Session 1 Destination & DMO & Boundaries

Slide 5, 25th / 17th May 2010
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Sofia, June 3rd-5th
2. The tourist information centres were influenced and funded by the local authorities mainly; the tourism industry is nearly not involved. 3. There seem to exist many associations (may be too many) in the tourism sector all over Romania, but it seems not clear, what their output is. The existing tourist offices don‟t see a benefit from them for their own work. 4. The tourist offices itself are not connected with each other. So far there is no cooperation among them. There is no association so far that acts for their benefit.
Slide 7, 25th / 17th May 2010
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6. The tourist offices face a huge lack of human resources (number of staff, education of staff) but also operate with very small budgets. All in all we can state that they only have limited possibilities to inform local guest, but can not act as marketing organisations or act as a Destination Management Organisation with its tasks (planning, marketing, product and quality development / improvement, sales, networking, lobbying a. s. o.). But it has to be made clear that this is not an aspect of a lack of will of the employees; in contrary, they seem to be very much motivated to improve the business, but need to be supported.
7 Theses
Slide 4, 25th / 17th May 2010
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Sofia, June 3rd-5th
1. There are many national regulations / laws in Romania that influence the structure (and herewith the development) of the tourism organisations / information centres. It seems that these regulations do not support the possibilities for the needed changes. The dependence from the legislations is very (too) strong, it seems to be quite impossible to build up new structures that allow them to act in the international tourism competition; e.g. it should be possible for the tourist information centres to build up public private partnerships or even profit oriented companies.
Slide 6, 25th / 17th May 2010
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Sofia, June 3rd-5th
5. A huge problem is the lack of cooperation within all the towns. The tourist offices do not have strong links and partnerships with the local private businesses (hotels, transport companies, restaurants a. s. o.)! This means, that there is a very bad information exchange within the tourism destinations. Also there is not enough cooperation for building up new products or product chains or cooperation in the field of marketing! All this influences the efficiency and the results of the work of the tourist offices / institutions and the tourism industry as a whole, very negative.
Prof. Urs Wagenseil, Divisional Head of the Department "Tourism", Institute of Tourism, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts Since 2005, Urs Wagenseil has been Head of Tourism at the Institute of Tourism at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. From 1999 until 2005 he was CEO of the Destination Management Company Lenzerheide Tourism, Grison, Switzerland. He also gained experience as Manager Corporate Sales Solutions (Diners Club Switzerland), as Manager Touroperating (Wettstein Travel, Switzerland) and as Project Manager and Head of Department at Kuoni Travel Ltd, Head Office, Switzerland. Urs Wagenseil holds a Masters degree from the University Basle, as well as a Bachelors degree of Business Administration.
Slide 8, 25th / 17th May 2010
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Sofia, June 3rd-5th
7. The working tools of the tourist offices are not professional enough. Main aspects are the missing IT-technology, insufficient Internet presence, no reservations system and no data exchange within the towns or over the borders of the towns within one region or within Romania.
slide 2, 26.10.2009
Slide 3, 25th / 17th May 2010
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Sofia, June 3rd-5th
Summary of visit and discussions with local experts (Predeal, October 2008)
Institute for Tourism ITW Urs Wagenseil Head of Tourism Tel: +41 41 228 99 24 Mail: urs.wagenseil@hslu.ch
Timisoara & Fagaras, 25th & 27th May 2010
Introduction of the Lecturer
1. What is a destination 2. What is a Destination Management Organization (DMO) 3. The boundaries of DMOs 4. The function and structure of destinations and DMOs 5. The strategy process of a DMO 6. The marketing work 7. The sustainability aspect
Slide 9, 25th / 17th May 2010