Destination Development and
Institutionalization Strategies
In the OIC Member Countries
16
engaged with and included as well in marketing activities to encourage them to enjoy the local cultural
venues.25
Destination managers need to also mitigate the negative impacts of tourism, primarily by ensuring that the
carrying capacity is not exceeded and that tourism is “socially acceptable” to the local community. To
ensure that carrying capacity is not exceeded and the visitors and locals can best enjoy the destination,
destinations need to take a management role and regulate the number of visitors to museum, attractions,
activities and the accommodation options that are offered — including Airbnb, either via integrated
booking systems and transparency of supply or by controlling the number of cultural passes distributed
to visitors. 26 Destination managers also need to take into consideration a number of guidelines to ensure
tourism is “socially acceptable” to local communities, including: respecting the lifestyle, traditions, and
customs of the local communities, safeguarding the biodiversity of the destination, making local
communities aware of tourism benefits to their communities through promotional campaigns, engaging
local communities in tourism planning to ensure it takes into account their quality of life goals, getting
local communities’ feedback and endorsement for local tourismpromotional activities and tourism themes
and events to ensure it “reflects” their culture and traditions, and supporting members of local
communities if they wish to get involved in tourism projects by providing them with financing and
entrepreneurship support for creating their own local tourism businesses.27 Improving local communities
quality of life has been identified as an important target by DMOs around the world. In the US, Travel
Oregon vision statement indicates that it aims to achieve “a better life for all Oregonians through strong,
sustainable local economies”. 28 In the UAE, the hotel industry started an initiative, which was joined by
Emirati authorities, for the Emiratization of jobs in hotels as they noticed that Emiratis were
underrepresented in the industry.29
As for adding value for tourists, destination managers should look beyond tourism products’ price and
delivery and consider enhancing the tourism experience, which can be described as a “chain of emotional
sensations” 30 or as “an impression of experiencing a trip”. While the tourism experience can be
characterized in a variety of ways from authentic and memorable to positive or negative, it is harder to
determine and measure the authenticity and memorability as opposed to the positivity or negativity of an
experience. A positive experience, can be defined as an experience “which results from the impression
associated with fulfillment or satisfaction and which has a positive influence on tourists’ lives”.31 To ensure
a positive tourism experience, destinations managers need to both shape the “physical” and “emotional
tourist milieu” by taking a “holistic” approach to the development of tourist attractions areas. Given that
the tourism experience extends beyond the area of attractions to all areas that tourists move through
during their visit to the destination, it is important to expand tourism chain of services beyond the
attraction areas. Following the development of the physical milieu, destinations managers need to work
on the “emotional milieu” by working on the elements that can create positive emotional reactions.
Destination managers need to consider a number of elements: constructing a “storyline” for the
destination using its natural and cultural resources, providing “immersive” experiences for tourists
25 Interview with team member of Amsterdam Marketing.
26 Interview with Doug Lansky, Destinations Adviser and Travel Writer.
27 Uysal, M., Woo, E., & Singal, M. (2012). The Tourist Area Life Cycle (TALC) and Its Effect on the Quality-of-Life (QOL) of Destination
Community. n: Uysal M., Perdue R., Sirgy M. (eds) Handbook of Tourism and Quality-of-Life Research. International Handbooks of Quality-of-
Life . Springer, Dordrecht.
28 Please refer to the United States case study for more details.
29 Interview with CEO of Emaar Hospitality.
30 Lekić, R., Trezner, Ž., & Mance, N. (2014). DMC as a creator of memorable experiences in tourist destination. Retrieved from
31 Shen, Y. (2016). Perceived Value in Tourism Experience. 2016 Tourism Travel and Research Association International Conference.