If All They See Is Ads, They’ll Judge You on Ads.

(Week 1 of 26 Tough Questions, Jenn's take)

This week’s tough question from Destination Innovate ’s 26 Weeks, 26 Tough Questions series is deceptively simple:

Do your stakeholders actually understand the full contribution of the DMO?

And before anyone answers too fast, let’s zoom out academically, historically, and with just enough sarcasm to stay awake.

The Long Academic Arc of “Just Run the Ads”

Destination organizations didn’t accidentally end up here.

Tourism promotion emerged in the late 19th century as a collective marketing function. The earliest convention bureaus were funded by private hospitality interests to solve a very specific problem: unsold inventory. Heads in beds. Demand generation. Full stop.

Scholars have written about this for decades. Promotion was visible. Promotion was fundable. Promotion was politically safe.

And visibility has a funny way of becoming identity.

Even as DMOs evolved into complex public-facing institutions, balancing economic development, community impact, workforce realities, and political pressure, the dominant public mental model never caught up.

So 150 years later, marketing still gets the biggest budget line. Not because it’s the only thing that matters. Because it’s the only thing most stakeholders recognize on sight.

People don’t fund what they don’t understand. They fund what they can point to.

Ad. Billboard. Commercial. TikTok.

Benchmarking Is Not the Same as Education (Sorry)

Here’s where the industry accidentally made it worse.

DMOs became excellent at benchmarking themselves against each other. Same tactics. Same language. Same success metrics. Same slides with a different hero image.

“Look, we’re doing what XYZ destination is doing.”

That feels safe, it's also how misunderstanding gets institutionalized.

Because benchmarking convinces funders that promotion is the job, instead of one output of a much larger system.

The Human Cost of a Shallow Definition

Now for the part that doesn’t show up in academic journals but absolutely shows up in offices.

When the DMO’s value is reduced to promotion, the professionals inside the organization get reduced too.

Marketing teams are treated like button-pushers.

Social teams are treated like “the fun ones.”

Sales teams are treated like order-takers.

Years of expertise, public finance, stakeholder negotiation, economic judgment, political nuance, get flattened into: “I saw your Facebook ad.”

Ouch.

And it’s why this question belongs in the tough column.

Why This Question Predicts Relevance

Here’s the research-backed pattern DI keeps pointing to:

• Organizations that are judged only on what’s visible eventually lose permission to do the work that isn’t.

• You can trend on TikTok and still lose relevance locally.

• You can win awards and still be misunderstood by the people who control your funding.

Because relevance isn’t about reach. It’s about whether decision-makers understand your role in daily life and long-term outcomes.

Why This Question Matters in the 26

This is why “Do stakeholders understand the full contribution of the DMO?” isn’t a branding question. It’s a governance question. A workforce question. A longevity question.

And it’s why Destination Innovate is unpacking this all week.

Because if the answer is “they mostly think we run ads,” the solution isn’t better creative.

It’s education. Framing. Translation.

The most important campaign a DMO runs is not external.

It’s local.

And until that campaign succeeds, every other metric is cosmetic.

Follow Destination Innovate for our 26 weeks, 26 tough questions challenge.

I'm Jenn Barbee, and I'll just say the things outloud.