Development Counsellors International, a leading tourism marketing and economic development agency, has promoted Daniella Middleton to senior vice president of its tourism practice.
In her new role, Middleton will step into a tourism strategy role, firmly unifying the five divisions of DCI’s Tourism Practice Research, Public Relations, Digital Marketing, Travel Trade Marketing and Business Events—to better serve the agency’s roster of destination clients. She will also continue to advance the agency’s digital offerings, formalizing strategic partnership initiatives that help to advance the goals DCI’s destination clients.
Middleton began her career in the meetings and incentive sales space, creating sales and marketing campaigns for international destinations. Following the completion of her MBA and a stint at a digital think-tank, she returned to the tourism industry, joining DCI to advance its digital marketing efforts in addition to leading its Business Events division. She has worked with more than 50 travel destinations around the world to develop campaigns that promote destination narratives and inspire consumers and meeting planners to act.
“Daniella has been integral to the success of some of the tourism world’s more creative activations throughout the U.S. and Canada” says Karyl Leigh Barnes, president of DCI’s Tourism Practice. “Because of her intuition and ideation, we have seen destinations transform from devastated to recovery in record time. In the wake of COVID-19, this skill will be more necessary than ever before.”
“Contributing to the growth of local economies through our tourism marketing work at DCI motivates me each day,” says Middleton. “I’m now driven by the challenge of threading integrated strategies to support clients through COVID-19 recovery efforts, and ultimately, to carefully position each of our clients to remain top of mind for visitors when it is safe for business and leisure travel to resume.”
A graduate of NYU Stern School of Business and Brandeis University, Middleton has spoken on marketing partnerships between EDOs and DMOs at the ICCA World Congress, digital influencer marketing at City Nation Place Americas conference and meeting planner perceptions of destinations at IMEX America.
Development Counsellors International is an expert in how North American travelers and business executives select destinations. They partner with destinations to increase visitor arrivals, disperse visitors, augment daily spend and increase business investment. Since 1960, DCI has worked with more than 500 countries, regions, states and cities around the world. Their team is passionate about their calling to leverage tourism as a force for good, creating living-wage jobs and improving the quality of life for local residents. Ranked as one of Outside magazine’s “Best Places to Work,” DCI employs more than 65 destination marketing professionals. The firm is headquartered in Union Square in New York City, with offices in Denver, Los Angeles and Toronto. For more info, visit www.aboutdci.com.
