Destination Development and

Institutionalization Strategies

In the OIC Member Countries

Center region. The project identified 574 plants, 29 endemic plants (that can only be found in

Turkey), 1 relic endemic plant, the Pear of Serik (pyrus serikensis) has been discovered that can

only be found in Belek and nowhere else in the world. There were also found to be 120 bird species

in the Belek safe area for birds, (which accounts for one fourth of the bird species in entire Turkey.)

Belek’s Mediterranean shore is a nesting area for sea turtles. With Hacettepe University as a

consultant, BETUYAB DMO started a protection project in 1999 called “Belek Sea turtles 1999,

2000 and 2001” along the 30-km shoreline with the goal of serving as an international example.

This project was awarded by the Environment Ministry. The project is being run by BETUYAB in

cooperation with the Hacettepe University since then.

Infrastructure build-up: Belek was full of swamps 30 years ago and Belek DMO has created a

lobbying power persuading government ministries to complete infrastructure work for both the

local community and the 47 hotels. The DMO has established partnerships with different

ministries, local municipalities, companies for profit or non-profit organizations regarding the

projects needed. For example, Belek DMO has partnered with Boztepe TigemFarm (A government

farm) to build 8 drawwells pumping high quality potable water to five potable water depots, each

3,000 tons. In addition, the partnership model completed the first water sewage system in the

region serving 115 thousand residents at the same time.

Belek DMO created a partnership model to complete 200K MW underground electricity

infrastructure and road lightings, with a funding model by which the DMO provided one third of

the funding, another third was provided by Kepez A.Ş. (a private electricity-producing company),

and the final third by the TourismMinistry.

A similar model has brought fiber optic internet infrastructure to Belek region hotels and local

community.

Partnering with the local governorship and the police department, Belek DMO completed a

security camera system across hotels just before the G20 meeting held in Belek, Antalya in 2015.

Partnering with a private company and the Forestry Ministry, Belek DMO created a fire emergency

alarm system along the 35 kilometers of forest surrounding hotels. Seventy fires were put under

control via this alarm system until now.

Alanya ALTID DMO Case Study

Background of Alanya DMO (ALTID)

Alanya is the most popular tourism district of Antalya and Turkey, with about 70 km of seashore and

beaches. The livelihood of the region comes almost fully from tourism. Today, Alanya has approximately

120 thousand beds with a 12% share of Turkey’s total bed capacity. Alanya attracts visitors from over 40

source markets with an average of 4 million tourists each year. The top two source markets are Russia

and Germany.

Founded in 1985, Alanya Touristic Hoteliers Associations (ALTID) acts as a DMO. Its members consist of

254 local hotels with 84 thousand bed capacity, all certified by the Culture and Tourism Ministry or local

municipality.