Fonte: Journal of Tourism & Development; v. 3, n. 21/22 (2014); 25-34
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Resumo: This regional spotlight paper debates novel approaches to the way urban destination management is being undertaken by DMOs against a dynamic operational context. The rationale behind is the scarce literature on change in the domain of destination management, particularly in today’s post-austerity era. In times when DMOs are forced into revisiting their modus operandi, entering partnerships with organisations representing the wider destination network and having an interest in destination development, could be the way forward. This multi-phase qualitative study is drawing on both primary and secondary data sources and involved policy analysis, group observations, and semi-structured interviews with executive and other senior personnel of case-specific organisations. Findings provide evidence that the wider destination management network engaging proactively in developing the visitor economy is crucial to the future sustainability of DMOs across England. The focus is brought to exploring and exploiting alternative alliance opportunities in an attempt to fill in the funding gap left by the public. Building on the limited empirical evidence on the topic to date, outcomes of this study shed light on such cross-organisational alliances. The latter may be of practical relevance to visitor-oriented, urban DMOs seeking to acquire additional funding in post-recession times.
