The broken economics of destination marketing
RFPs, funding, incentives — everything that makes this business harder than it should be.
Destination marketing runs on an incentive structure that doesn't match its stated mission. DMOs are funded for transactions they can't measure, scored against metrics that don't correspond to impact, and forced through procurement processes (RFPs) that select for the wrong agency traits. This pillar is the show's running argument about how to actually fix it — or at least stop pretending it's fine. Episodes here feature the industry's most direct conversations about what's wrong with tourism funding, why RFPs select against the work that would matter most, and what the DMO-agency relationship could look like if both sides stopped tolerating a process that produces mediocrity.
5 recent episodes.
Is Your Paid Media Strategy Built for a World That No Longer Exists?
Stuart argues AI has crossed from chatbot to co-worker. Adam argues most DMOs are still budgeting for a media world that already moved on.
Has Destination Marketing Been Gentrified?
Madden Media's Matt Stiker and Katy Livingston on why every destination is starting to look, sound, and market itself the same way.
Why Aren't DMOs and Vacation Rentals Working Together?
Alex Husner and Annie Holcombe on the relationship the industry keeps avoiding — and what agentic AI is about to do to it anyway.
Are You Committing the Three Deadly Sins of Board Governance?
Bill Geist on the three board-governance failures hiding underneath most DMO problems — and how to fix each one.
Are Silos Holding DMOs Back?
Danielle Hollander of Visit Orlando on why most DMOs are five organizations wearing the same logo — and what it actually takes to fix that.
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Every episode, we stage a conversation your industry is quietly having — and wasn't brave enough to have out loud.
Desties are the people who've decided destination marketing shouldn't sleepwalk into irrelevance. Three ways to be one. Pick whichever fits your life — or go all three.
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