Community based destination management, Turkey

Project title

Designing and developing a sustainable community based destination management strategy for destinations in Turkey

Where

Turkey

When

2017-2019

Project aim

Following on from Phase 1 of the project (Developing Pilot Projects for Sustainable Community Development), the aim of Phase 2 was to develop a strategy and the tools for the practical implementation of sustainable community based destination management in a pilot location.

Who we worked with

UNDP Turkey, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and public, private, and civil society stakeholders in Kemaliye, Erzincan province.

What we did

We used participatory methods to consult with stakeholders and engage them in the development of a sustainable, participatory community destination management strategy for Kemaliye. Consultation in Kemaliye was supplemented by desk research to develop an SCBT Toolkit including implementation guidelines to support the roll out of SCBT DMO development in Kemaliye and beyond. We conducted a needs assessment for an online portal for SCBT development in Turkey, alongside proposals for a community based online marketing strategy. Finally, we conducted desk research and remote interviews with SCBT practitioners around the world to compile a manual of global best practice in SCBT, drawn from a review of ten exemplary case studies.ration of the underpass areas investigated.

Results

The sustainable community-based destination management strategy was launched at a two-day training workshop in Kemaliye, culminating in the establishment of local working groups to continue the work of developing specific DMO management functions in Kemaliye. The SCBT Toolkit, online portal needs assessment, and Manual of Global Best Practice in SCBT were lodged with the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism for wider dissemination to national and local level public institutions, private sector and academia, in order to support the scaling up of the SCBT DMO model in destinations beyond Kemaliye.