RCI Case Studies

Case Study: Tourism Development in the Western Balkans 1

CASE STUDY: Centers of Excellence and Innovation (CEIs) in South Eastern Europe THE CHALLENGE: The transition economies of South Eastern Europe (SEE) have experienced weak or non-existent economic growth. The countries have suffered from increasing unemployment and poverty rates. In these conditions, external investments motivated by the relatively low production expenses have significantly decreased, and could not be considered a driving force for increasing competitiveness in the region. Even though labor and other production costs in SEE are significantly lower than in the EU, in many cases the local enterprises have lower productivity, poor management, and old fashioned technologies.

In order to improve their international competitiveness, the countries in SEE need to boost their economic growth with high value added production and services. Stimulating innovations, excellence, and quality is one of the prerequisites for increased competitiveness and sustainable economic growth.

THE INITIATIVE: In the last 6 years, the USAID-funded Regional Competiveness Initiative (RCI) program recognized ICT in SEE as one of the sectors that can compete on local, regional, and European markets, and can also significantly increase the effectiveness and efficiency of other economic sectors through improved management processes, optimized production operations and modernized technologies.

In the beginning of the RCI program, the team was focused on increasing the competiveness of the ICT sector through process improvement and the assessment of ICT companies according to international quality models.

Once a fair number of ICT companies in SEE successfully implemented international standards, RCI focused on creating regional networks and promoting domestic suppliers of local and/or customized ICT solutions (Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management, Facility Management, etc.) to other sectors.

Case Study: Centers of Excellence and Innovation in South Eastern Europe 2

At the last stage of the program, when sustainability of the results was with the highest priority, RCI decided to provide small grants1 for creation and development of Centers of Excellence and Innovation (CEI) in the region. The grants were provided to five centers that demonstrated capacity for sustainable development. These centers were located in Belgrade, Kragujevac, Nis, Pristine, and Skopje. They were integrated into a wide-scale network of centers in the region that RCI supported through access to highly professional trainings, capacity building expertise, and linkages to EU and US research centers and programs.

THE RESULTS: As a result, the overall network of CEI includes centers in Bitola, Banja Luka, Sarajevo, Tirana, Varajdin and other organizations, most of which are represented in the RCI regional platforms for excellence and innovation – Quality2IT.org and IT2Businness.org. Now most of the countries in the SEE region are connected in a network of CEIs specializing in stimulating innovations and providing services across a wide range of priority sectors such as Agriculture, Automotive, eGovernment, Electronics, Food-processing, Telecommunications, Tourism, and others. In order to achieve their mission, the centers are using cutting edge methodologies and technologies from world leaders in ICT such as Apple, Software Engineering Institute- Carnegie Mellon University, Microsoft, IBM, and HP, amongst others.

The importance of a cross-sector approach is illustrated by the CEI in Skopje. The center is designing and developing a hybrid cloud solution that will provide affordable local IT services for Macedonian tourism and agriculture. The portfolio of modern cloud-based services that will be used by the small agro and tourism enterprises includes ERP, CRM, and web and document management systems. It is expected that the center will intensify the use of ICT in other sectors, and will enhance their competitiveness while simultaneously benefitting the ICT industry in Macedonia due to the increased local demand of IT solutions.

Another example of CEI success is the CEI in Kragujevac which promotes the use of CAD/CAM systems for automotive industry in a region heavily dependent on the growth of automotive and related industries.

With small grants for Centers of Excellence and Innovation (CEIs), RCI supported the establishment of five new centers in South Eastern Europe. In addition, RCI worked for the further integration between existing CEIs created by other USAID initiatives, international donors, and businesses. The initiative has not only supported the ICT sector, but has also contributed to higher competitiveness within other sectors.

This document is produced by USAID’s Regional Competitiveness Initiative RCI; Implemented by SEGURA Partners LLC www.RCIProject.com

1 In the range of 20 -80k USD

Case Study: Postharvest Management Training 1

CASE STUDY: REGIONAL “POSTHARVEST MANAGEMENT” TRAINING IN SARAJEVO, 24-28 OCTOBER 2011

THE CHALLENGE: Around the developing world, an average of 40 percent of harvested agricultural product is lost before it can be consumed. Reducing this postharvest loss is usually the most effective way to increase the incomes of producers and other businesses in the supply chain.

THE INITIATIVE: In support of the objective of reducing postharvest loss, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Regional Competitiveness Initiative and 10 USAID projects in ten countries cooperated to hold a regional Postharvest Management Training in Sarajevo for 89 agricultural professionals from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro, Georgia, Moldova, Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Serbia. In addition to the USAID support, SIDA, the Swedish Development Agency, and CzDA, the Czech Development Agency provided funding. The course was taught by professors from the University of California at Davis. The UC Davis Post Harvest Institute is widely recognized as having among the world’s best experts in this subject. They provided instruction, text books, and computerized training materials for the students to use in the future. By facilitating and co-funding this activity, RCI reduced the cost of attending by up to 10 times per participant.

