Destination marketing organization
A destination marketing organization is an organisation which promotes a location as an attractive travel destination. Previously DMOs have been known as tourist boards, tourism authorities or "Convention and Visitors Bureaux". They provide information to leisure travellers and where they have a suitable infrastructure, they encourage event organisers to choose their location for meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions, abbreviated as MICE.
DMOs are generally tied to the local government infrastructure, often with funds being generated by specific taxes, such as hotel taxes, membership fee and sometimes government subsidies. However experiences of a decline in tourism following reduction of state expenditure has led the tourist industry to create a private sector coalition to function as a DMO.
