The Destination Markham Corporation (DMC) is an arm’s length municipal corporation launched in April 2020 as the destination management organization (DMO) for the City of Markham.
Destination Markham’s purpose is to promote Markham as a remarkable destination for visitors, including tourists, sport and festival attendees, meeting, and conference delegates, and business travellers.
The key tourism objectives are to research, develop, market, and grow Markham’s tourism/visitor economy. This initiative will collaborate with Markham’s hotel industry, festival-event conference-travel planners, attraction operators, cultural institutions, sports tourism promoters, entertainment and recreation providers, food service businesses and the City of Markham.
Destination Markham will:
- Take a leadership role in promoting and marketing Markham as a leading destination for tourism, leisure and business travel with an emphasis on promoting overnight stays.
- Promote developments and investments that increase and enhance Markham’s attractiveness as a tourism destination and as an economic sector generating employment and taxable assessment.
- Collaborate with stakeholder organizations such as Central Counties Tourism, Markham Board of Trade, York Region’s tourism organizations, and other business, government and not for profit organizations in delivering programming that attracts greater spending and investments in Markham.
- Develop relationships with tourism stakeholders and other levels of government.
- Develop and implement Destination Management strategies and activities that reflect Markham’s unique character, its cultural and built heritage, natural features, diverse ethnic communities, social and cultural traditions, recreational and sports assets, and business development opportunities.
- Seek to leverage the transit and infrastructure investments made by the City, York Region and the Province of Ontario to build exciting tourism offerings and a sense of place in key areas such as Downtown Markham, local village cores, and other strategic areas.
- Undertake its work based on an informed and objective decision-making process that is accountable and transparent, resulting in city-wide benefits.
2023 Business Priorities
- Destination Management, Organizational Development and Internal Governance
- Ensure DMC is a leading authority in destination management capable of growing Markham’s visitor economy.
- Provide the resources and support tourism related businesses need to thrive in Markham.
- Enhance the visitor and resident experience in Markham by collaborating with stakeholders, community and all level of governments.
- Research & Investment Attraction
- Collect and analyze meaningful visitor data to support product development, investment attraction, and Marketing.
- Broaden Markham’s reach and renown as a destination.
- Attract future tourism investment to Markham.
- Product & Experience Development
- Establish a diverse mix of exciting and engaging tourism products and authentic experiences.
- Develop the hard and soft infrastructure to support Destination Markham’s key visitor segments.
- Destination Marketing
- Build a unifying and appealing brand for DMC that generates awareness of Markham as a unique visitor destination.