TOURISM RECOVERY PLANNING | Resources, Toolkits and More

We are expanding this page to include information as it relates to tourism recovery planning for DMOs. Many Destination Organizations are actively in the process of outlining recovery plans and writing new strategic plans. In addition, our industry will experience COVID-19 impacts for the next several years.

We invited consulting firms and research companies with which DMA West has relationships to supply information about their tourism recovery planning services for western DMOs.  

Bandwango
Learn about the breakdown of how funds allocated from the CARES Act can be used to launch an initiative that will benefit your organization for the next 15 months (and beyond).

Using CARES Act Money for a 15-month Solution

Civitas
Civitas, the nation’s leading firm in developing long-term funding solutions for DMOs, has developed two tools: a Strategic Funding Plan and a Tourism Recovery & Improvement District Funding Feasibility Study that will guide destinations through an exploratory process to identify the optimal way to: build a reserve, gain market share through the recovery process, and help your DMO “build back a better budget!”

Recovery Research and Funding Resources 

Civitas and Miles
Following the release of “Funding Futures,” a new study on the impact and future of DMO funding in response to COVID-19, Civitas and Miles are offering a complimentary 30-minute discovery call to discuss opportunities for your DMO. If you are interested, fill out this form and we’ll be in touch soon. For additional offerings, please visit the Civitas and Miles websites.

See specific web pages for additional recovery information and services:

https://covid19.milespartnership.com/dmofunding/ https://civitasadvisors.com/funding-futures-crisis-response-recovery-research/https://covid19.milespartnership.com/dmofunding/#contact

Coraggio Group
Coraggio Group senior team members have been working with destination leaders across the country to develop Recovery Strategies and help leaders rethink the future of their destinations after impacts from COVID-19, the recession, and/or natural disasters. They have also developed a Destination Recovery Toolkit that provides practical tools and guidance to take further steps toward stabilizing your destination—and getting on the path to recovery.

Recovery Strategies and Toolkit
Coraggio Group - Recovery Planning Services

Dean Runyan Associates

Using a variety of inputs and its proprietary Regional Travel Impacts Model, Dean Runyan Associates can help your DMO understand the current travel landscape as well as navigate the road ahead. Our services include monthly estimates of direct visitor spending, travel employment and taxes; visualization of quarterly and annual Visa Vue data; and 18-month forecasts of visitor spending and/or lodging tax revenue. Details and sample reporting are included in the link below.

Current Insights and Forecasts

Destination Analysts
In addition to its ongoing Coronavirus Travel Sentiment Index and other publicly available tourism research, Destination Analysts provides a diverse range of tourism recovery planning services for DMOs including: Your Destination’s Key Traveler Audiences & Personas, Destination Brand Performance, Visitor Activity Analysis & Segmentation (GeoLocation Data), Advertising Testing, Profiles and Intentions of Owned Audiences, and Resident + Stakeholder Research. In appreciation of DMA West, we are pleased to offer members a 10% discount off of our services, as well as co-op opportunities to split the cost among members.

Research and Recovery Services
Destination Analysts Tourism Recovery Planning Services

Destination Analysts Weekly Update on COVID-19’s Impact on American Travel

How Over-tourism is Affecting Destinations
The most recent research presented and following panel presentation that took place June 22, 2021, included data on residents and their feelings toward visitors. The June 22, 2021, webinar featured a panel of DMO professionals representing the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau, the Sedona Chamber of Commerce & Tourism Bureau, Travel Juneau, Visit Truckee-Tahoe and the Wyoming Office of Tourism. Watch this timely and important discussion about how over-tourism is affecting these destinations, how the DMOs are dealing with over-tourism and what’s in store for the future.

More Information

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Destination Think
As an agency and consultancy, Destination Think is a globally recognized leader in destination marketing. We offer custom COVID-19 and crisis recovery services using our methodology designed for DMOs. Services include strategic support, communication planning, content marketing, creative campaigns, and sentiment analysis. Contact us to access all the tools and support you need to guide your destination through the pandemic.

