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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.