DISCOVERY TRAVEL FORUM: UNBOXING THE BRAND

The practice of international and local conferences is not new. It is a very effective way to focus on a particular issue or area of research and to get multiple views to discuss. But as soon as we shift the POV from discussing the topic in general to some very practical decisions and troubleshooting, we have a kind of bottleneck. On the one hand we have international summits and forums and etc with a very broad agenda and a lot of common toolboxes that are directly useless for any single region (the smaller the region, the less things to do it can get as a summary). On the other hand, local events are deeply linked to the situation within the region and often have no capacity to rise above it. That’s not to say they’re all useless, not at all, just not as effective at troubleshooting as regions need them to be.

What is the solution? Let’s take a look at the experience of the OCA Magazine project called Discovery Travel Forum. It has a history of more than twenty years and was designed specifically for the development of the tourism sector in Central Asia and the CIS countries.

In 2023, we changed the format from a classic panel and workshops with international speakers for the local audience to a hybrid of roundtables, brainstorming sessions and case studies where world experts, local officials, business and community work together on very practical issues and share their experiences with each other.

The first ‘strategic session’ of its kind took place in 2023 in Burabay National Park and Resort, Kazakhstan, and included two key steps. The first was an in-depth analysis of the picture of the region in detail, which was essential for setting the goals of the Discovery Travel Forum. So, in June 2023, the OCA team held a round table with the officials and hoteliers of the Burabay region. The main focus of the conference was the question: what do international tourists expect from a trip to Burabay and what are they willing to pay for? Participants at the event received an answer from a highly experienced traveller, Gareth Stamp, originally British, living in Bulgaria and working in the UK, Kazakhstan and now Nairobi for many years. He pointed out that the demographics of tourism are changing and that the modern, well-to-do traveller is someone over 45 who is not looking for adventure, but is also not looking to just relax in a spa (especially as Central Asian countries cannot yet offer these services at least at the same level as resorts in other parts of the world). “We want to show our friends unusual photos, souvenirs and handicrafts. After all, we want to share great stories,” says Gareth. That’s why the region needs the brand to attract not only inbound tourists and backpackers, but also the international affluent audience.

The practice of international and local conferences is not new. It is a very effective way to focus on a particular issue or area of research and to get multiple views to discuss. But as soon as we shift the POV from discussing the topic in general to some very practical decisions and troubleshooting, we have a kind of bottleneck. On the one hand we have international summits and forums and etc with a very broad agenda and a lot of common toolboxes that are directly useless for any single region (the smaller the region, the less things to do it can get as a summary). On the other hand, local events are deeply linked to the situation within the region and often have no capacity to rise above it. That’s not to say they’re all useless, not at all, just not as effective at troubleshooting as regions need them to be.

What is the solution? Let’s take a look at the experience of the OCA Magazine project called Discovery Travel Forum. It has a history of more than twenty years and was designed specifically for the development of the tourism sector in Central Asia and the CIS countries.

In 2023, we changed the format from a classic panel and workshops with international speakers for the local audience to a hybrid of roundtables, brainstorming sessions and case studies where world experts, local officials, business and community work together on very practical issues and share their experiences with each other.

The first ‘strategic session’ of its kind took place in 2023 in Burabay National Park and Resort, Kazakhstan, and included two key steps. The first was an in-depth analysis of the picture of the region in detail, which was essential for setting the goals of the Discovery Travel Forum. So, in June 2023, the OCA team held a round table with the officials and hoteliers of the Burabay region. The main focus of the conference was the question: what do international tourists expect from a trip to Burabay and what are they willing to pay for? Participants at the event received an answer from a highly experienced traveller, Gareth Stamp, originally British, living in Bulgaria and working in the UK, Kazakhstan and now Nairobi for many years. He pointed out that the demographics of tourism are changing and that the modern, well-to-do traveller is someone over 45 who is not looking for adventure, but is also not looking to just relax in a spa (especially as Central Asian countries cannot yet offer these services at least at the same level as resorts in other parts of the world). “We want to show our friends unusual photos, souvenirs and handicrafts. After all, we want to share great stories,” says Gareth. That’s why the region needs the brand to attract not only inbound tourists and backpackers, but also the international affluent audience.

