The British Association of Conference Destinations (BACD) and Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) have announced a group membership agreement which gives BACD and its members full membership of DMAI.

BACD is investing in a special corporate membership package with DMAI, enabling all BACD members to enjoy the full range of DMAI membership benefits without having to subscribe individually.

BACD will pay the membership fees or dues on their behalf, saving the larger destinations several thousands of dollars in fees.

BACD is leading the way - Britain is the first country to enter into such an agreement.

The agreement gives added value to existing BACD members (including the four national tourist boards) and brings all UK destinations into the global meetings and destination marketing industry.

DMAI was founded over 90 years ago and is the world’s largest association of official destination marketing organisations (DMOs).

Three existing DMAI members are in the UK (Belfast, Glasgow and London).

BACD looks forward to working strategically with DMAI at a European level to progress the partnership and build links with other countries and with European clients.

Comments Sue Stuart, BACD chair; “BACD has been working very hard over the past year to reinvent itself and ensure that it is fit for purpose. A key part of this reinvention is the provision of new benefits and services to the existing BACD membership, one of the most important being access to DMAI.

“We see full membership of DMAI as offering genuine and substantial additionality to the BACD benefits package. There are also important strategic opportunities for BACD corporately through this alliance with one of the international meetings industry’s leading bodies.”

Says Bill Talbert, CDME, chair of the DMAI board of directors and president & CEO of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitor Bureau (GMCVB);

"Our partnership with BACD is an integral part of DMAI's global expansion program, coinciding with the opening of our Brussels office and our focus on establishing a stronger presence in Europe and the United Kingdom.

“We are pleased to welcome BACD and its members into the DMAI family, and to have the opportunity to provide BACD members resources such as our Sales Academy(tm) and Certified Destination Management Executive (CDME) programs, as well as our extensive work on destination branding, performance reporting and accreditation."

Membership benefits include:

·         Accreditation for DMOs – a new benefit with testing of DMO accreditation presently underway. Due to be launched in second quarter 2007

·         Brand leadership – redefining and promoting the value and importance of the DMO to its stakeholders

·         Performance reporting – reporting and benchmarking a DMO’s achievement.

·         Industry research and publications

·         Education and CPD programmes, including the ‘Certified Destination Marketing Executive’ (CDME) programme for senior managers and chief executives of DMOs.

·         DMAI will also run its Destination Positioning and Branding programme and its Sales Academy in the UK exclusively for BACD members.

·         Industry advocacy

·         Destinations Showcase – one-day tradeshows run in Washington and Chicago annually. The Washington event attracts approx. 1200 association buyers

·         MINT (The Meeting Industry Network) – a database housing details of over 32,000 meetings from 16,000 organisations in a web-enabled format accessible from any location at any time

·         On-line Request for Proposal (RFP)

·         OfficialTravelGuide.com – listing on DMAI’s official consumer web site