COMCEC Tourism Outlook-2019
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Strategies in the OIC Member Countries”. The Representatives of the Member States have shared
their experiences, achievements and challenges regarding destination development in their
respective countries. The Meeting has considered report on “Destination Development and
Institutionalization Strategies in the OIC Member Countries” commissioned by the COMCEC
Coordination Office. The policy recommendations offered after the meeting were as follows;
 Decentralization in destination management, empowering local structures and
governance.
 Involving stakeholders including local governments, tourism industry, NGOs and public
into destination planning and creating a shared vision of the destination.
 Improving private sector involvement in destination management, enhancing
effectiveness and transparency of DMOs, diversifying their funding sources including
membership fees and commercial income besides the public funding.
The 12 th Meeting of the COMCEC TourismWorking Group was held on September 13th, 2018 in
Ankara, Turkey with the theme of “Destination Marketing Strategies in the OIC Member
Countries”. The Representatives of the Member States have shared their experiences,
achievements and challenges regarding destination marketing in their respective countries. The
Meeting has considered the Studies “Destination Marketing Strategies in the OIC Member
Countries” commissioned by the COMCEC Coordination Office. After the full day deliberations
the Workgroup offered the following policy recommendations;
 Establishing / Empowering a central body (i.e. DMO, CVB) to be responsible for
marketing efforts at the destination level
 Managing and regulating existing distribution channels and creation of new distribution
channels to prevent dependency and minimize power asymmetry.
 Collecting, storing, analyzing and dissemination of market data; visitor characteristics,
seasonality, distribution channel performance, source markets, trends and so on.
The 13th Meeting of the COMCEC Tourism Working Group was held on February 13rd, 2019 in
Ankara, Turkey with the theme of “Sustainable Destination Management Strategies in the OIC
Member Countries”. The Meeting involved a presentation of the OIC Tourism Outlook and the
report on "Sustainable Destination Management Strategies in the OIC Member Countries"
commissioned by the COMCEC Coordination Office. Following policy recommendations were
suggested as the out outcome of the meetings, discussions as well as the analytical studies:
 Facilitate stakeholder engagement at the destination level and encourage tourism
businesses’ sustainable tourism efforts.
 Improve community participation by minimizing leakages from local economy, conduct
media campaigns to increase local community involvement as well as tourist awareness
of tourism sustainability.
 Establish KPIs for sustainable tourism development based on international standards
and climate change agreements.
Another instrument envisaged by the COMCEC Strategy that will strengthen tourism
cooperation among member states is the COMCEC Project Funding. The Strategy has a viable
funding mechanism through which member countries registered to the TourismWorking Group