What are we saying with what we don’t say?

I recently worked on a destination marketing organization client project that required research into comparative DMO budgets. The client was facing an imminent threat of reduced funding that would significantly reduce their competitiveness against their comp set, so understanding the financial resources available to their competition was essential for developing a case in favor of funding support.

I began by looking at other DMO websites for budget information. When that failed, I reached out to the DMO directly to ask for basic annual budget information and funding structure. The data I sought was nothing terribly complicated. In some cases, my contact at the DMO was known to me, but there were others with whom I had no existing relationship. I offered to share the data I found with the comparative DMO.

Now, I’m a consultant. I know my place in the hierarchy of need-to-know. And so it didn’t necessarily surprise me that no one responded to my requests. I didn’t take it personally–no one at the DMO has an obligation to email me a response or call me back, as they might have for an elected leader, hotelier, or resident. And I understand competitive concerns about revealing too much information. After all, this is the most competitive category in the world.

But it made me think that, despite all the progress that has been made on transparency and for all the effort put forward towards being accountable, maybe we still have a long ways to go in terms of walking the walk. The fact that this kind of basic information isn’t readily found on many DMO websites is another obstacle in trying to get residents, partners, and elected leaders to understand what DMOs do, how they are funded, how they invest their funding, and the results they generate for the community.

If a DMO is funded by any kind of tax revenue, at a minimum the organization should have as much financial information on their website as their local government does. Don’t get me wrong–local governments aren’t always the best at executing easy-to-navigate websites and placing financial data on those sites that isn’t annoyingly opaque. But maybe DMOs can and should be the model for how to do it right. DMOs often rightfully claim the mantle of being the best storytellers in the community. Being open and upfront about funding is simply another story to tell.