The Pathfinder General

President and CEO of Destinations International, Don Welsh, tells us about the trade association, founded in 1914 and headquartered in Washington DC’s expansion plans in Europe and how it continues to represent destination organisations and CVBs worldwide. We know you as president and CEO of Destinations International for nearly seven years and before that you held similar roles at Choose Chicago. How did you come into the meetings industry and, in particular, get involved in destination marketing? I have a deep passion for aviation and started my career as a baggage loader for United Airlines in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. That led to an opportunity in Seattle, Washington to be a part of a startup team at Horizon Air. That opportunity led to me being hired by Westin Hotels & Resorts, based in Seattle which led to other opportunities in the hotel and casino industry with the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company in Atlanta, Georgia and the Wyndham in Dallas, Texas and MGM Grand in Las Vegas. It was during my time with these various hotel organisations that the importance of meetings and events came to light. I then had the opportunity to join the convention and visitors bureau (CVB) world with Visit Seattle, Visit Indy and Choose Chicago, where I had the privilege of serving as president and CEO of all three organisations before joining Destinations International. Now leading world’s largest resource for destination organisations, how are you and your team approaching the task of driving destination economic impact, job creation, community sustainability and quality of life through travel now that we are re-emerging as a sector post-Covid? As fortunate as we were that leisure tourism supported pandemic recovery, we maintain a strong focus on getting the business events sector back to pre-pandemic levels globally by elevating and evolving our industry business practices. Our team has grown this year and we have intentionally built upon our resources for advocacy, equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), community development and sales and services. Through the work of our volunteer committees and industry partnerships, we continue to develop training programmes, education, resources and tools that will support the onboarding, reskilling, and upskilling of the workforce, so our industry is empowered to create impactful opportunities within their communities. We are aligned with the business events industry associations and businesses around the world such as PCMA, MPI, ASAE, IMEX Group, PATA, CityDNA, ICCA and WTTC. We have also had a deliberate emphasis on making sure that all of our resources are of global relevance and that we are empowering destinations across the globe to succeed. One of the new positions created this year is director of European engagement. Jane Cunningham joined us in this role and we have launched the Pathfinders Programme, which is helping us determine our future strategies and within the European Market. I just returned from the WTTC Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and it was encouraging to hear that most of the markets in the Middle East are also making business events a key priority in their development. The importance of the market cannot be emphasised enough and as it is critical in the overall economic health for most communities around the world, we will continue to put resources behind getting it back on track globally. You mention the Pathfinders Programme, can you please explain further? The Pathfinders Programme is comprised of forward-looking European destination leaders committed to tackling key issues facing destination organisations today. The inaugural Pathfinders include:

• Geneva Tourisme & Convention Foundation, Alain Pittet
• Malmö Convention Bureau, Johan Menso
• VisitScotland, Rory Archibald
• Fáilte Ireland, Paul Mockler
• Athens Development and Destination Management Agency, Alexia Panagiotopoulou
• Hungarian Tourism Agency, Ivan Ljubinkovic: Gabriella Becsei
• Visit Oulu, Yrjötapio Kivisaari
• The Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions, Antonia Koedijk
• Turisme de Barcelona/ Ajuntament de Barcelona, Rosa Bada
• Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency, Esra Güler
• Event Wales, Welsh Government, Heledd Williams
• Wonderful Copenhagen, Convention Bureau, Cathrine Seidel Tvede.

These industry leaders will identify opportunities where Destinations International can add value to cities, regions and countries in Europe with our products, education and tools. We may find that we need to create new services when we identify the current gaps in this ever-changing landscape.

Destinations International is considered to be an architect of advocacy. What are you ‘advocating’ now as the main issues before government and the wider industry? It is important to take a comprehensive look at the industry, isolate the issues and align the strategic opportunities that will empower destination organisations to showcsse their value through their important advocacy work around community alignment, destination stewardship and value-based action. For the past four years, we have built on our community shared value concept that has a global application. We continue to refine the way we talk about the multiple benefits that communities derive from a healthy tourism and business events economy. In successful business events destinations, there is a clear alignment between the ideology of those communities and the engagement of local stakeholders. Organisational resilience, especially after all of our learnings from the pandemic, remains top of mind. The future-proofing of our industry through EDI, workforce development, climate change considerations and the provision of alternatives to boycotts and bans, will help our industry sustain business events and help destination organisations be good stewards of the valuable commodity they represent. Tell us about some of the destination tools available from DI. With more than 300 destinations in 12 countries, the Event Impact Calculator (EIC) has been the global standard in the business events market, sports festivals and public shows. This tool helps destinations measure and validate their investment and strategies. The product was developed in partnership with Oxford Economics and is going to be critical as we continue with recovery from the pandemic. There are also other tools such as The Compensation and Benefits Reporting Platform which is an online tool that allows destination organisations to input their current salary and benefits structure and compare their practices with peer destinations. I think this could be of interest to European destinations. EDI is a big theme for DI, as everywhere else. How are you championing these issues? Our EDI initiative launched during a board meeting that took place in Savannah, GA in 2017, where in a room of approximately 65 CEOs and industry leaders, our current chair, Al Hutchinson, asked everyone to look around the room to determine what was wrong. Unfortunately, Al was the only person of colour around that table and on that day, earnest change began. We launched our CEO Pledge and I am pleased to report has over 400 signees. We set EDI as a strategic initiative of the organisation and began the hard work of implementing processes and important work. This year, we hired Sophia Hyder Hock to lead our EDI efforts. We launched our EDI Assessment Tool at our 2022 Annual Convention in Toronto, Canada, which helps measure where destinations stand on their EDI journey. We have also been able to lead tailored EDI training, workshops and facilitated dialogues that focus on creating foundational EDI strategies that can have a positive impact upon all areas of an organisation. We will continue to listen and focus on creating thought leadership, educational opportunities, and creating resources and services that assist with how to get started on EDI initiatives and strategic implementation initiatives in a systematic way. We are committed to continuing to be a catalyst for change in our industry around the world. What are your plans for future DI events and summits? We have a variety of events happening in 2023. A full listing along with descriptions of the event can be found at destinationsinternational.org/upcoming-events. Some highlights include:

• Marketing and Communications Summit, 13-15 February, 2023, Norfolk, VA, USA
• Showcase, 8 March, 2023, National Harbor, MD, USA
• Convention Sales & Services Summit, 9 March, 2023, National Harbor, MD, USA
• CEO Summit, 3-5 April, 2023, Victoria, BC, Canada
• Annual Convention, 18-20 July, 2023, Dallas, TX
• Business Operations Summit, 9-11 October, 2023, Little Rock, AR, USA|
• EDI Summit, 10-11 October, 2023, Little Rock, AR, USA
• Advocacy Summit, 10-12 October, 2023, Little Rock, AR, USA

We welcome more global voices during our summits and our flagship event, the Annual Convention, and invite European destination leaders to join us in Dallas, Texas in July.