DMOs and Rural Tourism: A Stakeholder Analysis the Case of Tucker County, West Virginia

Abstract

Rural destination management organizations (DMOs) are faced with considerable challenges as they attempt to promote economic prosperity through tourism. This study sought to identify rural destination management challenges in Tucker County, West Virginia; identify the roles and activities of the destinations DMOs in addressing these challenges; and develop a perceived destination management framework. DMO challenges include maintaining authenticity and sense of place; economic diversification; seasonality, low wage jobs, and lack of employees; connecting resorts to small businesses and communities; and establishing a common vision, identity, and coordination of activities. While the majority of tourism literature calls for DMOs to play a dual marketing and management role, this paper makes an important contribution by identifying the need for a Convention and Visitors Bureau and a separate organization with a specific mission to sustainably develop and manage tourism and coordinate activities of the stakeholder network.

Special Incentives for Rehabilitation of Tourism Destinations to Improve the Profitability of Accommodations: The Case of the Canary Islands

“…Focusing on Gran Canaria as a reference, and given the data from the ISTAC [29], we observe that establishments in the category of 4 and 5 keys and/or stars are practically nonexistent. The 3-star/key category represents 6.4% of the total, whereas lodgings with 1 and 2 keys and/or stars make up the majority of the establishments available on Gran Canaria, 93.3% of the total.…”

“…Of all the islands, Gran Canaria has the most weight in terms of the number of tourist apartments, reaching 37.24% in 2016, and even increasing its relative weight with regard to 2010 [29]. This fact, along with the tourism rehabilitation data revealed through the Plans for Modernization, Improvement, and Increase in Competitiveness of the tourism sector approved by the Government of Canaries [28] and the Evaluation Report of Law 2/2013 on Tourism Renovation and Modernization in Canaries [27], justifies our analysis of the extrahotel tourism sector (apartments) on this island as a reference, taking into account that its evolution over time, as in the Canary Islands as a whole, has seen a slight decline [29]. However, it has remained stable for the past three years and continues to be preponderant in the entire archipelago.…”

“…Based on the previous conclusions stemming from the ISTAC [29] data related to the ADR and RevPAR, and using the more favorable data for the referential models that have carried out rehabilitation and modernization and maintained their condition as apartments but achieved the category of 4 stars in 2014, we performed a simulation of the predicted income for the 2015 economic financial year, starting with the 2013 data for the same establishments with a 2-key category. In the baseline position in the 2013 financial year, we considered the example of an establishment with 95 apartments that would evolve, after a rehabilitation and modernization process carried out in 2014, into 130 units in 2015 [39].…”

Sustainable accessibility in rural destinations: a public transport network approach

“…For this, some assumptions are reconsidered, others added, and the measures are adapted. The proposed algorithm also takes into consideration the limited human, financial, infrastructural, and skill-based capacity often faced by rural destinations (Arbogast, Deng, & Maumbe, 2017;Charbit & Michalun, 2009). While the original SNAMUTS framework has been developed for professional GIS systems, the proposed algorithm does not assume the use of such tools and is flexible enough to be executed with widely available instruments, such as digital spreadsheets and web mapping services.…”

Social Exchange Between a DMO and Its Stakeholders: A Case Study in the Rural Southeast United States

“…DMOs continually contend with financial insecurity due to government politics, budgets, and constraints and the inexpert perception of the DMO's role and its impact economically on the destination area. Due to the government's naivety of the DMO's activities, area governments have been known to limit or decrease funding for tourism marketing with the intention of increasing support to non-tourism financial agendas (Arbogast, Deng, & Maumbe, 2017;Gretzel, Fesenmaier, Formica, & O'Leary, 2006). Diverse goals and tense relations, trust in Case Studies in Business and Management ISSN 2333-3324 2018 the DMO weakens, resulting in an inefficient organization.…”