Recovery Services

Expedia Group Media Solutions

The travel industry has been fundamentally impacted by COVID-19. We are helping our advertising partners—and the travel industry marketing industry at large—navigate the changing landscape by sharing exclusive Expedia Group data and custom research and providing guidance on how to engage travel shoppers when the time is right.
Recovery Marketing Resource Center

Forest Service’s National Visitor Use Monitoring Program

New Data Shows Visits Soared Across National Forests in 2020 | May 27, 2021
New data shows more people than ever visited national forests and grasslands last year, according to a Forest Service report released today. National forests and grasslands received 168 million visits in 2020 – an increase of 18 million when compared to 2019. The Forest Service, working closely with partners, was able to keep more than 80% of recreation sites open to visitors during the pandemic, while maintaining a focus on visitor and staff safety. The report, compiled by the Forest Service’s National Visitor Use Monitoring program, shows the steepest increase in visits happened between May and October of last year. Dispersed recreation sites and wilderness areas saw the most significant increases, with an estimated 25% increase in visitation overall. Visits to those areas surged even higher in the summer months when compared to 2019. The data also shows that visitors enjoyed their experience, with 95% of visitors reporting being satisfied or very satisfied with their visit. “We’re honored to have helped so many people safely find respite and relief during the pandemic,” said Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen. “Our national forests and grasslands offer some of the most readily available and valuable outdoor recreation settings in the country. As we enter the summer months this year, we look forward to providing positive experiences on our national forests and grasslands, and working with partners to support safe and equitable access to the outdoors.” Completed in five-year cycles, the National Visitor Use Monitoring results give the Forest Service the information they need to best manage recreation to meet visitor demands while continuing the care for the long-term health and productivity of America’s national forests and grasslands. Results in this report reflect the most recent field data on each national forest and include fiscal years 2016 through 2020. To learn more, visit https://www.fs.usda.gov/about-agency/nvum/.

JLL Tourism & Destination Advisory
We leverage the power of JLL’s Fortune 500 professional services and investment management expertise. This includes research and help to navigate the next normal in a COVID-19 world. Our extensive database of meeting planners, convention center managers, city managers and planners, paired with hotel owner and operator clients globally, allows us to provide a unique viewpoint of a tourism strategy.

Recovery Planning Services
Recovery Planning Offer

Miles Partnership
Miles Partnership’s Clarity in a Time of Crisis resource center shares clear, timely answers to questions about COVID-19 and travel and tourism including essential insights and recommendations for DMOs and tourism organizations.

Funding Futures: 2021 Edition 
Resource Center
Miles Overview of Services

Resources on Tackling Climate Change:  White paper series Miles Partnership developed with North American and European partners: “26 for COP26” white paper series - Part One and Part Two. Twenty-six practical ways DMOs can take action on climate change – see these and other resources on climate change here.  For Western U.S. destinations wanting to be seen as proactive in addressing the increasing risks of severe weather-related events (drought/fire), and other impacts of climate change, these global examples may be a useful resource.

MMGY NextFactor and Tourism Economics
MMGY NextFactor and Tourism Economics have partnered to deliver OrganizationNEXT, a strategic recovery planning tool for DMOs. OrganizationNEXT consists of two foundational elements:

  • OrganizationNEXT Study: an in-depth piece of research examining recovery strategies with input from DMOs across the globe.
  • Recovery Planning Workshops: for DMOs to guide their recovery planning with management teams, board of directors, and/or stakeholders.

