A Critical Realist Explanation of the Shifting Role of Destination Marketing Organisations: Evidence from Zambia's Tourism Destination System

Abstract

The role of Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs) has been the subject of persistent questioning in both academic literature and professional practice since the early 2000s. While scholars acknowledge that the expected role of DMOs is shifting among various tourism industry stakeholders, the underlying causal mechanisms producing these shifts remain inadequately explained. This study employs Critical Realism (CR) as a theoretical framework to investigate the shifting expected role of the DMO in Zambia's tourism destination system. Using a qualitative case study design with thirty informants from the southern tourism circuit, the study applied Bhaskar's stratified ontology and Archer's morphogenetic model to explain the observed phenomena. The findings reveal that the shifting role of the DMO emerges from the interplay between structural conditioning forces (path-dependence mechanisms including government policy directions, regional structures, market forces, cultural history, and international organisation influences) and social interactions among destination stakeholders. The study identifies morphogenetic processes characterised by structural elaboration rather than morphostasis, explaining why policy propositions fail to produce intended outcomes despite stakeholder expectations shifting. This research contributes to DMO theory by demonstrating how CR provides explanatory adequacy for understanding destination system dynamics, offering practical implications for tourism policy formulation in emerging destinations.