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The Ripe Perspective: From Leakage to Leadership

This is our manifesto. Our point of view on what’s broken and how the ITA Model reclaims tourism for the destinations, events, and people who create it.

As tourism grows, so do the stakes for DMOs.

Tourism promises prosperity, yet too often the value it generates—revenue, data, and opportunity—is captured by RevPar poachers, culture vultures, and the middleman mafia—global OTAs, international chains, and external operators all taking their bite. 

Local businesses battle for their share, residents face rising costs, and the cultural fabric of destinations is strained while the benefits are exported to outside interests.

Picnic with city in background

For DMOs, this challenge has become existential.

Once the drivers of visitor growth, they are now expected to balance a complex dual mandate: balancing visitor experiences with community well-being. This means moving beyond promotion to embrace placemaking and benefit-sharing as foundational to destination management.

Yet DMOs are constrained by outdated models that prioritize heads-in-beds over impact, quantity over quality. Failing to adapt to these expectations risks not just the relevance of the DMO but the competitiveness of the destination itself. Without transformation, tourism leakage will continue to drain resources, weaken community support, and leave DMOs struggling to compete in an evolving travel landscape.

The future of destination leadership requires transformation. DMOs must reimagine themselves as architects of destination economies—leaders who align community, commerce, and culture to ensure tourism strengthens rather than strains their communities.

Ripe believes what happens in-market should stay in-market.

This is the power of the ITA Model.

Unlike traditional travel platforms that prioritize volume over impact, an In-Market Travel Agency (ITA) strategy empowers DMOs to align community, commerce, and culture by curating cohesive, traveler-centric ecosystems that integrate accommodations, events, and activities. The ITA Model keeps tourism dollars and data within the destination, ensuring that economic, cultural, and social benefits flow directly to the local community.

By empowering DMOs to reclaim control over the visitor economy, the ITA Model enable them to:

  • Retain revenue in their community by reducing reliance on third-party intermediaries.
  • Build stronger traveler relationships by leveraging first-party data to inform decisions.
  • Preserve cultural identity by connecting travelers with authentic, localized offerings.
While the middleman mafia extracts value and operates with self-interest, the DMO serves as:
  • The defender of local interests, ensuring tourism dollars and opportunities stay within the community.
  • The strategist who unites local stakeholders—lodging, businesses, and events—to deliver cohesive and meaningful experiences.
  • The bridge-builder between visitors and the authentic culture, commerce, and character of the destination.
The ITA Model positions DMOs as stewards of sustainable growth, ensuring tourism becomes a tool for equitable prosperity and cultural preservation. With Ripe’s ITA Platform, DMOs can lead their destinations into a future where visitors and communities thrive together—where every visit creates meaningful impact, and every destination becomes stronger for it.


Take back your tourism economy.

Be part of the ITA Model built for communities, not intermediaries—how tourism was meant to work.
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