Improving the Management of Tourist Destinations: A New Approach to Strategic Management at the DMO Level by Integrating Lean Techniques

Abstract

Destination management organizations have a key role to play in the governance of tourism destinations, in managing destination networks and in ensuring good cooperation between stakeholders. Although, destination management organizations (DMOs) are atypical organizations, their operations are evaluated according to their organizational efficiency and effectiveness. This study aims to propose a framework to improve the management of the tourist destination through an innovative approach that interconnects strategic management and Lean techniques to increase efficiency and productivity in operational processes, organizational efficiency and effectiveness at the DMO level. The framework developed in this study interconnects the analysis of the internal environment through the Value Chain and the Lean Six Sigma methods identified to be suitable for application in the management of the tourist destination. Testing of the practical application of this framework was done for Association for the Promotion and Development of Tourism (APDT), which is the DMO that ensures the management of the tourist destination of Brasov, Romania. The research contributes to the optimization of the processes at the DMO’s level. The framework developed in this study can be implemented by practitioners to improve the management of the tourist destination. The paper also offers future research directions.

A Textual and Visual Analysis of the Intrinsic Value Dimensions of Romania: Towards a Sustainable Destination Brand

“…As known, DMOs are public or private organizations that work at different administrative levels to implement the tourism development and marketing policy of a destination [96]. In this case, Romanian DMOs organizations tend to have limited funding sources, budgets and tools to sustain a full range of tourism support services.…”

Social Media as a Destination Marketing Tool for a Sustainable Heritage Festival in Nigeria: A Moderated Mediation Study

“…Gossling et al [47] observed that most economies around the world depend on Nigerian tourism sector as their backbone, which corroborates the fact that Nigerian tourism represents 9% of global trade for tourism in Africa [48]. Consequently, tourism is the fastest only significant and industry that improves the world economy and DMOs depend on tourists/visitors to support the economy [22,[49][50][51].…”

“…The theory of planned behavior (TPB) has delivered sup-portive suggestions regarding social media marketing, festival quality, website quality, online word of mouth (eWOM), festival satisfaction, cultural motivation, and festival revisiting intention. This shows that the majority of research relating to digital technology focused solely on customer satisfaction in providing quality tourism services to tourists at many cultural destinations [22,50,52]. Therefore, value creation has been measured as a key to long-term success [53].…”

Tourism Management: A Panacea for Sustainability of Hospitality Industry

“…In recent time, destination management have continued to dominate the discussion in the tourism management literature due to its significance to the sustainability of the hospitality industry and the development of the tourism sector, particularly in developing nations. Destination management encompasses the planning, organising and coordination of activities such as attractions, amenities, marketing, tours, accommodations and events targeted at enhancing tourist and visitors experience in the destination (Foris et al, 2020). It involves the development of policies, strategies and programmes that will create awareness on the unique story and attractiveness of the tourist destinations in order to attract tourist and visitors to the destination, and as well enhancing the revenue of the destination and the sustainability of the hospitality industry.…”

“…Also, the services of tourism intermediaries such as tour agents, wholesalers, and online travel agencies contribute significantly to tourist and visitors experience. Management of tourism intermediaries is vital since their services involve informing potential tourist and marketing tourism products which could encourage tourist visit to the destination as well as increase the revenue of the destination and performance of the hospitality industry (Foris et al, 2020). Richards (2002) indicated that effective management of tourism intermediaries and attractions impact on the performance of destination and the hospitality industry.…”