Sustainable Destination Management
Strategies in the OIC Member Countries
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It is recommended that promotional activities are created that benefit participating
stakeholders directly and which can be executed collaboratively. This has the advantage of
engaging stakeholders and driving direct business towards them. The MTCO conducted the
Mekong Mini Movie Festival as a collaborative campaign, allowing any business in the region
to create their own social media campaign within the framework of the overall campaign.
Overall, the campaign reached 22 million people with a limited budget. It won the Adrian Gold
award for the best digital campaign in tourism in 2018.
Digital storytelling is encouraged as an efficient tool for corridor promotion. Involving
storytellers, such as bloggers or photographers, in crafting engaging content helps to increase
online exposure of a TC. Promotional channels are dependent on the budget recommended to
have a large online share. It is recommended that digital tools are combined with traditional
tools, as shown from the best practice examples, such as participation in travel fairs and
familiarization trips. The use of documentaries to raise awareness of the tourism corridor
theme and disseminate its associated narrative can enhance the tourism corridor brand.
Product Development
A collaborative framework can also create products for stakeholders in selling directly. The
Danube Competence Center has done this successfully. Creating products enhances marketing
a region as a single destination and allows the framework a higher control factor. However, this
is only recommended with a very hands-on approach by the framework.
A corridor can also be enlarged by adding experiences in existing regions that enhance the
corridor experience for travelers and also make the corridor more sustainable in the long run.
Also, policies to enhance the sustainability, inclusiveness, and competitiveness of the region
and the corridor as a destination are recommended.
An example of corridor enhancement is the addition of Bagan in Myanmar as a World Heritage
Site in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Being added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites
enhanced the Mekong brand overall and helps the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office to
enhance their historical sub-corridor.
Another example of corridor improvement would be the addition of thematic wine routes by
the Danube Competence Center. This is another theme for travelers and attracts new target
groups of them.
Variances in Indicators
Using indicator modeling, such as scatter or radar graphs, shows which country in a specific
corridor is more advanced than the others. It can be assumed that the country that is more
advanced in an indicator is able to transfer knowledge to the other countries. If we take the
sample scatter graph with international openness, for example, countries that are less
internationally open, could adapt their visa standards to those that have successfully
implemented further policy.
Even though there are limits to this approach, due to, for example, differences in natural
tourism attractions, it can generally be said that within a corridor, all countries should strive
to enhance their tourism industry to move closer together on the graph.