As a member of the executive committee of the Destination & Travel Foundation (the 501(c)(3) affiliate of the Destination Marketing Association International, which is holding its annual meeting this week in Atlanta), it’s been my pleasure to observe up closethe management styles and skill sets of several of the industry’s leading destination marketing executives. Since the vast majority of DMOs receive public funding from hotel occupancy tax revenue and nearly a third of them receive some form of state tax dollars, the DMO CEO not only has to manage a paid staff and volunteer board, but also has to manage key funding relationships with the mayor, city council, city manager or state-level funding source. As a result, DMO execs are thrown into a political role by virtue of their reliance on funds controlled by these governmental entities.

What makes all this even harder is that in the case of hotel occupancy taxes, for example, funds that were originally intended to be primarily reinvested in marketing to stimulate additional visitation are increasingly being diverted for uses other than destination marketing. Because it falls to the DMO executive to be the chief advocate for travel in his or her community, the DMO CEO can, on occasion, end up at odds with the destination’s political leaders. While every savvy DMO executive knows the importance of building support for the DMO among those in political leadership positions, the best laid plans of nonpartisan political education are often not enough to make DMO funding sacrosanct.

For more information on the important role of the destination marketing industry, click here to access the digital version of “Why Meetings Matter,” which we recently published in conjunction with DMAI.

Tim Schneider
Schneider Publishing Company

John Eddow is the Financial & Human Resources Manager for Schneider Publishing. John joined our company in February and his responsibilities include administering employee benefits and overseeing the company’s finances.

John previously worked as the vice-president of sales and operations for a manufacturing company for six years, during which time he helped quadruple the company’s revenues. His work experience also includes five years as a staff research associate for the University of California San Diego Medical Center. John has a degree in Biochemistry & Cell Biology from UC San Diego and an MBA in Marketing & Finance from San Diego State University. He is also gaining experience as a new father. He and his wife, Erin, welcomed a baby daughter, Remy, to their family in March. John can be reached at (310) 577-3700 or by e-mail at john.eddow@schneiderpublishing.com.

The prophetic words of Yogi Berra would seem to fit our point in time perfectly.

The last election was historic in many ways. I believe it also tells us quite a bit about future elections. The common assumption is that elections run in cycles with each party taking its turn. There may still be cycles but the transformation of this last election could alter these cycles dramatically.

The colorful Cajun, James Carville, one of President Clinton’s chief political strategists, has written a new book in which he projects the Democrats will control national elections for 36 or 40 years.

Sound outlandish? Maybe not. Consider two sets of facts.

First, the Republican Party is locked in a struggle to find or create a consensus. The conservative wing feels the party has to strengthen its conservative principles and expand that base. That essentially was the strategy of President Bush and his political advisor, Karl Rove.

The moderates in the party, on the other hand, look at the last election results and argue that the party must project a more socially and culturally moderate position in order to appeal to a wider range of voters.

The second set of facts tend to support the view of the moderate, as well as Carville’s predictions.

Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Ronald Brownstein said, “Population changes that favor the Democrats are redrawing America’s electoral map.”

He goes on to say that the most reliable voting blocs in the Democratic Party have grown and will continue to expand. These groups, according to Brownstein, are Latinos, African-Americans, Asians and other minorities. The conservative blue collar voter base that tends to support the Republicans, on the other hand, is declining dramatically.

Add to this the advent of citizenship for currently illegal aliens and the pot begins to boil over.

Brownstein’s conclusion is a bit scary: “Any GOP coalition too narrow to welcome back voters who share moderate views is almost certainly too narrow to dislodge the Democrats.” If in fact we are headed for effectively a one-party government I am not sure this can be a healthy thing for the country.

Is it time for a third party? That is a subject for another time.

What do you think?