Key Findings from the 2024 Culture & Workplace Engagement in Destinations Report

We’ve completed our 2024 workforce culture and engagement report for the destination industry, and we’re excited to share its insights and findings to help leaders increase employee engagement and workplace culture in the destinations they lead. 

Below is an excerpt from the report providing a sampling of key findings and recommendations based on data from nearly 800 Annual Culture Index™ submissions from destination team members across North America.

The Fired Up! Culture Annual Culture Index™ was developed in 2012 as a tool to collect and analyze core factors related to organizational culture within a singular destination. 

The proprietary index focuses on 59 value statements across six segments. All questions are presented on a Likert scale, allowing for a level of nuance in responses. 

Six segments organize the 59 value statements within the Culture Index:

• Our Why — This segment is focused on a destination’s purpose and its impact on inspiring both team members and customers to want to engage.

• Our Way — In this segment, the systems and processes, which are responsive to change and produce desired results, are explored.

• Our Customer Promise — Here the focus is on consistently delivering a service or product that the customer values at a price they are willing to pay.

• Our Leadership Impact — The leadership impact segment narrows in on leaders, including the people with the aptitude and skills to lead effectively, take responsibility, and inspire others.

• Our Teaming — This segment is focused on individuals and work groups who are able to collaborate to achieve breakthrough results.

• Our Work Environment — Finally, the Culture Index focuses on the environment where people are respected, appreciated, and held accountable.

For our 2024 Culture & Workplace Engagement in Destinations Report, we collected and analyzed a total of 799 responses from destinations across North America. Index responses came from team members at all levels throughout the participating organizations. 

The request for responses was individually and anonymously administered, using an independent online survey platform. Data was collected over the course of 2023, with the first submissions collected in January and the final submissions in December.

We have a number of key findings to share through our analysis. Data derived from these findings is based on average response and correlation to average response. 

Question: What Cultural Factors Are Team Members Most Engaged With in Their Destination Organization? 

These findings represent where culture and engagement scores were the strongest across all respondents.  

Finding 1: Team members continue to feel the most engaged with the work environment when evaluating their relationships with their coworkers. 

This trend is unchanged from a year ago when these three culture and engagement value statements also received the highest engagement scores across all destination team members. 

Looking to build a high-performing team? Ensure team members are committed to delivering high-quality work and proactively collaborate with each other to reach the goals of your destination. Maintaining strong working relationships proves to be paramount in highly functioning teams.  

Finding 2: Those working for destinations often recognize the clearly defined purpose of their organization but are not incredibly inspired by that purpose. 

While respondents feel like they understand the purpose of their destination, it’s clear that purpose is not inspiring them as much as it could be. 

Looking to build a high-performing team? Clearly define the purpose of your destination and consistently connect the dots in an inspiring way so each team member understands how their work makes an impact. Find new and creative angles to draw inspiration around the purpose of your team or destination. 

Finding 3: Team members in destinations are proud of the value they deliver to a variety of customer bases.

Engagement was strong when respondents were asked if they would choose to do business with their organization. Team members in destinations are proud of the work they do and the value they provide the various stakeholders they serve.

Looking to build a high-performing team? Motivation, belief, and buy-in for your team members peaks when team members believe in the value they are promoting and selling to their customers. Instilling the value that your team delivers to your customer base builds a strong organizational culture.