Technological advancements and change in management of tourism destination organizations

A tourism destination is a marketplace in which many different companies, large and small,compete against each other and at the same time collaborate in a restricted space. The products and services provided by individual tourism companies constitute a multi-optional offer for tourists. Guests are able to choose from a variety of products and services for such tourism functions as accommodation and catering. While the tourism companies are competing each other, individual suppliers are forced to work together at the level of the destination. Initially, they delegated the promotional activities for the destination to the local tourism organisation. The classical tourist offices are the oldest form of vertical co-operation in tourism. In many countries Destination Management Organisations (DMOs)form a hierarchical network. Traditionally, these DMOs focus on destination internal tasks such as monitoring, planning, support in product creation and education as well as external tasks such as promotion and marketing. Yet, the diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT),and especially the enormous spread of the internet, enabled and encouraged DMOs to extend their activities by means of e-business. Following the remarks from above, destinations are some kind of virtual enterprises which require a lot of internal coordination and networking, apart from their external marketing oriented activities. Initially, DMOs' limited their online tasks to marketing. This is deemed no longer sufficient as the consumer, once identified the proper product or service, and wants to book it. In many countries tourist boards are not in the legal position to do that. In order to overcome these limitations, tourist boards set up partnerships with private companies, or their own companies dedicated to these tasks. However, this raises the question of a changed financial model and competition with private companies performing similar tasks. This descriptive study seeks to determine the radical changes occurring in the management of DMOs due to the technological improvements in a theoretical framework. © Common Ground.