Innovative Performance Measures to assess Destination Competitiveness

Many Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) have functionally expanded beyond their origins as information disseminators, to take on a more direct sales role, supported through innovative e-commerce capabilities. Central reservation systems (CRSs) not only provide DMOs with new sources of revenue, but additionally, the on-going accommodation and attraction booking process creates rich data bases that when mined, can provide DMOs with relevant and timely performance measures. While much has been written about destination competitiveness and industry performance, CRS data provides a relatively new source to tap. This paper mines data from 15 DMO reservation systems and presents new indices for measuring and benchmarking destination performance