Sustainable Destination Management

Strategies in the OIC Member Countries

provide important connections within and between regions of the state for people, goods, and

services.”

The use of the corridors’ concept started to expand in the 1990s and was adopted by various

types of agencies, including urban planning, public infrastructure, and development agencies.

While for urban planning and public infrastructure agencies the focus was on infrastructure

and planning for urban areas, the development agencies' focus was on corridors being a vehicle

for economic development, enabling the creation of economic zones benefiting the

communities adjacent to the corridors. As development agencies adopted the corridor concept,

the focus became on economic development along the corridors allowing communities easier

access to production inputs as well as markets. Corridors were considered one of the tools that

can promote regional economic development.

Eventually, the concept of corridors was adopted by the tourism sector. The Link between

transport and tourism is clear in the development of tourism in general and MDTCs in

particular, as evidenced by the development of the itineraries linked to railways such as the

Orient Express.

Another important link is present between corridors and economic

cooperation between corridor member countries, with cooperation in the tourism sector

becoming an added area for cooperation. An example of this is the Greater Mekong Subregion

TC was initially an economic corridor, developed 20 years earlier with the support of the Asian

Development Bank, comprising of six countries on the Mekong River, namely Cambodia, Laos,

Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

of China.

Tourism corridors provided tourists with the chance to visit various attractions along a themed

route and enjoy the landscapes and cultures of several destinations as opposed to focusing on

a specific destination. With the launch of the UNESCO’s Route Program in the late 80s and the

involvement of the UNWTO in the Silk Road and Slave Route initiatives in the early 90s, the

concept and development of MDTCs gained increasing attention. in 1994. The inclusion of the

Spanish section of the Camino Francés of Camino de Santiago routes in the World Heritage List

in 1993 started the debate on cultural routes and led to the addition of a specific category for

cultural routes on the list.

Currently, the transnational heritage routes inscribed on the “World Heritage List” include the

“Andean Road System” or the “Qhapac Nan” in six countries, the “Silk Road” in twelve countries,

the “St. James´s Way - Routes of Santiago de Compostela” in two countries, and the Heritage of

Mercury in two countries. The Viking Routes in Northern Europe and the Buddhist Routes in

South Asia are also currently being considered for inscription.

In Europe, the Council of Europe launched its Cultural Routes program in 1987 to encourage

tourism cooperation and increase awareness of European heritage. The program, which started

by certifying the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in 1993, has currently 33 certified cultural

Hamzah, A. and Ismail, H. N. 2008. A Design of Nature-Culture Based Tourism Corridor; A Pilot Project at Kelantan Darul

Naim. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

Alampay, Ramon Benedicto, and G. Rieder, Ludwig. 2008. Developing Tourism in the Greater Mekong Subregion Economic

Corridors. Journal of Greater Mekong Subregion (4): 59-76.

Ibid.

Please refer to the Greater Mekong Subregion tourism corridor case study for references and more details.

UNWTO (2015), Affiliate Members Global Reports, Volume twelve – Cultural Routes and Itineraries, UNWTO, Madrid.

Ibid.