Sustainable Destination Management
Strategies in the OIC Member Countries
159
4.3. Best Practices versus OIC Tourism Corridor Marketing
Branding
Best practices from global MDTCs demonstrate the use of various branding strategies, from
designing logos to creating a narrative highlighting the MDTCs story and characteristics as well
as capitalizing on storytelling and user-generated material to reinforce branding as illustrated
by the GMS TC example. Consistency of branding is another essential element, with the Wadden
Sea TC providing an example of best practices with its development of a brand manual for
stakeholders.
In comparison with best practices, OIC corridors seem to be performing equally well in terms
of creating narratives for the corridors and disseminating them through documentaries.
However, no data support their use of storytelling or user-generated material to reinforce their
branding. With regards to logo design, on the one hand, the current logo for the Silk Road,
created by UNWTO as a logo for its program, is not used consistently across the various TC
countries. On the other hand, the Umayyad Route more consistently uses a logo in all its
communication materials.
Table 30: Branding - Best Practices versus OIC Examples
Best
Practices
- The “Mekong Moments” platform using storytelling to complement the
GMS branding strategy by aggregating, curating, and filtering social
media posts by tourists visiting the TC and sharing them on the
platform in the form of a searchable interactive map.
- The Vennbahn Cycle Route, creating a story using the railway history of
the road and its transformation into cycling routes and linking it to
generations passing on stewardship of things of value to each other.
- The Wadden Sea, ensuring consistency in branding messages by
developing the “Stakeholder Toolkit for Communication and Marketing”
comprising of a brand manual, fact sheets, and brochures.
OIC - Silk Road Programme logo not uniformly used. Silk Road documentaries
to increase awareness of the history of the road and put forward the
narrative associated with the TC on the global stage.
- The Umayyad Route uses its distinct logo in all communications. The
route has also created its own narrative and produced a documentary
for the TC to facilitate storytelling.
Promotion
Best practices from global corridors show the use of both traditional and digital promotional
tools. While familiarization trips and participation in travel fairs remain critical promotional
tools, the introduction of digital tools has become an integral part of promoting MDTCs.
Utilizing user-generated content on MDTC digital platforms has become an essential
promotional tool with the increased importance of storytelling. In comparison to best practices,
the OIC MDTCs seem to be mainly using traditional methods for promotion. The OIC MDTCs
have not incorporated digital media platforms including social media in an integrated
marketing communications strategy to promote the corridors.