By Tom Starr, Vice President of Global Destinations, Hospitality, Amadeus

Today’s travel industry is evolving rapidly, and destination marketing organisations (DMOs) and convention and visitors’ bureaus (CVBs) are more mindful than ever of the economic, social and environmental factors shaping tourism development, and must take a comprehensive approach to managing all facets of a destination. Key to developing strategies and building strong advocacy for a DMO or CVB is grasping the true economic impact of destination marketing to prioritize attracting visitors who will meaningfully contribute to the destination’s well-being.

It is essential for destinations to set goals and objectives by regularly evaluating marketing efforts using relevant, data-driven insights, considering everything from strategy development to campaign execution.

How DMOs and CVBs can stay ahead  

A comprehensive view of a destination's tourism landscape begins with integrating air, hotel, and sociodemographic data. By analysing flight searches, bookings, and hotel occupancy rates, DMOs and CVBs can identify peak travel times and popular destinations, enabling smarter resource allocation and promotional planning. This includes developing campaigns that highlight special offers during off-peak periods or maximize visibility during high-demand seasons. Additionally, aggregated travel data that includes key visitor demographics such as age, gender, nationality, and travel purpose helps create segmented marketing campaigns that resonate with specific audiences. This approach ensures that strategies align closely with traveller behaviours and preferences.

Building smarter tourism strategies

Harnessing travel data is key to enhancing decision-making and creating impactful marketing strategies. By combining historical data with forward-looking analytics, DMOs and CVBs can anticipate trends, adapt to shifts in traveller behaviour, and proactively refine their approaches. This data-driven foresight helps address critical challenges such as overtourism and seasonality. Understanding travel trends, visitor preferences, and competitor strategies also enables the development of a cohesive brand that not only attracts visitors but also ensures sustainable and effective destination management.

Travel data: Invaluable for building strong partnerships in tourism

By pinpointing areas of unmet search demand, DMOs and CVBs can increase capacity and tailor their offerings to align with emerging trends through strategic negotiations with travel agencies, hotels, and airlines. This collaborative effort not only enhances service quality, but also enables the development of precise marketing strategies, ultimately strengthening brand positioning and fostering strong relationships with stakeholders.

Optimising marketing campaigns with data-driven insights

Developing a data-driven strategy to identify the best timing and channels for reaching the right audience is essential for effective and budget-conscious marketing. By utilizing programmatic advertising, as well as relevant social channels, informed by data insights, DMOs and CVBs can achieve greater reach and engagement. An omnichannel approach significantly boosts this by delivering tailored content at every stage of the traveller’s journey. This strategic integration of audience data and advertising technology not only optimises campaign performance but also enhances the traveller’s experience, creating stronger bonds between destinations and their visitors.

Equally important is measuring campaign performance through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): metrics that are crucial for assessing the effectiveness of marketing efforts and making informed decisions for greater impact. By tracking KPIs, DMOs and CVBs can evaluate how well their strategies are performing, identify areas for improvement, and allocate resources more efficiently. KPIs such as in-destination arrivals linked to a digital campaign, the average length of stay for these visitors, or social media engagement, provide a clear picture of campaign outcomes, measurable in tourism dollars generated.

Shaping the future of travel with data

As a travel technology provider, we help DMOs and CVBs meet their business objectives. For instance, we supported EMPROTUR Bariloche, Argentina by providing insights to evaluate marketing strategies and address unique challenges like seasonality of demand. Similarly, New Orleans Tourism successfully utilized our Amadeus business intelligence solutions and Amadeus media solutions to strengthen their marketing strategy and optimise media campaigns for both business and leisure travellers. Our travel intelligence tools, including Navigator360™ and our media solutions, are designed to empower DMOs and CVBs to make informed decisions, enhance visitor satisfaction, and drive economic growth.

Together, we can create a thriving and sustainable future for tourism.