Email Strategies for Commercial Convention and Visitors Bureau and Destination Marketing Organization Operations
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Convention and Visitors Bureau Industry
Convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs) and destination marketing organizations (DMOs) are the organizations responsible for promoting cities, counties, regions, and states as travel destinations for leisure visitors, business travelers, and meeting/convention attendees. Approximately 1,500-2,000+ CVBs and DMOs operate across the United States, ranging from small rural tourism offices with annual budgets under $100,000 and one or two staff members to large metropolitan CVBs with annual budgets exceeding $100+ million and hundreds of employees. These organizations collectively manage approximately $2.5-3+ billion in combined annual budgets derived from hotel occupancy taxes (also called transient occupancy taxes, bed taxes, or lodging taxes, which are the primary funding source for most CVBs), tourism improvement district (TID) or tourism business improvement district (TBID) assessments, state and local government appropriations, membership dues from local hospitality businesses, and earned revenue from advertising sales, publication sponsorships, and event production.
The US travel and tourism industry generates approximately $1.1-1.2+ trillion in total domestic and international visitor spending, supporting approximately 15+ million direct travel-related jobs, making tourism one of the largest sectors of the US economy. CVBs and DMOs serve as the marketing arm for their destinations, working to attract visitors who will spend money at local hotels, restaurants, attractions, retailers, and transportation providers, generating economic activity and tax revenue for the destination community. The core functions of a CVB/DMO include destination marketing and advertising (developing marketing campaigns, advertising in consumer and trade media, managing the destination's website and social media presence, and producing visitor guides and promotional content), convention and meeting sales (proactively selling the destination to meeting planners, association executives, and corporate event planners as a location for conventions, conferences, trade shows, and corporate meetings), tourism development (working with local stakeholders to improve the visitor experience, develop new tourism products and attractions, and address infrastructure needs), and visitor services (operating visitor information centers, providing concierge services, and assisting visitors during their stay).
The largest CVBs in the US (by budget and staff size) include the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA, one of the largest DMOs in the world with an annual budget exceeding $400+ million, marketing Las Vegas as a destination for approximately 40+ million annual visitors), Discover Los Angeles (the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board), NYC & Company (New York City's official DMO), Choose Chicago, Visit Orlando (which markets the world's most visited tourism destination by total visitor volume, with approximately 70+ million annual visitors), Visit California (the state-level DMO for California), Brand USA (the national DMO for the United States, funded through a public-private partnership and focused on international inbound tourism marketing), and the convention bureaus for major meeting destinations including San Francisco, San Diego, Washington DC, Nashville, New Orleans, Denver, Boston, and Atlanta.
Destinations International and US Travel Association Databases
Destinations International (DI, formerly DMAI -- Destination Marketing Association International) is the primary trade association representing CVBs and DMOs globally, with approximately 600+ member organizations (primarily in North America). DI provides professional development (the CDME -- Certified Destination Management Executive -- credential is the most prestigious professional certification in destination marketing, held by approximately 200-300+ DMO professionals), accreditation (the DMAP -- Destination Marketing Accreditation Program -- evaluates DMOs against industry standards for governance, finance, management, marketing, visitor services, and community relations), industry research (DI conducts regular member surveys on DMO budgets, staffing, performance metrics, and industry trends), and the annual Destinations International Annual Convention (approximately 1,500-2,000+ attendees, the largest gathering of DMO professionals in the world). DI's member directory is searchable and provides organization name, location, CEO/President name, budget range, and contact information.
US Travel Association is the national trade association representing all sectors of the US travel industry, with approximately 1,100+ member organizations including DMOs, airlines, hotels, car rental companies, attractions, and travel technology companies. US Travel provides industry research (the Travel Economic Impact model, the Travel Trends Index, and regular economic forecasting), government affairs advocacy (working on issues including travel facilitation, visa policy, infrastructure investment, and travel-related taxation), and the annual IPW (International Pow Wow, the largest international inbound travel trade show in the US, attended by approximately 5,000-6,000+ international buyers and domestic sellers). State tourism offices (each state has an official tourism office or division that coordinates statewide tourism marketing and manages databases of local CVBs, tourism businesses, and tourism development organizations) and state tourism association directories provide additional data sources.
Navigate to Destinations International member directories and Annual Convention databases, US Travel Association member directories and IPW databases, state tourism office directories (each state tourism office maintains directories of local CVBs, visitor centers, tourism businesses, and tourism regions/districts), PCMA (Professional Convention Management Association) member directories, MPI (Meeting Professionals International) member directories, ASAE (American Society of Association Executives) member directories (association executives are primary customers of CVBs for convention business), IAEE (International Association of Exhibitions and Events) directories, convention center databases (approximately 400-500+ convention centers in the US), and tourism and hospitality trade publication databases (Destinations International daily, Skift, Northstar Meetings Group, Meetings Today, Successful Meetings, Prevue Meetings & Incentives). Save DI directories, US Travel data, state tourism office records, and industry publication databases as HTML or CSV. Upload to Email Extractor to extract CVB CEO/president, convention sales director, marketing director, visitor services manager, and tourism development coordinator email addresses from DI, US Travel, state, and industry databases for technology, research, venue management, media, and training outreach.
Destination Marketing Technology
The destination marketing technology landscape has evolved rapidly as CVBs and DMOs have shifted from traditional print advertising and travel brochures to sophisticated digital marketing, data analytics, and customer relationship management platforms. Destination CRM and sales management platforms (Simpleview, the dominant CRM and digital platform provider for the DMO industry, serving approximately 500+ CVBs; Extranet/Tempest/SDT platforms; and Cendyn/iHotelier) provide lead management for convention sales teams, partner/member relationship management, website content management, digital marketing campaign management, event and meeting RFP (Request for Proposal) processing, and economic impact reporting.
Visitor analytics and tourism intelligence platforms have become increasingly important as CVBs seek to quantify their marketing ROI and understand visitor behavior patterns. Companies including Tourism Economics (an Oxford Economics company), Arrivalist (now part of Near Intelligence), Placer.ai, VisitData/Zartico, and various mobile location data providers offer DMOs the ability to track visitor origin markets, visitation patterns, length of stay, spending behavior, and the impact of specific marketing campaigns on visitation using anonymized mobile device data, credit card transaction data, and other big data sources. These analytics platforms help CVBs demonstrate their economic impact to funding authorities and optimize marketing spend allocation across markets and channels.
Digital content and visitor experience platforms (CrowdRiff for visual content marketing and user-generated content aggregation, Bandwango for digital pass and itinerary creation, Atlas Obscura for experiential travel content) help DMOs engage travelers through authentic, community-sourced content rather than traditional institutional marketing. The growth of social media influencer marketing, content creator partnerships, and experiential destination campaigns represents a significant shift in how CVBs allocate marketing budgets, with increasing shares moving from traditional media buying to digital content creation, social media activation, and data-driven audience targeting.
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