Over time, the acronym DMO has evolved from a meaning centered on marketing (i.e. Destination Marketing Organization) to a meaning centered on management (i.e. Destination Management Organization). Expanding the role of DMOs to one of management implies a greater need to engage stakeholders both within the destination and external to the destination. We assert that this places the DMO in a fundamentally unique position of being a boundary spanner between the internal destination environment and the external competitive environment. This boundary-spanning role requires higher capabilities in knowledge management. The successful DMO of the future will be an intelligent agent of the destination that is able to identify, engage and learn from disparate stakeholders both within and outside the destination. It must acquire, filter, analyze and prioritize data and information from various sources to create knowledge that can be used to fulfill its role in destination management. Our paper is conceptual in nature, advocating an organizing framework to help understand the DMO's role as an intelligent agent that acts as a boundary spanner between the destination and the external competitive environment generating and disseminating knowledge. Outside the destination, the DMO must gain knowledge about the competitive environment, opportunities and threats, and trends that will change the future competitive landscape. Within the destination, the DMO must use this knowledge to strategically assess the strengths and weaknesses of the destination, align the resources of stakeholders and develop adequate competencies to formulate a strategy that is both competitive and sustainable. We conclude with a set of prescriptions for destination managers seeking to create an intelligent DMO that maximizes their knowledge management capabilities.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to analyze the variety of relations existing in tourism networks, identified as complex and mutable entities, where a vast range of stakeholders coexist.Design/methodology/approach -After a deep review on stakeholder theory, the research applies techniques of network analysis to a case study. Specifically, the analysis focuses on 354 hospitality firms acting in Molise Region (Italy). Each operator was asked to judge the importance to collaborate with other stakeholders to enhance the effectiveness of their management and marketing activities. The answers highlight the degree of preference among stakeholders and the resulting information is the level of confidence in the network.Findings -Results confirm the importance of intensifying relationships between tourism companies themselves and between them and policy makers. It appears that public stakeholders are more important for both management and marketing activities than private sector, since they place a much higher position in the scale of preference.Research limitations/implications -The paper provides a starting-point for further research about non-quantitative destination performance measurement, such as trust and commitment between the stakeholders in tourism destination, and the use of network analysis' techniques.Practical implications -Destination managers and policy-makers may use techniques of network analysis to elaborate useful information for planning and managing the relationships inside the tourism network.Originality/value -The paper offers a novel approach for developing network analysis in tourism network literature. It explores non-quantitative destination performance measurements and uses management and marketing activities to analyze relationships between public and private stakeholders.

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Previous destination marketing and management literature has focused on the importance of establishing effective relationships between the various tourism organizations (both private and public) involved in a tourism offer, in order to improve the competitiveness of a destination. However, very few works examine tourism destinations from a network perspective. Networks can be analyzed from either a relationship or a structural perspective. The aim of the present article is to adopt both of these perspectives to assess the different relationships that exist between tourism stakeholders (both private and public) within a specific Italian 3S tourism destination: Costa Smeralda-Gallura in the North-East of the island of Sardinia. Data were gathered from destination management organization (DMO) internal documents, local press, and through a questionnaire completed by a number of tourism organizations chosen from a list provided by the DMO, which at the time was the public body instructed to keep the official register. Our findings describe the Gallura-based destination as a network specifically defined by a relatively low level of density, collaboration, and integration in the relationships between local stakeholders. The study suggests that destination marketers and policy makers should run internal marketing and branding operations in order to enhance their collaboration, and therefore reach a strategic consensus among stakeholders.