BY Kathy Crosett
How are smaller DMOs changing their advertising this year? Destination marketing organizations have money to spend. And 48% of U.S. adults expect to travel in the U.S. this year, according to AudienceSCAN. Your accounts need to use smart travel marketing to attract visitors to their region.
What is a DMO?
Destination marketing organizations operate as non-profit or government entities. Their task is to promote a region such as a city or state as a destination for both business and personal travel.
DMOs often work with local partners to pool marketing funds for campaigns targeting visitors. This arrangement means they have funds for media purchases in their quest for smart travel marketing.
What do DMOs plan for this year?
In 2026, Advance Travel & Tourism published its outlook based on inputs from travel professionals. Specifically, the industry experts point out that many DMOs representing small to mid-size cities are aggressively competing for tourism dollars.
This year’s top objectives include:
- Increase visitation 80%
- Increase brand awareness 68%
- Increase visitor spend in market 63%
- Increase visitation from new markets 58%
- Increase off-season visitation 50%
What is the average budget for a DMO?
A significant percentage spends $250,000 a year. And around 20% have $1M to allocate to initiatives designed to bring leisure and business travelers to that market.
DMOs rely on a variety of partners for their funding. Most DMOs count on local or state government for partial funding. This funding may come from taxes on hotels and restaurants.
In addition, DMOs enter into public-private partnerships for additional funding. They may obtain additional operating funds from local travel and tourism partners like hotels and festival coordinators.
Do DMOs Use co-op advertising?
Co-op advertising is a huge part of DMO spending. Over 90% of DMOs participate in some form of co-op advertising. And 60% of DMOs allocate 24% of the budget to co-op campaigns.
How does co-op advertising work with DMOs?
DMOs use a variety of co-op advertising strategies with local partners. In many cases, they set an annual calendar. And the DMOs may need to work with a state-based travel organization that negotiates media rates through an agency.
Media sellers should learn which ad agency secures the state contract and put together annual proposals for negotiated rates for travel marketing campaigns.
In other cases, the DMO will specify which events they’ll be advertising during the year. And they’ll invite partners such as restaurants or hotels to cost-share the ad campaigns. Travel partners can also pitch DMOs with a co-op ad proposal.
How do DMOs advertise?
DMOs report that social media and short-form videos deliver top ROIs. To measure their success, these organizations have been using website traffic and social media engagement as KPIs recently.
DMOs understand that we’ve moved into a zero-click world. They are adjusting their content to show up in AI Overviews. But they also realize that a website with great content is mandatory — because large language models need content to draw on.
Increasingly, websites will contain technology to engage and keep visitors with the ultimate goal of convincing them to book a visit. Elements such as interactive planning tools and virtual tours will be popular for DMOs. Midsize city DMOs will also focus on regional visitors.
Your DMO clients are also getting into AI. This year, 66% will use these tools for content creation and 52% will turn to AI for data analysis.
Are Your DMO Accounts Targeting the Right Audiences?
AudienceSCAN shows that around 42% of domestic travelers have responded to a social ad in the past month. After seeing this type of ad, around 20% went on to search with an AI tool.
Popular destinations for domestic travelers this year include:
- Beach 42%
- Amusement/theme park 23%
- Art/historical museum 17%
Share this data with your DMOs and their ad partners to help with their ad campaigns.
AudienceSCAN also contains regional audience profiles, a plus for midsize DMOs that are focusing on regional tourism. Your accounts might want to know that Kids Sports Event Travelers in the mid-Atlantic are 93% more likely to plan to attend a state or county fair in the next year. An ad campaign that features this type of event can encourage families to extend their stay in a specific destination.
Remind your accounts that smart travel marketing will help them achieve their goals.
Image by Kelli Jane on Pexels.
