Proceedings of the 12th Meeting of

The COMCEC Tourism Working Group

scale. Ecotourism operators and other stakeholders within a destination commonly work in

silos, they lack synergy and network to fully optimise the potential of the area.

Clusters are an initiative to integrate various tourism products in a cluster including one or

more major attractions in a concentrated area. Destination Coordination Groups (DCG) will

carry out integrated planning, knowledge sharing and conflict resolution based on the cluster

development, which comprises of:

i) product development (create variety of activities, enhance and develop existing activities);

ii) human resource (courses for capacity building for tourist guide and nature guides);

iii) infrastructure and facility (enhance connectivity and facilities);

iv) marketing and promotion (integrating marketing approach, leveraging social media and

technology marketing); and

v) destination management (tourism information centre, signage, integrated entrance fee for

tourism attractions in the cluster

5.5. Azerbaijan

On behalf of Azerbaijan, Mr. Azer ORUCEV, Consultant from Ministry of Culture and Tourism

Tourism of Azerbaijan made a presentation and shared his country experience in sustainable

destination management.

At the beginning of his presentation, he informed the participants on Strategic Planning

Framework in Azerbaijan. He continued his presentation by mentioning 3 key stakeholder

groups that DMOs aim to support: Local tourism related businesses/public sector, Visitors and

Local community.

He concluded her presentation by underlying future self-sustainability of the Destination

Management Organizations. He gave information on the axes of self-sustainability as the

following:



Sponsorships



Marketing material sales



Rentals



Public facility fees



Service Commission fees



Advertising fees



Tour selling “Official guided tours”