OrganizationNEXT
OrganizationNEXT-MMGY NextFactor June 15 2020
OrganizationNEXT Sales Sheet

MMGY NextFactor

The latest DestinationNEXT 2021 Futures Study is now available. More than 700 destination leaders in 50 countries responded to the study, and the result is the most comprehensive review of the trends and potential strategies affecting destination organizations around the world. The full report can be accessed by clicking HERE. Supplementing that, the updated DestinationNext Scenario Model and Assessment Tool helps stakeholders strategically evaluate their destinations. The DestinationNEXT Futures Study and scenario model can be used as the cornerstones for a strategic plan, board retreat or destination master plan.

The Outdoor Foundation
The Outdoor Foundation is dedicated to getting people outside for their health, the health of communities and the health of the outdoor industry. Through community investment and groundbreaking research, the Foundation works with partners across the country to address equity barriers and help make the outdoors accessible for all.

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The New Outdoor Participant (COVID and Beyond)
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, more Americans turned to the outdoors, some for the first time and others for the first time in many years. Learn more about our unprecedented opportunity to grow and diversify the outdoor community.

Read More

2020 Thrive Outside Impact Report
We’re helping create a more inclusive and accessible outdoor experience for all. See what the Thrive Outside Initiative has accomplished in year one.

Read More

Picture the Recovery

Picture the Recovery is an across-America luxury motorhome road trip with some of the country’s greatest photographers in an effort to raise money and awareness for the members of the hard-hit hospitality industries and to promote, safe and fun travel to the destinations visited. Our goal is to visit as many communities as we can and to capture, at no charge, stunning images of destinations. We will GIVE the photos to each participating destination for its use in its tourism recovery. Through this road trip, we will raise awareness and funds for the MPI Foundation, a part of Meeting Professional International. MPI is the largest association of meeting professionals, with over 20,000 members in 68 chapters and clubs across the world.  MPI empowers meeting professionals to increase their strategic value through education, clearly defined career pathways, and business growth opportunities. The trip began in St. Pete, Florida, in early January 2021 and will run throughout the year.

Resonance Consultancy
Restarting tourism marketing in a world forever changed by the COVID-19 pandemic requires your destination to rethink how to reach visitors—returning and prospective—in new ways. It will also mean major changes for destination management with renewed focus on delivering a safe and healthy visitor experience at all visitor touchpoints. At Resonance Consultancy, we created our COVID-19 Destination Marketing & Management Toolkit to answer these very questions in a sequential and methodical process mindful of the new abnormal. We’re ready to assist DMOs put these plans in place.

COVID-19 Recovery Page
COVID-19 Recovery Toolkit

SMG Consulting
SMG Consulting understand the challenges DMOs face and we provide specific COVID-19 recovery services. These services include expert subject-matter presentations, COVID-19 strategy, and scenario planning, a COVID-19 DMO recovery economic modeling. Additionally, we provide a wide range of free resources, including COVID-19 related papers, webinars, and presentations. SMG also provides one-hour free consultation for DMOs.

COVID-19 Recovery Resources and Services Page

Tourism Expert Network (TEN)
Tourism Expert Network (TEN), a group of highly accomplished tourism industry professionals, has been established to facilitate specific projects and goals for its industry partners navigating their business around an ever-changing travel and tourism landscape. With an unprecedented shift in travel behaviors demanding business models adapt to the market recovery and return of domestic and international travel, TEN is positioned to be the “go-to” talent firm providing a multifaceted range of skills to ensure your success during this challenging time.

Tourism Expert Network (TEN)
TEN Company Profile

COVID-19 | Resources and Research for DMA West Members and Your Local Partners

In addition to working with your respective local city/county agencies as well as your State Tourism Office, look to these organizations and firms for information as we address issues associated with the coronavirus crisis. When you click on a link below, you will be directed to that organization's specific COVID-19 information and resources.

*There are many resources and tools available to DMOs during a crisis, and U.S. Travel knows there is A LOT of information to digest. To more easily sift through what is important for DMOs, U.S. Travel’s Destinations Council has curated a toolkit of resources for DMOs. This relevant data will help ensure your DMO is well-equipped to recover from this crisis.