Destination Management

Destination Management Organizations:  Stimulating Economic Growth through Cooperation 

Destination management is the coordinated management of all the elements that make up a destination (attractions, amenities, access, marketing and pricing). Solimar helps destinations take a strategic approach to link-up these sometimes very separate entities through the creation of destination management organizations (DMOs).  Destination management organizations help avoid duplication of effort with regards to promotion, visitor services, training, business support and identify any management gaps that are not being addressed.  When implemented along with a revenue-generating business model, DMOs also have tremendous potential to generate funds in support of marketing and conservation initiatives.    

Cluster Business Models:  Creating Sustainable Destinations

The very word, "sustainability", implies a solution that the destination will carry forward after the consultants have gone home. One of the biggest challenges for people working in tourism development is providing for project activities that continue after the development funding has been exhausted. Solimar believes that the best way to create long-term solutions for a destination is to use a revenue-generating business model while integrating components to ensure the continued management of economic growth and natural resource use.

Solimar's proven business model for tourism DMOs provide consulting services to tourism suppliers while simultaneously providing commission based in-bound travel logistics. This combination of services helps improve the destination's products while simultaneously raising awareness with travelers of the destination and its offerings.

The following is a list of products and services the cluster business model offers:

Destination Visitor Centers:  Localizing Efforts and Improving the Visitor Experience 

Destination Visitor Centers with a dual mission—to serve both visitors and local businesses—can help support the growth and success of sustainable and responsible tourism. Solimar has pioneered this new concept, putting our cluster business model to work and locating the DMOs we create in strategic locations within destinations. The Centers we help establish serve as the home of local tourism development initiatives, but also as the physical storefront from which these initiatives can be marketed and sold to visitors.

 A Destination Visitor Center is a single facility with multiple purposes:

• Provide information and reservation services to travelers;
• Market sustainable tourism experiences and businesses;  
• Provide training, business and management advice to tourism businesses; and
• Capture and analyze important traveler information and statistics.

These Centers not only strengthen participating local tourism businesses, but also help to ensure their long-range success. By providing services to both travelers and suppliers, the Center becomes self-sustaining, without the need of long-term financial assistance.

One of the most visible and exciting outcomes of USAID-Conservation of Central American Watershed's program was the opening of Bocas del Toro’s first tourism information center (located on the main street of Isla Colon), which is now managed and operated by the Bocas Sustainable Tourism Alliance (BSTA). The Center provides a welcoming environment for travelers to congregate, use the Internet, purchase local handicrafts, learn about available tourism products and services through activity and accommodation guides containing attractive sales sheets detailing each BSTA member and their products offered.  The Center has also become the environmental focus of the community--with local residents often stopping by the Center with new ideas for projects that can be implemented by the BSTA (such as beach clean-ups and a farmers market).