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in İstanbul with the theme of "Effective Marketing Strategies for Promoting Tourism
Destinations in the OIC Member Countries."
Moreover, the 3rd Meeting of the OIC/COMCEC Private Sector Tourism Forum was held on 29-
30 January 2015 in İstanbul with the theme of “International Branding of Tourism Destinations
in the OIC Member Countries.” The Forum emphasized the importance of effective marketing
and branding strategies for promoting the tourism destinations in the OIC Member Countries
and highlighted that effective marketing and branding requires utilization of full range of tools
available including digital marketing activities, social media, mobile phone applications, PR, and
so on. Furthermore, importance of multi-stakeholder engagement is underlined as a critical
success factor for tourism branding particularly through utilizing Public Private Partnerships
and stressed the significance of joint endeavors such as joint promotion work, cultural tourism
routes and joint tours and familiarization programs/trips to overcome the negative media image
of Islamic Countries resulting from misguiding media coverage and problems like Islamofobia,
Epidemics, Terror, and so on.
The 4th Meeting of the OIC/COMCEC Private Sector Tourism Forum was held on 14-15 January
2016 in İstanbul with the theme of “Promoting Muslim-Friendly Tourism (MFT) Products and
Services in the OIC Member Countries.” In this forum, the participants discussed the current
state of international tourism in the OIC Member Countries as well as prospects and challenges
in this regard. Moreover, the participants also deliberated on the global trends and policies in
promoting MFT products and services and the challenges faced by the private sector in the
Member Countries in promoting MFT products and services. The participants emphasized the
importance of raising awareness about MFT, not only in the OIC Member Countries, but also in
the Non-OIC world. In this regard, the participants highlighted the significance of the effective
utilization of the existing mechanisms under the OIC/COMCEC, such as SMIIC’s technical
Committee on tourism, for enhancing cooperation in MFT.
The 5th Meeting of the OIC/COMCEC Private Sector Tourism Forum was held on 4 May 2017 in
İstanbul with the theme of "Crisis Communication and Management in Tourism: Recent
Challenges and Solutions in OIC Countries". The Forum emphasized the importance of crisis
communication and management in tourism and problems encountered by the Member States
on recovering crises and possible solutions.
Tourism has been defined as one of the six cooperation areas in the COMCEC Strategy , adopted
by the 4th Extraordinary Summit held on 14-15 August 2012 in Makkah Al-Mukarramah, Saudi
Arabia.
The Strategic Objective defined by the COMCEC Strategy is “Developing a sustainable and
competitive tourism sector in the OIC Member Countries.” With a view to achieving this
objective, the Strategy envisages five output areas, namely regulatory framework; training and
capacity building programs; private sector involvement; community based tourism programs
and marketing strategies.