COMCEC Tourism Outlook-2018
26
Table 4.3 Typology of DMOs
Category Definition Variation of
terms
Example
National
Tourism Office
(NTO)
Officially recognised as
responsible for coordinating
the destination marketing
planning for a nation.
National Tourism
Organization
National Tourism
Administration
Visit England
State Tourism
Office (STO)
Officially recognised as
responsible for coordinating
the destination marketing
planning for a state, or
province, in a country with a
federal political system.
Provincial
Tourism Office
Hawaii Visitors and
Convention Bureau,
USA
Regional
Tourism
Organisation
(RTO)
Officially recognised as
responsible for coordinating
the destination marketing
planning for the political
boundary of a local regional
area such as a city or town.
Regional Tourism
Board
Convention and
Visitors Bureau
Regional Tourism
Association
Regional Tourism
Partnership
Northland Inc, New
Zealand
Local Tourism
Association
(LTA)
Membership based
association of tourism related
services that coordinates the
local destination marketing
planning for a district within
an RTO catchment.
Flinders Island
Tourism Association,
Australia
Macro Region
Tourism
Organisation
(MTO)
A collaborative approach to
the promotion of several
destinations, either at a local
or national level, which
supplement rather than
replace the activities of
individual member DMOs.
Macro Region
Marketing
Organization
Macro Region
Marketing
Association
Scandinavian
Tourism Boards
Source: Pike et al., 2018
Different than individual products and services, destinations are “systems” and “networks”,
beyond physical spaces, hence destination marketing efforts should be coordinated and
structured by a central authority, taking its roots from excellent networking capability, as well
as professionalism, transparency, and resource endowment. A number of destinations are
creating and funding such structures as a tool to thrive in the market. Without a well designed
marketing strategy and stakeholder engagement; individual marketing activities and actions
might overlap, become fragmented and result in waste of valuable resources and effort. Thus a
central destination marketing would create the much needed collaboration and efficiency in
destination marketing. Such structures are usually available at successful regional DMOs and
national NTOs, yet their management, strategies, funding and activities require further
attention. Therefore, understanding the processes that lie within the potential destination