Destination Management Systems: Key Distinctive Functionalities Aimed at Visitors and Destination Suppliers

Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) have been taking advantage of technologies in order to manage destinations in a more successful way. Previous research on tourism destination online platforms has proclaimed Destination Management Systems (DMSs) as their most advanced version, mostly by giving visitors the ability to accomplish most of their travel arrangements through a reliable official platform integrating several destination components. However, most of the academic research on DMSs is conceptual and/or lacks a holistic perspective of the functionalities that characterize such systems and does not provide an overview of the functionalities that differentiate these systems from more traditional DMOs’ web platforms. The present paper intends to contribute to fill these gaps, namely to identify the functionalities that differentiate these systems by confronting previous research that focuses on potential DMS functionalities with the results of an empirical study encompassing a content analysis of 23 DMS and interviews with both DMS’s developers and DMO officials. The findings suggest a considerable mismatch between the functionalities conveyed by existing DMSs and previous research either theoretical or empirical that rely on the analysis of few DMSs. The paper ends with conclusions and suggestions regarding the development of DMSs.