Purpose is an organization’s fundamental reason for being. The purpose is focused on the greater good the organization brings to the community.
Purpose
The purpose addresses an organization’s most fundamental reason for existing. It drives all activities and reflects the long- term impact on the community. The purpose is broad, timeless and focused on the greater good the organization brings to the community. For example, a school’s purpose is to help its community achieve its goals through knowledge, and a hospital’s purpose is to help its community achieve its goals through medicine. Similarly, a destination organization’s purpose is to help its community achieve its goals by promoting the destination. It is not about “heads in beds” (hotels), or seats in restaurants or even return on investment. These are important measures of how well a destination organization is doing its job, but they are not the most important indicators. Destinations International has done a substantial amount of work to get to the heard of what defines the essential role of a destination organization. Destinations International has approached it from a public policy perspective, focusing on the tangible solutions to civic problems that a destination organization can bring to the table. At its core is the need for a community to compete with every other community in the world. In today’s globalized, interconnected world, every community must compete with every other community for its share of the world’s visibility—its share of attention and respect. Every community must compete for its share of the world’s tourists, its share of consumers and its share of available talent. Every community must compete for
its share of the world’s businesses and its share of available capital and investment. Those communities that fail to compete will lose ground and be left behind. We show how the role of a destination organization is to enable its community to compete. Destinations International has approached it from an emotional and values perspective, focusing on less tangible solutions to civic problems with which a destination organization can assist. This approach speaks to the nature of travel as something humans have done since the beginning of time. People travel for the needs of food, water and fresh air. They travel for companionship and community. And people travel to stimulate their brains and answer the practical and existential questions that are at the heart of the need to wonder and wander. It speaks to the role of destination organizations, which serve as a bridge connecting people to places, allowing them to explore, celebrate and appreciate the uniqueness of each community— allowing them to wonder and wander. This cultivates an environment in which a community thrives as an ideal place to visit, live, work, play and invest. Destinations International has also approached the role of travel from a civic-political perspective, articulating a civic rationale for supporting destination organizations. This approach recognizes that any organization living in the civic space must acknowledge and interact within the public political sphere.
Defining the 21 st Century Destination Organization | 5
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