I don't really mind, this means less competition for me.
However, what concerns me is that I see and witness this trend for a couple of years now. In the business, everybody agrees on the fact that one should promote the destination first and accomodation second.
After talking to some of the participants I can conclude that a large amount of accomodation partners is less interesting for a travel agent. At the end of the day it is quite difficult for them to separate all the brands from each other. Let's face it, there is not much difference in the sales pitches of accomodations.
Still I see this trend growing. So the question that rises is: Are Tourist boards/destinations (DMO's) out of money? or do these kind of events not fit their strategies anymore? I think it is the first one, because if it is a strategy, I assume the accomodations would also quit these events. Plus there are every year less tourist boards in the market and more representation offices managing multiple destinations.
Outsourcing might seem to make business sense to some (on paper). Nevertheless, I think it is a negative trend. I kind of compare this to having Gasoline stations in charge of the sales of cars or Airports promoting Airlines. It does not make much sense branding wise.Who is in charge of managing the brand? How can you make sure that your image and values are well taken care of?
For me, as a tourist myself, I find it important to be able to get good information about where I am going. And most of the times the sales and marketing staff of accomodations only have limited knowledge of a destination. Which is OK, because from them I expect to get good info on what their property can offer me while staying there. Not every detail on why the countries gastronomy is like that or what a certain dance means.
I have been seeing and reading a lot of marketing "stuff" about tourism and destination branding etc.
One teacher told me once: "marketing is just common sense, forget all the theory"
Tourism is a people's business, so next to all this niffty marketing talk, we need to make sure the keepers of the culture, the keepers of the atmosphere of a destination are still in the equation.
In my opinion no one can sell his or her destination better than himself (with specific help of course such as language, culture and business culture/channels of that market). I could be wrong, but for me if a Mexican archaelogist tells me something about a Maya temple, I tend to believe him more that hearing it from a sales rep based insome cold western country. And even if it might not be true......It's the whole experience of being there and in contact with the locals : )
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