The second stage was the Discovery Travel Forum (DTF) itself in September 2023. The group of experts from the UK, Poland, Finland, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan arrived in Burabay a few days before the DTF to take a look at the region. They had plenty of time to immerse themselves in the tourist life of the town of Shchuchinsk (one of the most expensive zones of the resort), so at the session they built their presentations around the pool of observations. The local speakers – hoteliers and community activists – shared their vision of the problems of tourism in the region.

The local participants pointed out that in Burabay all agents of a market are out of sync, and this is one of the main problems. Officials write some programmes based on European experience, but not based on the regional specifics, each hotel and resort plays its own games fighting for the current inbound clients, and a community does not know how to attract tourists. Natalie Bays, the director of NoCollective (UK), made a comparison between the city of Shchuchinsk and Romford (London) as tourist destinations. Natalie is one of the active business communities in Romford, influencing its cultural and economic development, so she has a lot of successful cases of destination marketing to share with the participants. First of all, you need to build a local business community working on investment and development in Burabay with a common strategy to inform each other. And you should involve the locals more, that is the most important thing to survive in the area,’ she said. The same position was discussed by Adam Siemienczyk, who has experience in both the UK and Poland. He spoke more about local services as an important part of the economy of experience.

Marina Bashmanova, one of the most experienced figures in experiential and creative tourism in Kyrgyzstan, gave a colourful and highly informative presentation on art tours, their economy and impact on the region. It was the key point of the DTF where all participants got a new perspective for the development of the region. Marat Akhmedjanov, publisher and founder of the Eurasian Creative Guild, also shared his twenty years of experience in publishing travel guides and promoting the territories through literature, visual arts and international events such as festivals and forums.

All the cases and solutions were discussed by the speakers representing Kazakhstan – Elena Bezrukova, business coach on HoReCa from Almaty, Artyom Volsky, one of the most successful hoteliers of Burabay resort, and Nadezhda Atremieva as a blogger and social activist of Burabay. All colleagues noted that the session gave them a lot of real solutions to put into practice. At the same time, the session allowed us to identify some serious limitations that make growth very slow and ineffective. First of all, it’s the lack of experience of HoReCa business owners in this area. Most owners invested in the “boxes” and expected a very short-term ROI and low re-investment, which doesn’t work well for the sustainability of the tourism sector.

This strategic session shows the highest effectiveness in terms of unboxing the region in 3D format and discussing the use of all technologies and practices directly with experts.

by Taina Kaunis,
an expert in integrated marketing
communications and branding

The local participants pointed out that in Burabay all agents of a market are out of sync, and this is one of the main problems. Officials write some programmes based on European experience, but not based on the regional specifics, each hotel and resort plays its own games fighting for the current inbound clients, and a community does not know how to attract tourists. Natalie Bays, the director of NoCollective (UK), made a comparison between the city of Shchuchinsk and Romford (London) as tourist destinations. Natalie is one of the active business communities in Romford, influencing its cultural and economic development, so she has a lot of successful cases of destination marketing to share with the participants. First of all, you need to build a local business community working on investment and development in Burabay with a common strategy to inform each other. And you should involve the locals more, that is the most important thing to survive in the area,’ she said. The same position was discussed by Adam Siemienczyk, who has experience in both the UK and Poland. He spoke more about local services as an important part of the economy of experience.

Marina Bashmanova, one of the most experienced figures in experiential and creative tourism in Kyrgyzstan, gave a colourful and highly informative presentation on art tours, their economy and impact on the region. It was the key point of the DTF where all participants got a new perspective for the development of the region. Marat Akhmedjanov, publisher and founder of the Eurasian Creative Guild, also shared his twenty years of experience in publishing travel guides and promoting the territories through literature, visual arts and international events such as festivals and forums.

All the cases and solutions were discussed by the speakers representing Kazakhstan – Elena Bezrukova, business coach on HoReCa from Almaty, Artyom Volsky, one of the most successful hoteliers of Burabay resort, and Nadezhda Atremieva as a blogger and social activist of Burabay. All colleagues noted that the session gave them a lot of real solutions to put into practice. At the same time, the session allowed us to identify some serious limitations that make growth very slow and ineffective. First of all, it’s the lack of experience of HoReCa business owners in this area. Most owners invested in the “boxes” and expected a very short-term ROI and low re-investment, which doesn’t work well for the sustainability of the tourism sector.

This strategic session shows the highest effectiveness in terms of unboxing the region in 3D format and discussing the use of all technologies and practices directly with experts.

by Taina Kaunis, an expert in integrated marketing
communications and branding