising city leaders about current best practices in destination product development, so you should prepare yourself by understanding the various programs and processes now at work for community product development that can optimally deliver new visitors and produce positive returns on investment. Destination Master Planning: How it works, what it delivers Three great case histories for you are found in Kansas City, San Antonio and Oklahoma City, where CSL International of Minneapolis is helping change the landscape of destination planning. For background, Conventions, Sports and Leisure International, with over 500 assignments, specializes in destination planning and related sport, entertainment and visitor industry development. Here are some highlights for this groundbreaking work. The San Antonio Destination Master Plan: Intended to provide the community with strategies to: 1) enhance the attractiveness of the destination for visitors and residents 2) protect and enhance the unique cultural and historical visitor industry infrastructure of the destination and 3) enhance the ability of the visitor industry to create significant economic benefits for the residents of San Antonio. But the planning and research efforts for this destination assignment went well beyond a traditional master planning approach. They also tie together relevant infrastructure, policy, organizational structures, resource allocation, investment and related elements that impact the entire tourism and visitor industry in San Antonio. 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