Travel Destination Marketing Organization Budgets

.

.

My first thought:  It must be a typo, when I read that 71% of Destination Marketing Organizations spent 25,000$ or less for Social Media management.  Even more shocking are the numbers of 37% of these, who spent between $1 and $10,000 only in their yearly budget.  Only when the International Organization showed the stats on their website did I believe it.

Travel Decisions:  Online

We all know:  Travel is big business and content marketing (e.g. travel stories or destination guides), posted on Social Media, are a great way to wet the appetite of travellers to book and agencies to recommend traveling to these destinations.  68% of leisure travelers begin their search online without a destination in mind.  Travel information and decisions are almost made entirely online.  People shop around before booking a package. A lot. 76% of Americans get their information through Travel Review Websites, 61% book through Online Travel Agencies and TripAdvisor stats show for example that for hotels THE most important sales factor are images.  As more as better.  And where can potential travellers find images for their destination?  Exactly! On the internet / mobile phones!   There is no doubt that destination marketing organizations need to show lots of information, travel stories and tons of images!
.

.

What to Accomplish With a Budget, Less Than $10,000?

There are not only budget concerns, but also problems to keep up with trends and technology for destination marketing organizations, and most important: the factor time.  Almost 30% of organizations pointed out that time is their biggest problem.  What better than to contract with a Social Media marketing specialist and a knowledgeable travel content writer to help with relatively low-priced online help?  Another important thing would be to train the Destination Marketing Organizations staff better, so that they can answer inquires from the press.  Years ago I asked a provincial travel organization in Canada (home of ten-thousands of floatplanes) for a list of float plane operators, or at least a handful of addresses.  They did not know…  Can you believe that!  Even though their main brochure showed a floatplane on the cover.  Something similar happened at a travel fair when inquiring about Native travel - the representative of the province denied that there are any Native travel offers…   Destination Marketing Organizations:  Get your act together: Online and Off-line!
.

More Travel Planning Statistics:

http://fredericgonzalo.com/en/2014/10/16/8-etourism-stats-to-consider-for-2015/

http://www.destinationmarketing.org/industry-news

http://www.destinationmarketing.org/blog/big-reveal-budgets-staffing-and-future-social-media-dmos

.

<><><><><>

.