Destination Management Organization and Maintaining the Balance between Culture and Economy

Let’s see if Shun has had any growth in his understanding of the Japanese countryside by talking about something other than hope.

I mean I think I have, so I’ll write a little about DMO’s, or…

Destination Manegement organizations!

That’s right, we are getting real technical here so keep up… nah it’s actually not that bad.

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what is a dMO?

So I looked around a bit and found several definitions:

“Destination management consists of the integrated management of those processes necessary in establishing an exchange between a destination and its visiting tourists, Therefore, on one hand, it involves the management of services offered and tourists attractions factors, while, on the other hand, managing demand, dependent on tourist flow and customer satisfaction.”

Sounds pretty solid, but I’m just gonna cross reference this with Wikipedia

Wikipedia says:

“DMO is a professional services company with local knowledge, expertise and resources, working in the design and implementation of events, activities, tours, transportation and program logistics.”

Now let’s take a look at what the ministry of tourism claims is the definition of a DMO is :

A Japanese DMO is an organization which becomes a leader in developing a tourist site which has the ability to make economic profit all the while creating local pride in the area. The organization has both the ability to design a plan for a tourism site with a strong and clear concept, as well as the ability to manage the logistics of achieving the plan.

JTB, the largest travel agency in Japan has a definition for a DMO as well:

An organization which is familiar with a local area’s tourism sights, nature, food, culture, art, customs, and works together with the local community to make a tourist area.

I think all of these definitions are quite similar, but have bits and pieces which are unique to that definition.

The first which I got from a scholarly source focuses on the interaction between the destination and the visitor through services and management. The second definition is the inclusion of the local know-how into the interaction between the destination and visitors. The Japanese Ministry of Tourism’s definition seems to be focused more on the ability in the local destination to make profit around a solid concept. The other interesting thing with this definition is that it claims a DMO should help with the creation of local pride of the said destination. The final definition is interesting because it mentions that the DMO should work together with the local community.

Taking these definitions, let’s take a look at the similarities:

1. Manages the logistics of a tourist destination

2. Provides services that are based on experiences unique to that local area

3. Creates a flow of money within that local area

4. Works together with the local community to create local pride

5. Designs a concept and story for the local area

Taking a look the list I made above, we can sort of get an idea what this creature called a DMO is.

In the simplest terms a DMO is an organization which manages a tourist destination to pull money from the outside into the destination, all the while bringing out the possibilities unique to that location and increasing local involvement. Let’s look at an example of one!

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All: Around Louvre Lens

In 2012, the Louvre decided to make a satellite museum in a town called Lens in the northern region of France called Pas De Calais. The town of Lens used to be a coal mining town until 1986 when the mines were officially closed down, but is now currently a UNESCO World Heritage Site. While having the Louvre Lens brought in tourists into the town, more tourists did not simply equal to jobs and town development, and so an organization called ALL (Around Louvre Lens) was created by the French Ministry of Tourism.

ALL takes on the role of accomplishing several goals:

1. Bringing together various players (local, domestic, international) to create various brands (products)which are based on the identity of the town of Lens

2. Take on projects from the Ministry of Tourism and takes charge from design to promotion

3. Increase tourism from abroad

4. Plan and carryout various events based on the culture and the lifestyle of the area

Because the town of Lens used to be a mining town, much of the products and art events which ALL produces revolves around the color black, representing the color of coal. For ALL creating economic development is important, but it is essentially the byproducts of first trying to develop the culture and identity of the area. Rather than just trying to make Lens into a generic tourist destination for mass tourism, ALL is developing and managing an efficient and attractive tourist location while developing the area’s culture through the active involvement of local stakeholders and players.

I think that one of the most important things a DMO can do for a small countryside town is to manage the cultural capital that the place may have. There is a term that is used called “cultural economy development” which is about developing the authentic social and cultural resources of a place, all the while responding to the challenges of global competition. What this essentially means is that for cultural economic development, one must create a flow of money around the development of the authentic social and cultural resources of the area. However this does not mean creating that “nostalgic past” which can be fetishized and copied easily, almost like a countryside Disneyland.

An example of this is:

The Hotel Louvre Lens: This is a hotel which was renovated from what used to be dorms where miners used to live. Instead of simply building a new hotel, ALL took a building which was already present in the town (also part of the history of the area) and created something new out of the old.

So to sum up this section, what I wanted to essentially say was that an economy can be made by maintaining and building upon what was already present, instead of creating something new which may have no cultural or historical roots in the area.

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Iwami Ginzan Lifestyle Tourism Laboratory

Yup, so big news, Gungendo, the company I am currently working at, is going to be splitting into two separate companies. One is going to be the same lifestyle and apparel company, all the while the new company is going to focus on tourism.

Now I say tourism, but we’re not going to be some travel agency planning trips for visitors and arranging bus tours and etc. We’re more going to be the company that will be taking the town and turning the whole thing into an ecosystem which will become the center for innovation for countryside living. Think of it almost like the Silicone Valley of the Iwami Area, starting Inaka startups which pertain to various physical spaces in the town. Let me explain.

Right now in Omori, we have about 80 abandoned houses within the town which are currently just being left there with no further plans to be used. One thing the new company can do is to take those old houses and turn them into various office spaces, inns, shared houses, and etc. This whole project can later become a branch of the new company and perhaps in the future its own company as well. This not only creates new jobs and more capacity for visitors to come and use the town, but also takes care of the abandoned house problem we have here in the town. We can even go into forestry and clean up the mountains around here together with the local department of forestry and make furniture. Then that can become a branch and perhaps its own entity in the future. So as we can see, it is about taking social/environmental/ architectural problems (among the many) and turning them into an opportunity which works towards a solution for that problem, creates jobs, and provides a service and a reason for more people from the outside to get involved or to visit the town.

