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Sustainable Destination Management

Strategies in the OIC Member Countries

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some remarked that the MTCO and the GMS Tourism Corridor should work toward becoming

less dependent on the ADB, which of course, has its own agenda.

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Public-Private Cooperation: On occasion, the interview partners positively assessed the joint

cooperation of the six countries, which were represented mainly by the Ministries of Tourism.

However, they criticized the fact that the public sector alone makes the principal decisions

regarding responsible tourism development in the GMS, and that representatives from the

private sector or even local NGOs/CSO who work in this field are not given the opportunity to

be involved in the decision-making process, such as “Myanmar Tourism Marketing is not a

semi-government body and could not attend such a meeting easily”

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and “it is driven by the

government with limited capacities or rather unequal capacities,…the buy-in of the private

sector is limited.”

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Furthermore, direct communication between the six countries is possible

only at the ministry level. For example, if bordering/neighboring destinations such as Pakse (in

Laos) and Siam Reap (in Cambodia) want to cooperate jointly, they cannot communicate with

each other directly at the secondary level.

Marketing and Branding: The interview partners repeatedly lauded MTCO’s marketing efforts,

such as the Mekong Moments, Mekong Mini Movie Festival, Mekong Tourism Forum, and

Experience Mekong Collection, especially in recent years. However, they questioned whether it

makes sense to promote the brand of the Mekong or Mekong countries whilst at the same time

promoting competing brands (such as ASEAN). It was recommended that research by an

independent entity be undertaken. Furthermore, they voiced concern that the area of the

Greater Mekong Subregion is too broad; instead, the focus should be on river-based tourism

alone to reach the market, because there is value in promoting the Mekong as a destination

rather than all six countries. On a different site, it was mentioned about opening up for further

cooperation with ASEAN. However, taking all the current strengths and limitations into

account, this corridor might only survive in the long-term if public-private sector cooperation

is enforced.

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Interview with former Director of Swiss Contact Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar

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Interview with chairwoman of Myanmar Tourism Federation

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Interview with former Swisscontact Director of Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar

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Interview with Executive Director of MTCO