.

Background:

As the articleEndangered Destinationsoutlines, there have been dramatic changes to many destinations around the world as a result of climate change and tourism - disappearing islands in the Pacific because of sea levels rising, animal territory being crowded out by over development, over- tourism challenging DMO services, and in some destinations in Europe and Australia - protests by locals (always a DMO stakeholder) in some popular tourism destinations about too many tourists ruining the area for the local population.

This creates enormous challenges for DMO's in the future.

One solution might be for the DMO's to shift some of the focus and $$ of DMO marketing to the "local neighborhood experience for tourists, instead of the transactional type of tourism products - hotels, restaurants, entertainment and attractions like theme parks, museums etc. Some DMO's have done this successfully and others are taking note.

For example a DMO could shift some of its marketing budget from the usual communication message of'come and see our shiniest, biggest, attraction for a weekend or a week or two ' to 'come and exprience living as a local resident for a weekend or a week or two'.This would mean providing more information and promoting parts of a city, destinations that are not oftenpromoted. Toronto was doing a bit of this with "The experiences are different here." where the ads and the website promote "neighbourhoods" within the city.

Finally - the Question!!!

1. 1. Afterreading the article do youagree or disagreethat a new DMO focus on'living/experiencing a neighbourhood'would a desirable concept for travellers andcould work to help reduce the problems of over- tourism, over use of facilities, increasing demand for scarce resources and still be a successful strategy for a DMO? Is it realistic? Explain your view on this.(8 marks)

1. Why would adopting this strategy make it even more important for DMO's to understand their target audience - the type of traveler/tourist, especially their psychographics and behavior?(4 Marks)
2. Who do you think this " new kindoftraveller/tourist" is? Briefly describe them - demos,psychographic/beliefs, & behavior(4 Marks)

1. This emerging target group is arguably still a small segment of most DMO's potential audience and initially, at least, most DMO's would not want to shift a significant portion of its budget to supporting this strategy because the DMO still need to communicate attractions, services etc.

So keeping your target group in Qestion # 2 in mind, what would you recommend as the best communication strategy to attract the type of travellers who would be interested in 'living, experiencing the local environment' - i.e what type of communication would be best - blogs, personalities/influencers, travel writer, social media, traditional advertising etc.woould Keep in mind budgets would be limited intially.List your 3 top communication choices and briefly describe why you would use these communication channels/media selections? (think about your target group description)(10 Marks)