COMCEC Tourism Outlook-2016
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 Developing basic guidelines for improving the basic MFT-related services.
 Increasing awareness about the MFT market among the travel industry stakeholders
through standardizing terminology used in MFT, introducing market awareness and
customer service training programmes and utilizing social media for promotion and
marketing.
Similarly, the policy recommendations of the 7th and 8th Meeting of the TourismWorking Group
will be submitted to the 32 nd Session of the COMCEC to be held on 21-24 November 2016 in
İstanbul.
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
submit projects to be financed through grants by the COMCEC Coordination Office. The first
project call was made in September 2013. Within the framework of the 1st project call under the
COMCEC Project Funding, 2 projects in tourism sector were successfully implemented in 2014.
One of them was “Cities of Common Cultural Heritage” project implemented by Azerbaijan
Ministry of Culture and Tourism. There were 3 partner countries namely; Turkey, Uzbekistan
and Kazakhstan in this project. The project aimed at creating a joint cultural tourism product
and at the end of the project with the help of the analytical study prepared as an outcome of the
project, cultural heritage routes were created. The other project was “Improving Statistical
Capacities of Tourism Sector in COMCEC Mediterranean and Gulf Region” proposed by SESRIC.
The project covered 6 member countries namely; United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Tunisia,
Albania, Qatar, Oman. This project aimed at improving statistical capacities of the member
countries in tourism field and entailed 8 training programs and one workshop in this respect.
The second project call under the PCM was made in September 2014. In this regard, within the
scope of the 2nd Project Call, the project titled “Strengthening Community Resilience through
eco-tourism”, proposed by The Gambia, was implemented in 2015 with two project partners,
namely Senegal and Guinea-Bissau. Under this project, study visits to ten villages were
conducted. Moreover, Ecovillage Design Education Programmes were held with the
participation of 35 residents from these villages. At the end of this project, an Ecovillage Design
Education Report was prepared.
The Third Project Call was made in September 2015. In this framework, the following two
projects is being implemented in 2016:
 Short course on strategies in enhancing the tourism workforce in community-based
tourism within the OIC Member Countries (proposed by Malaysia).
 Enhancing the capacity of craft producers in the OIC Member Countries (proposed by
the Gambia).
The COMCEC Coordination Office will make the fourth call for project proposals in September
2016. More detailed information on the COMCEC Project Funding mechanism can be reached
through the COMCEC PCMWebsite: ).