Google’s mantra used to be “don't be evil.” But, what have they done to the relevance of libraries? Uber never pretended to not disintermediate taxis…but they have. And, tourism promotion and development has always been a Quality of Life play for those of us that work in that sector. Except when it actually works the other way.

Last fall, we were engaged by a Destination Marketing Organization to test their video and TV commercials. For the past four years, we’ve used DMOvizion to test travel video on Moms, Millennials and Matures in primary feeder markets, domestic and international. This time, however, the focus was different; the assignment was to test the imagery on the African American travel consumer.

The Holiday Season is many things to many people. First and foremost, for us, it is the opportunity to reconnect with family and friends. But, we also welcome the holidays as a time to do a deep dive into “what’s next.” It’s been said that entry level employees should spend 90% of their time concentrating on the job at hand and 10% thinking about the future. Conversely, CEOs should spend 10% of their time focused on the here and now and 90% on what’s next. Unfortunately, as compelling a concept as this sounds, it just isn’t feasible for the vast majority of people in senior management today.

Except, just possibly, during the holidays.

A number of us in DMO-land used to joke that it was 7...and then off to the next adventure. Seven years seemed to be the average tenure for Destination Marketing CEOs. I never made it past 5 years in either of my DMO gigs. A cooler opportunity presented itself in the first and an itch to jump into consulting after completing my MBA 20 years ago short-circuited the other. But, the 7 year thing is kinda standard for many of us. Except for those that go long. I mean really long. Like two decades.