The other part of the company is about making this things called the “Alberghi Diffusi” which translates to “scattered hotel”.

The Alberghi Diffusi model is:

Italian model for development born to save uninhabited houses in the rising numbers of small Italian borghi, or villages, vacated as people moved to cities

https://ecobnb.com/blog/2013/11/alberghi-dffusi-hotels-italy/

As such, a town will keep their traditional buildings and townscape and sprinkle in various rooms in which visitors can stay all through out the town. Logistically, visitors will check in at one “Lobby” which may be a building in the town, check-in and be handed the keys to their accommodations that is located within the town. For meals and such they would have to find a restaurant run by a local in the town. So whatever services visitors need will be provided by people of the town, which are not only providing a service for the visitors but also for the locals as well. In essence visitors will be staying in the town as if they are living in the town. This model takes advantage of what is already in the town, instead of building new buildings which may have no cultural roots there, provides jobs and incomes for the locals, and keeps these small towns with rich cultural heritage on the map. It is a model of Sustainable Tourism, where the lines between living and visiting are blurred providing people with authentic human experiences.

This is the model that we are trying to work towards right now at Lifestyle Tourism, a way to create sustainable tourism here in Omori. In other words to become a type of DMO for Omori.

Omori has become one of the centers of attention for alternative living in the countryside, where people seem to come to visit not simply for “tourism” but to find answers. In tourism studies there is a school of thought which claims a tourist as:

"secular pilgrim in quest of authenticity “

I don’t want to go into a whole worm-hole trying to explain what is authentic and what is not, so I’m just going to say that we are trying to create and expand on what feels real to us.

In this way, tourism for us does not mean simply come to our town and spend money, but come experience the real lifestyles of which we lead, in hopes that it will give you something that you needed.

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Balancing Economy and Culture

Yet after living in Omori for a year, I’ve realized that it is not enough just simply having culture or history, people need to make money in order to maintain their lifestyles. Now you might be thinking, uh…duh Shun, of course people need to make money, the hell are you talking about?

Well, one of the biggest reasons why I moved to this town of Omori was because it didn’t have that smell of money. The town felt genuine, authentic, organic and the lifestyle here, for me at least, really reflects that. I mean look at this town, it’s the opposite of what Tokyo looks like.

In a way I was that secular pilgrim in quest of authenticity.

But “This” here in Omori does not produce money by just existing. The town together with its history, culture, customs, townscape, needs to be processed and made into some kind of product for people to consume in order to create an economy. What is more, the economy must create profit for the town, instead of being funneled out of the town to some larger company that is located in Tokyo or something.

What we want is a well, and not a leaking bucket.

A well takes advantage of the water that is already present deep under ground and you build a system in which you can extract that water for generations to come. All the while a leaking bucket needs to be filled and little by little the water leaves the bucket and the bucket needs to be filled again and again. A lot of countryside towns in Japan are leaking buckets, where the holes were created by large corporations to funnel money out and so there is no “true” local and sustainable economy. Then there is competition for having the water bucket filled, but everybody just makes larger generic bucket with still the same holes ever so present. I mean look at those tourist sites around Japan, the same gifts shops, oh matcha ice cream, kimono wearing experiences, a McDonalds!

At the same time, we cannot also just focus on the economy, in a way the economy must be the bi-product of trying to protect culture first. Just as we see with the Alberghi Diffusi model, it didn’t start as a way to make an easy buck. It was a model made to protect the local heritage and lifestyle by moving the economy forwards through the maintenance of the local culture. This is why I have a bit of an issue with the government’s definition of DMO’s when they say it is a model to create profit. The whole point should not be about creating profit for profit sake…

Profit should be made to protect something

So DMO’s should not be considered a model to create profit, but a model to sustain a town and the people and the lifestyle there through the mutually beneficial cooperation of the people of the town and those who are interested and come visit the town. The profit should be considered less as just money, but a way to show that others are wanting to invest in protecting that place because they find it valuable to their lives.

So we need to have a balance of both culture and economy, but in many cases the economy exploits the culture and overtaking it.

Here we are coming full circle, DMO’s are one of the ways in which this balance of culture and economy can be maintained all the while moving forwards.

By strategically managing the cultural and lifestyle heritage of the locational to create a local economy and all the while promoting the local population’s self determination, DMO’s can be an important force in the new generation of both cultural and economical development of the countryside. The key here is not to exploit the cultural heritage of the place, and as we see with the Alberghi Diffusi model let the development of cultural heritage lead the economy forward. Of course with more money means bigger the projects, but if the economy leads the development of cultural heritage, does that mean that cultural heritage ends if there is no money?

In this way, what we need to be careful of is that ultimately a DMO is a tool, and as we all know a tool can be used in anyway the wielder decides to. As such, we need to be careful of the fact that just because it is called a DMO does not mean it is doing something good for the community. As we all know, the competitive forces of capitalism tends to sneak in using various forms. So I think a DMO’s have a lot of possibility to be used for good, but it can also just become one of those things where they put a DMO stamp on it and suddenly it “has social value”. I mean take the SDG’s, I see so many businessmen and women around Tokyo wearing the SDG badges, but are the companies that they work at actually doing anything for SDG’s? The answer is probably no, it’s one of those social responsibility fads which don’t really mean anything, just looks good.

As such, what will make the difference between a sustainable DMO and a non-sustainable DMO, I think, is going to be the differentiation of a cultural heritage first DMO and an economy first DMO.

Here in Omori, we’re going to work hard to become the cultural heritage first model and let the economy come chasing us from behind.