Expectations are high for today's destination marketing organizations (DMOs), as is the demand to navigate how technology, data, and artificial intelligence (AI) reshape experiences both online and in person.
Most DMOs don't struggle with a lack of technology, but rather with disconnected, fragmented workflows. Marketing platforms, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, reporting tools, websites, and partner data all play important roles — but when they operate independently, it's harder to gain a complete picture of what's working and where to focus next.
Granicus Destinations is focused on creating a more connected foundation where services work together to help destinations drive impact with greater clarity and confidence. This quarter's updates represent another step in that journey.
A more connected vision
The introduction of Destination Experience Cloud (DXC) presents a framework for how DMOs can connect the systems, insights, and expertise they already depend on into a more cohesive approach to growth and impact.
At its core, DXC is built around three ideas:
- Connecting critical workflows across marketing, meetings, community engagement, reporting, and services.
- Turning activity into measurable outcomes through connected insights.
- Creating a scalable path for organizations to evolve over time without starting over.
In many ways, the innovations we're launching today are examples of that vision coming to life.
Reimagining the destination website
One of the clearest examples of this evolution is Destination Canvas, the next generation of Simpleview CMS.
With a modern website foundation focused on performance, accessibility, and discoverability, destinations can create faster, more engaging digital experiences while maintaining the flexibility needed to evolve their brand and storytelling over time.
The goal is to create a stronger foundation for how destinations are found, experienced, and trusted in an increasingly AI-driven world.
Visibility isn’t just about rankings
As traveler discovery changes, so too must the way destinations think about visibility. That's the thinking behind the latest enhancements to Search & Visibility Optimization.
Travelers are turning to AI-powered tools and answer-driven experiences to research destinations and plan trips. As a result, visibility now means understanding both where your destination ranks and where it is being referenced, cited, and surfaced.
Modern discovery is all about being present wherever travelers look for answers. Destinations can navigate this with confidence using:
- New AI visibility reporting.
- Expanded reporting metrics.
- Analyst-led guidance.
- More flexible engagement options are designed to help.
The next evolution of CRM
Several of this quarter's updates focus on helping CRM users gain access to innovation faster and operate with more confidence.
A common question we hear, "How can we benefit from CRM innovation without waiting for a major platform transition?" Shared Services is designed to answer that question.
This strategy brings together CRM 3.0 and CRM Apex to create a more unified CRM experience, giving your organization better data, stronger reporting, and a clearer path to ongoing improvements.
Shared Services moves your CRM toward a single, authoritative source of truth for member and partner data, with improved workflows and more flexible reporting powered by Data Engine.
Connecting sales and venue operations
Coordination between sales and venue teams can often create reporting challenges and operational friction. The new Momentus Elite integration helps solve that by connecting venue bookings and CRM pipeline activity.
With Momentus Elite, DMOs gain a clearer understanding of booking outcomes, improved forecasting confidence, and stronger visibility across teams.
Built specifically for sports tourism
Sports tourism continues to be a strategic growth area for many destinations. The new CRM Sports Sales Group introduces sports-specific workflows, reporting, and opportunity management directly inside Simpleview CRM — creating a more purpose-built experience and reducing the need for spreadsheets, workarounds, and disconnected processes.
Bringing AI into everyday workflows
One theme you'll notice throughout nearly every update this quarter is the thoughtful application of AI. Our experts want to emphasize that it’s not AI for the sake of AI, but rather strategic advancements designed to help teams save time, uncover opportunities, and make better decisions.
AI-powered insights with Data Engine
Data Engine is continuing to evolve with AI-powered capabilities embedded directly into the reporting experience. Teams can spend less time wrestling with reports and more time acting on what the data reveals using enhancements like:
- AI-assisted analysis.
- AI-generated report summaries.
- Future natural-language report-building capabilities.
Smarter marketing with Act-On
AI is also helping DMOs create more effective communications. New <a data-sv-linklookup-id=">Act-On enhancements introduce AI-powered analytics, more accurate engagement reporting through bot filtering, and expanded visibility into campaign performance. Combined with direct CRM connectivity, these capabilities help teams deliver more relevant communications while reducing manual effort.
The result is a marketing engine that becomes smarter over time — helping destinations better engage visitors, partners, members, and meeting planners.
Innovation doesn't stop here
We’re excited to share that the MeetingMatch for MINT+ is coming soon. It will introduce destination sales intelligence that helps teams quickly identify and prioritize the opportunities most likely to fit, book, and deliver economic impact. Powered by Data Engine machine learning, MeetingMatch brings a new layer of intelligence directly into destination sales workflows.
