Engaging Destination Stakeholders in the Digital Era: The Best Practice of Italian Regional DMOs

Abstract

This article examines the underinvestigated topic of how destination marketing organizations (DMOs) engage stakeholders in destination management and marketing through leverage on off-line tools, official destination websites, and social media platforms. Building on a significant body of literature and advances in quantitative and qualitative research, we provide three methodological tools: two scales assessing DMO stakeholder engagement off-line and online and a social media index measuring tourist engagement. Our results confirm that in Italy regional DMOs are capitalizing on the digital platforms and off-line participatory tools to enhance stakeholder engagement in destinations’ decision making. Theoretical and managerial implications for destination management in the digital era are suggested.