Memoire Online - Destination Management System

The requirements of tourism based economic prosperity, combined with new market trends, weak negotiating power of Morocco's small and fragmented tourism industry, and the absence of ITs based marketing tools are creating a very challenging environment for MNTO's organization to face, in a country where the tourism industry is heavily depending on the European market demand. For MNTO, the obvious strategic imperative of a DMS, do not implicate technical and financial issues only, in the use of Web based technology, but far more importantly it represents a management issue. In facts DMS should contribute real benefits to the reconfiguration of MNTO as a national tourism office. The web not only change organization's business processing but enhance knowledge capital and social capital as well, through information sharing and partnership with all stakeholders. It is therefore imperative that MNTO prepares to answer the strategic challenge with an organization that possesses strong capabilities and knowledge key resource to confront this very competitive environment.

Morocco Tourism Industry

Environment

Socio-economic issues

Fragmentation SMTEs Position of Tour operators Lack of cooperation

Requirements

Economic prosperity Service and product renovation

New work organization

Technical issues

No structure of information No integrated database

No customer profiles

Insufficient Marketing

Little use of IT tools

The duties of NTOs is to provide leadership by developing a vision, identifying additional tourism sources, motivating communities, and coaching partners. All of these tasks require skills, supporting knowledge and competent leadership. MNTO's Organization and culture are not aligned with DMS strategy implementation. Change in management practices and mindset must shift dramatically. For NTOs, DMS generate this paradigm-shift (Frangialli, 1998), which transforms management practices and improve information flow, work

organization, and business processes, forcing them to acquire the needed skills and to boost their capacity for learning and adaptability. Information technology enables NTO's to handle the growth of information, by compressing time, allowing NTO's to respond faster to their respective markets and partners than ever before. Quality service, efficiency, convenience are radically enhanced, while types of services are expanded. But the real benefit is the reconfiguration of the organization. This means that MNTO need to embrace the trend of network organizations. It needs to shift its actual work processes using the Web to enhance knowledge capital but also to enhance social and human capital. Today, in order to build their competitive advantage, organizations are gearing towards knowledge acquisition and learning, instead of controlling (Gretzel, et. al., 2000).

The implementation of a DMS strategy for the MNTO to promote and sell the destination in a new way, imply transforming an organization that will constitute by itself a sustainable competitive advantage for Morocco's tourism industry. However success comes from successfully implementing a strategy, not just from having one. This implementation capability derives in large measure from the organization's people, how they are treated, their skills and competencies, and their efforts on behalf the organization (Jeffrey Pfeiffer, 1998).

The biggest challenge facing the MNTO is therefore changing peoples' culture and mind, in order to successfully understand and support the core strategy necessary to enable the implementation of marketing oriented and

technology based «Destination Management System». It is therefore vital to address the cultural and mentality changes that are needed in this organization.

In order to change its way for doing business, the MNTO should define a new vision, mission, thus, developing and enhancing its core competencies. It is clearly quite a change, but it is undoubtedly the prerequisite to the aspiration of becoming a performing Destination Marketing Organization.

Strong Brand name: Morocco has been recognized since the sixties as a Tourism Destination with strong potential. The MNTO is an 82 years old institution and is present in 15 Markets around the world.

> Total discontinuity between the Organization and the present > No clear strategic direction.

> Lack of management and marketing skills to perform core competency. > Overstaffed and limited skilled human resources.

> Government/Private sector led action plan to develop the Tourism sector with 10 millions tourist objective in 2010

> New leadership with private sector background and committed government support

In order to change its way of doing business, the MNTO should define a new vision and mission, in order to develop and enhance its core competencies. The following definitions should strongly pertain to the Moroccan National Tourist Office:

The vision of an industry that is internationally competitive, sustainable and valued for the economic, social, and environmental benefits it brings to Morocco. Mission Statement

Generating jobs and wealth through effective leadership in the promotion and development of tourism.

> Provide advice and market intelligence to tourism industry stakeholders. > Identify opportunities to improve Morocco's tourism competitiveness. > Support the local and regional marketing associations network.

> Advise the government tourism department authority on tourism strategic development and policy issues.

As explained previously, in order to provide leadership by developing a vision, motivating the industry community and coaching partners, the MNTO need not only different types of skills but also supporting knowledge and effective leadership.

Adaptation to technological change cannot be realized without changes in the organizational structure and culture. Thus it is a necessity for the leadership, first to drag the MNTO out from the government bureaucracy and autocracy. It must become an independent (and accountable) agency. That will ensure its organizational structural change.

Transforming people mindset and culture inherited from a bureaucratic and autocratic environment, is a very difficult task. Becoming knowledge-based organization means that people should embrace the changes and be willing to learn and acquire new skills and competencies. Technology based promotion cannot be adopted in one night. It must gradually diffuse. The question of recruiting, hence takes most of its importance. An organization that wants to achieve skill in doing an activity and yet is unwilling to recruit, select, compensate, evaluate, or measure will achieve its goal only through some form of divine intervention (Jeffrey Pfeiffer, 1998). MNTO's management practices must therefore be aligned with a DMS's business and organization strategy. Training courses for middle management and lower management should address priorities such as shared strategy understanding, performance management, learning skills and ability, English language proficiency, specific skills related to knowledge management, technology and computer skills. Immersion training programs through innumerable bilateral agreements with numerous European countries, especially those of Austria and Ireland, that are the most advanced in term of technology based marketing, should be taken advantages of. This will help to take a pro-active change approach to help shift people mindset. Financial and human resources are undoubtedly prerequisites to such actions, otherwise change will not happen. Change efforts have to comprise all organizational levels and need to

take the concern of all stakeholders. The resistance that comes from employees independently of their level in the organization is not the emanation of refuting

change but from the fear from being changed (Gretzel, et., al., 2000). Because successful change needs commitment not compliance, involving people in the change process habitually reduce resistance. MNTO's leadership must realize that this can be achieved only by creating an organizational culture that embrace change and foster learning. It will require the redesigning of organizational structure so that change can be actively sought. Building a capacity for ongoing change is crucial for MNTO's business environment and new blood need to be injected, having in mind that without proper management, sufficient knowledge, good communications, technology implementation will not see daylight.

Destination Management System

MNTO's ORGANIZATIONAL CHALLENGE