If your DMO is still segmenting audiences by demographics — age, income, household composition — David Allison’s argument is that you’re working off a 1990s playbook that fails to predict actual behavior. In this conversation with Destinations International, Allison walks through the Human Values Toolkit, a values-based framework now in use by destination organizations rebuilding how they connect with residents and visitors.

Why DMOs Should Watch This

Values-based segmentation answers a problem most destination marketers know exists but don’t have a tool for: two travelers in the same demographic profile can have wildly different reasons for choosing — or rejecting — your destination. Demographics describe who someone is. Values describe what they care about. When you build campaigns against values, the messaging stops feeling generic and starts feeling personal.

The toolkit also has direct application to resident engagement, which is increasingly tied to DMO funding stability per Destinations International’s research on destination promotion. If you can identify the specific values driving local sentiment, you can build community campaigns that move the needle on board and political support — not just on impressions.

What to Take Away

The session is most useful for marketing directors and CEOs evaluating audience research investments for FY27. Allison’s framing pairs well with the field-wide shift toward measurement maturity highlighted in the Sojern 2026 State of Destination Marketing Report, which named economic-impact measurement and audience-segmentation modernization as the top two strategic priorities for the field.

Watch the full conversation on the Destinations International YouTube channel.

Thumbnail via Destinations International on YouTube