Sustainable Destination Management
Strategies in the OIC Member Countries
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that have a notion of what products are ready for the market and
what products are not.
Because there are substantial differences between countries in
terms of funds available for marketing, in practice there is a
combination of basic marketing activities (like a webpage) covering
all countries to the same degree; and more specialized activities
that are financed on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the
interests of particular countries or players (like participation in
specialized fairs).
Long-distance markets have a stronger interest in cross-border
tourism than close-by source markets, because of longer average
length of stay and a stronger interest among long-haul tourists to
obtain a variety of impressions within a world region like the
Danube region. That is why focusing on the Chinese market is of
interest and the understanding that it is a long-term effort. For
close-by source markets (usually Western European countries),
manageable country combinations between two or three countries
tend to be the most feasible product found in commercial
publications.
Despite all integration efforts, marketing is not always coherent
across countries and needs to be supported by overarching
branding and storytelling, both of which have proved to be difficult
and require additional effort.