The travel industry has endured a rough couple of years, to put it mildly. In times of downturn, there is always a desire to focus on short-term tactics that will “drive traffic,” and that often leads to pressure on a Destination Marketing Organization to promote more with fewer resources. In my opinion, however, this is a slippery slope. Instead, I would argue that while drawing more visitors through specific initiatives is important, now more than ever is a good time to remind yourself and your community partners of a few core obligations that you have as a DMO.

1. First and foremost, a DMO must ensure that the community brand remains strong. Your job is to answer the question, “Do I want to go there and will I enjoy it?” in the mind of the visitor. Hoteliers, restaurants, attractions and other businesses in your community are focused on the things that will bring them customers and revenue, and they should be. They need you, the DMO, to be the voice of what your community stands for and promote the values, lifestyle and experiences that their visitors will enjoy in your community. If you do not take care of the brand, no one else will.

2. Next, your constituents need you to give them the ammunition to attract the best customers. To do so, however, you need a lot of insight from your constituents and their customers. Specifically, they should allow you to speak with their customers (in a respectful way), and they should openly and proactively share things they learn about their customers. As a result, you need to give back to them in the form of customer profiles, trends and insights for the community as a whole. You should make sure that any potential visitor or group finds your constituents quickly and easily. I will take that one step further and say you should share this information with city members to see if there are opportunities to improve infrastructure or incorporate your brand throughout the city.

3. Lastly, your visitor is online (call me “Mr. Obvious”) and you serve your community best by engaging your brand with consumers where they are. If I were to do a Twitter search on your city, what would I find? What if I went to your website or Facebook page? Is a dialogue taking place between you and the online community? Does your website give me a sense of your community or is it simply an online version of your visitors guide? You are the portal to your destination and you cannot afford to neglect the online world or damage your brand by only touting local promotions. You serve your community partners best by being the one, if only, voice that allows people to get to know your community.

If you remain true to these fundamental challenges, I believe that you will see long-term success, and that the pain and length of the downturn can be greatly reduced.

How do you ensure your brand message is being heard today? How do you help your constituents attract customers? What does your online presence look like? I would love to hear how you are balancing your branding efforts with the downturn and what you are finding works.