Sustainable Destination Management
Strategies in the OIC Member Countries
54
storytelling, there’s a need to choose the stories that suit the brand narrative and engage
emotions and amplify them.162
Figure 18: Most Active Storytellers
Source: TRAVELSAT Pulse 2018
The Greater Mekong Subregion TC “Mekong Moments” platform presents a strong example in
harnessing the power of storytelling. It aggregates, curates, and filters social media posts by
tourists visiting the corridor and shares these posts on the platform in the form of a searchable
interactive map currently containing over 10,000 experiences packaged with corresponding
social media content and/or campaigns.163
Best Practices in Promotion
While both traditional and digital tools are used for the promotion of MDTCs, Big Data and
social media are increasingly being used to customize marketing messages to targeted tourist
segments. Based on their segmentation, MDTCs management needs to engage with the media
channels relevant to the tourist segments they seek to target and provide continuous updates
and relevant stories. MDTC management can also collaborate with the marketing
communications departments of their stakeholders, including NGOs, associations, special
interest groups, to promote the corridor. 164
Familiarization trips remain an important traditional tool used by MDTCs, whether through
inviting journalists, bloggers, or tour operators. The St. Olav Ways invited three American and
three British journalists to experience the route. This led to the publishing of blog entries as
well as several articles in various outlets, including The Telegraph, The Guardian and The
Financial Times. These articles were estimated to have reached around 50 million readers.165
The Council of Europe and the European Commission Joint Program on Cultural Routes have
organized a series of familiarization trips for bloggers, photographers, and videographers to
experience a number of certified Cultural Routes across Europe. These trips covered Megalithic
Routes, the European Route of Historic Thermal Towns and Via Francigena in 2014 followed
162 TCI Research. 2018. How Storytelling impacts Travelers’ choices
163 Ibid.
164 Ibid
165 Council of Europe. 2018. Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe Programme: Activity Report.