Allies or Foes? Key Challenges Facing the Shifting Landscape of Destination Management in England

Within a shifting political and economic context, reshaped Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) in England are expected to deliver well beyond traditional activities related to marketing and promotion of destinations. Yet, such delivery processes are to happen in light of the increasingly resource-constrained operational environment, where the public purse is no longer available to destinations and destination organisations. This commentary paper provides a discussion on recent transitions in the landscape of destination marketing and management in England, where processes of organisational transformation, the introduction of reshaped DMOs and the public-to-private transition in supporting tourism have been infl uenced by both the 2010 coalition government’s neo-liberal agenda and the global economic downturn disrupting Europe’s travel and tourism sector and beyond. The discussion debates the existence of key considerations, which should be taken
into account by reshaped DMOs due to their implications for destination management practice. Transitions in the landscape of destination marketing and management in England have indeed contributed to the rise of complex, multifaceted issues and mirror a great deal of uncertainty alongside the introduction and run up of the deemed to be controversial new destination management and marketing structures in England, and as such, they arguably deserve further attention.