Eureka! Institutional Repository

Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs), an evolution of Convention and Visitor Bureaus (CVBs), today acts “as a coordinating entity, bringing together diverse community stakeholders to attract visitors to their area” (Gehrisch, 2005). The World Tourism Organization (WTO) assigns three different types of DMOs: Those that serve a specific geographical area like a county or a city (Local DMO), those that serve a rather greater geographical area (Regional DMO) and those that serve on a national level, mostly known as National Tourism Organization (NTO) or National Tourism Authority (NTA) (WTO, 2007). A contemporary trend is that a DMO today can serve as an umbrella that covers a variety of tourism promotion entities. Those can be Community, Municipal and Regional tourism organizations, National tourism organizations, even businesses that have a direct or indirect relationship with tourism activity like Chambers of Commerce, local professional interest groups and organizations even environmental protection non government organizations. Strategically, DMOs serve as a tool for promoting -in long terms- the development and marketing of a tourism destination. The paper finally examines the new trends and changes taking place on organizational level in a traditional DMO focusing on governance on funding.