Destination stakeholders want to know not just how you are performing, but how you stack up against peer destinations competing for the same visitors; however, comparing your destination against others has proven to be a recurring challenge for destination managers.

Whether due to data silos, inconsistent metrics, or lack of access to competitor intelligence, many destinations struggle to appropriately benchmark their destination, and these challenges hinder effective planning and investment.

In the second episode of The D.I.R.T., Lighthouse experts Blake Reiter and Daniel Foreman will explore how to answer these questions with confidence using real-time data. We will cover:

• Which metrics matter most when benchmarking destination performance

• Considerations to ensure meaningful comparisons between competing destinations

• How to spot opportunities and risks by tracking competitors over time

• Common benchmarking pitfalls and how to avoid misleading comparisons

Whether you're building your first list of competitive destinations or refining an existing strategy, this session will arm you with the tools and frameworks to benchmark with confidence and make better-informed decisions for your destination.

This is one of the most common and important questions for DMO teams. But “where is demand coming from” can mean different things – the physical origin of visitors, the demand generators driving travel, the segments behind the demand, or even the timing across the calendar year.

In the first episode of The D.I.R.T., we will use actual, real-time data from global destinations to answer these questions and show how to interpret the data to extract actionable insights and make better decisions. We will cover:

• How to identify which origin markets are growing or shrinking

• How certain demand drivers are influencing travel to your destination

• Which visitor segments are contributing most to demand

• How to understand when demand will materialize across the calendar year

→ Watch the recording here.