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Did you know that tourism and events can be a bastion for the development of more inclusive and thriving governance? Now, and always, it is “Time for DMOcracy“!

Time for DMOcracy is an initiative from Group NAO, in association with Global Destinations Sustainability Movement , The Travel Foundation, TCI Research and European Cities Marketing. It comprises 23+ urban destinations working together to engage the industry across Europe and Asia Pacific and North America in collaboration with Miles Partnership.

The initiative explores citizen activation, the challenges, and imperatives of dialogue, power-sharing and new modes of governance in tourism development.

To do so, it employs wide range research, case studies, masterclasses, learnings labs, boot camping and conferencing before delivering a white paper on public engagement in tourism later in 2022.

It offers new balance to the role of marketing and management for DMOs, one that unites :

– political decision-makers (municipal, regional, national level)

– the commercial tourism industry stakeholders,

– the local community and citizens

towards a more holistics and representative visitor economy.

The initiative aims to :

– uncover the relevance of people-based tourism in the city,

– map citizen participation and involvement in tourism,

– understand democratic mandate and participation,

– prepare and upskill the DMO for new modes of governance, and what this means in terms of functions, skills, and accountability.

If your destination wants to empower its local community to develop tourism and events that contribute to more inclusive and thriving cities and communities, it’s Time for DMOcracy!

• Download the white paper here

• Access toolkits here

Find out more.