On April 16, the Greater Myrtle Beach Collaborative was unveiled during the region’s 2026 Annual Meeting, pulling the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, Visit Myrtle Beach, Partnership Grand Strand, and a set of community and leadership initiatives under a single enterprise identity.

The framing from local leaders is important for how other destinations should read it: this is explicitly not a merger or a rebrand. Each entity retains its core mission — business advocacy, tourism marketing, economic and community development, leadership pipelines — but the Collaborative presents them to stakeholders, funders, and policymakers as one strategic platform under CEO Matt Pivarnik.

The Collaborative also anchors a new regional strategy initiative, Collaborate2031, which is running a countywide feedback process to shape priorities through 2031.

What This Means for DMOs

DMOs operating in mid-size and smaller markets are under steady pressure to show up in more conversations than pure visitation marketing — workforce, housing, transportation, sports, film, conventions, downtown revitalization. The Myrtle Beach model is an answer to a question a lot of boards are quietly asking: how do we speak with one voice to legislators and funders without dissolving the individual brands that actually do the work?

Expect to see more of this structure in 2026 and 2027. Regions where the DMO, the chamber, and an economic development organization all chase overlapping funding will look hard at a shared enterprise layer, especially as TIDs, occupancy tax reforms, and pressure on visitor economy performance put destination budgets under more scrutiny.

The risk is that a “collaborative” becomes another reporting layer that dilutes accountability. The opportunity is that a well-designed enterprise identity gives the region one number to point to on economic impact, one stakeholder roster, and one policy position — which is exactly what most funders and elected officials actually want.

DMO leaders watching this model should ask two questions internally: who actually owns destination marketing decisions inside the enterprise, and how is performance reported back to the individual entity boards? If both answers are clear, the Collaborative model is a net positive. If either is fuzzy, it is a governance risk dressed up as strategy.

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