DENMARK TOURISM ADMINISTRATIVE AND TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION

The Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs is responsible for the coordination of Danish tourism policy, international policy tasks related to the EU, etc. The ministry co-operates with a number of other Danish authorities, for instance the Ministry of the Environment, including the Danish Forest and Nature Agency (Naturstyrelsen) and the Agency for Spatial and Environmental Planning (By- og Landskabsstyrelsen).

VisitDenmark primary task is the international promotion of Denmark as a tourism destination. In order to create a coherent marketing of Denmark as a tourist destination, all public activity (be it regional or local) related to the international promotion of Denmark as a tourism destination has to be coordinated with VisitDenmark. In addition, VisitDenmark also makes annual tourism analyses and is creator of knowledge.

VisitDenmark operates eight overseas offices (in Germany, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Italy, Great Britain, Japan and the United States). Additionally, VisitDenmark is active on an ad-hoc basis in selected markets in South East Asia (China, India, Korea), Spain, France, Russia, Poland, Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland, Australia and Iceland. In South East Asia, VisitDenmark forms part of a Scandinavian Tourist Board. In the USA, VisitDenmark cooperates through Scandinavian Tourist Inc. with Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland.

National level

Regional level

Denmark consists of five regions and 98 municipalities. A regional growth forum and a regional development organisation have been established in each of the five regions plus the Baltic island of Bornholm.

Regional Growth Forums

The growth forums consist of regional and local politicians together with representatives of business organisations, educational institutions and social partners (the unions and employers’ organisations). The main purpose of the growth forums is to ensure coherence between state, regional, local and EU funds, as well as deciding which activities and projects should receive public funding.

Regional Tourism Development Organisations

Additionally, regional tourism development organisations have been established for each of the five regions plus the Baltic island of Bornholm. The regional development organisations’ main area of responsibility is to facilitate and guarantee product development, innovation and marketing of tourism within the regions - including fundraising, co-ordination and marketing of cross-regional development themes, co-ordination of human resources development, co-ordination between the regions, provision of tourism development tools and guidelines as well as facilitation of tourism destination development.

Local level

Tourism information

At the local level, the vast majority of Denmark’s 98 municipalities operate local tourist information centres which are funded predominantly by each municipality. The tourist information centres are responsible for coordinating and delivering tourist services and information as well as product development and marketing at the local level.

Destinations

Also, a number of strong destinations (DMO’s) are being developed, each of the destinations consisting of one or more municipalities, tourism organisations and businesses. VisitDenmark has facilitated the process in co-operation with the regional development organisations through seminars, knowledge sharing and development tools. The tourism development destinations are responsible for strategic development and organisational management at destination level, including co-ordination of PR and marketing, destination development projects, fundraising, co-operation between tourism organisations, involvement of the industry, etc.

In addition to the Ministry of Business and Economic Affairs, public and private associations as well as NGO’s are involved on an ad hoc basis and in relation to specific projects.