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Most DMOs measure success in website clicks and visitor guide downloads. Gary Sherwin has spent 20 years at Visit Newport Beach asking a harder question: if you disappeared tomorrow, would your stakeholders call you essential – or just convenient?

This episode covers the implications of Google I/O, where itinerary builders and shopping carts inside search may soon make the DMO website an afterthought, through to Gary’s case that technology disruption has never been the real threat. He’s seen the internet, the OTAs, and now AI – and DMOs that survived all three did it by becoming indispensable to their communities.

That means funnel reviews where hotels open their full pipeline and you strategize on closing business together. It means crashing the BAFTAs in London without asking permission and building an event PBS eventually broadcasts to millions. It means a private funding model where major hotels voluntarily give Visit Newport Beach 5% of revenue on 10-year deals – because they’ve decided it’s worth it.

Stuart and Adam push back on the Google question, debate agentic search, and ask whether DMOs are harvesting demand their partners should be converting themselves.

Bottom Line: The technology disruption is real, but it isn’t the existential threat. The threat is DMOs that stay convenient instead of becoming essential. Gary’s prescription: build relationships deep enough that your stakeholders fight for you, not just renew with you.

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