DMOs and other tourism organizations often become so consumed by their sales function that they don’t exert any influence on their community’s quality of place. There are many places where the DMO and tourism folk don’t even have a seat at the table to discuss matters relating to the city’s quality of place and its impact on visitors – and dare I say its image and identity.
An Urban Times article by Saffron Woodcraft suggests that a city’s quality of place involves both the built and social environments.
Woodcraft argues, “Debates about urban sustainability tend to focus on improving the built environment - making it greener, more efficient, less energy intensive. However, as both urban populations and the challenges of making livable cities grow, a radical shift is needed. Much more emphasis needs to be placed on understanding the social life of cities - how government, public agencies and urban planners can design spaces, but more importantly, services to help neighborhoods flourish socially.”
I would suggest that there is also another layer that involves visitors to the community and whether the attractors, amenities and services designed for them provide a net benefit to residents.
My friend Reyn Bowman touched on this in an interesting blog post last week where he traced the links between billboards, beautification movements and the emergence of tourism marketing organizations. Reyn said, “It is puzzling to me why so many community-destination marketing execs today seem so detached from their role as guardians and curators of sense of place.”
We hear a lot about the role of DMOs being redefined. I feel that when that clarity comes, many DMOs will have a more active role in the development and management of the city’s quality of place. After all, isn’t that an integral part of the essence of many places? It’s in the public domain, isn’t owned by any one company and it’s essential for competitiveness. When a city has a strong quality of place, it brings greater efficiencies to the DMO’s marketing functions and increased satisfaction for visitors – and residents.

