Destination Development and
Institutionalization Strategies
In the OIC Member Countries
66
6. Lessons Learned
- DMOs can draw on various parts of their history and heritage to draw tourists who are interested in
different activities. There is a multicultural and multidimensional development of tourism in the
country. Azerbaijan is primarily a Muslim country, but there is Wine Route (as part of German
heritage) tourism product. It is a southern and primarily warm climate country, but it has managed
to develop two ski resorts. It is developing national/traditional arts (carpet weaving, silk production,
cuisine), but at the same time it plays a significant role is development of modern culture (Jazz
Festivals, Rostropovich Classical Music Festivals etc.). These integrated multidimensional tourism
products “for all tastes” can be considered as a benchmark/example for several destinations, which
don’t always offer that variety.
- DMOs have begun to recognize the need for public-private partnership (PPP) to improve
communication between the public and private sectors in tourism and facilitate the planning,
development and marketing processes, which is illustrated by the development of the convention
bureau to create a synergy between public and private entities in the development of MICE Tourism.
- DMO set up process shall involve intensive training process, as a professional capacity in tourism is
very limited in regions of the country;
- NTOs does not have enough resources and time to fully commit to different destinations within the
country, which is the reason Azerbaijan has initiated a pilot project to create regional DMOs.
- Learning from best practices in other destinations can help in the creation of DMOs; Azerbaijan is
using the DMO development model that was used in Georgia, by repurposing tourist information
centers into regional DMOs.
- Legislation needs to be implemented to facilitate de-centralization of tourism management and
allocating more authority and budgets to local destination management organizations.