THE RESULTS: This event represented a remarkable partnership among many donors and countries. It not only provided training for professionals, but served to promote future regional collaboration. This graduate school level coursework has allowed the participants to

Training participants during visit to local agricultural producer

Case Study: Postharvest Management Training 2

receive training that would have been prohibitively expensive had they been required to travel to the UC Davis campus in California to receive it.

The participants received instruction on how to properly manage fruits and vegetables following harvest, including temperature management, handling, packaging, transport, the use of modified atmospheres, symptoms and treatments for diseases, and numerous other topics. They were given practical exercises in grading and product selection, and had the opportunity to visit commercial packing operations. The graduates are expected to return to their respective countries and train others in the technologies and practices they learned during this valuable course.

Case Study: RCI ICT Pyramid 1

CASE STUDY: INTRODUCING THE RCI ICT COMPETITIVENESS PYRAMID: Process, Benefits and Results

THE CHALLENGE: The ICT sectors in East Europe have gone through significant transformations for the last two decades. A shift from capital-intensive hardware production to knowledge-intensive software production has taken place simultaneously with the creation and development of private ICT sectors. The relatively well-educated human resources and the long-lasting traditions in ICT, in combination with the competitive labor costs have been the main success factors that contributed to the rapid growth of the ICT sectors in the region. However, the firms in the region, most of which are SMEs, face global competition with larger outsourcing destinations such as India, China, and Russia.

Addressing Regional Challenges: Based on their experience in the region, the team at the European Software Institute (ESI) has identified a number of challenges facing the newly established ICT firms and immature markets in the region. The ESI Center of Eastern Europe developed a program to effectively address those challenges in the region. The key challenges are summarized in the table below:

Table 1: Regional Challenges, Solutions and Expected Results of Reform

Challenge Solution Expected Results

Low level of Process Improvement (PI) benefits awareness at firm, national and regional levels

Implementation of cluster type of projects performed by multiple stakeholders as public-private partnership initiatives.

Creation of sustainable communities of practices.

Most companies in the SEE region are micro- or small-sized and could not easily allocate expert resources for complex process improvement.

Providing measurable roadmap for customized (simplified) multiple-model process improvement implementation through IT Mark (ESI) service. IT Mark includes improvement and certification guidelines for software processes based on CMMI, information security processes based on ISO 27001 and business management processes based on 10sq.

Strong commitment from all relevant stakeholders for an affordable, measurable and achievable process improvement program.


Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are not able to allocate financial resources to initiate comprehensive SPI programs.

Co-funding from business support programs for increased competitiveness of SMEs, step-by-step approach to ensure intermediate business benefits and stronger commitment from the sponsors.

Providing multiple sources for funding of the initiative, including at least 30 percent of the direct costs for SPI provided by the firms themselves.

Fragmented market with limited experience in PI implementation, lower visibility of ICT/SW industry brand and capacity.

By implementing the “ICT Competitiveness Pyramid” in SEE, even the smallest countries in the region receive the opportunity to benefit from the regional brand.

Creation of regional ICT brand recognized on the international and local markets.

THE INITIATIVE: In the framework of the RCI project, the ESI Center of Eastern Europe planned and launched the execution of a comprehensive software process improvement program named “ICT Competitiveness Pyramid”. The goals of the program were:

• To build organizational capacity for planning and execution of a process-improvement program in the ICT Sector.

• To build expert capacity for process improvement using the latest management and engineering models and standards.

• To help a large number of SMEs to increase their competitiveness, and promote cooperation through implementation of process improvement initiatives.

• To support industry leaders in certifying their processes according the world recognized models and standards.

• To expand the regional ICT market through promotion of ICT as a tool for increased competitiveness in other economic sectors.

In order to achieve the Program goals, several groups of activities were planned and executed. A short description of each phase has been provided in the Table below. The overall program is illustrated in Figure 1. Table 2: Project Activity List

Activity Group Short Description Group 1 Development of a base for increased ICT competitiveness through quality

Analysis of the ICT sector on national and regional level. Identification of public-private partnership models, stakeholders, donors and most appropriate interventions. Building the fundamentals of the program and obtaining strong commitment from stakeholders from the Government, Business and international development programs.

Group 2 Building awareness and delivering trainings in software, corporate excellence , IT security and CMMI

Capacity building through awareness, training, and certification of experts and stakeholders. Creation of management leadership and commitment. These together with the delivery of trainings in process-improvement concepts are the key drivers for a successful and sustainable process-improvement program.

Group 3 Process improvement program implementation on

Provision of technical and management support to the organizations during the implementation of their improvement plans in order to ensure that the improvement actions are being executed effectively and efficiently.


Activity Group Short Description cluster and SME level Perform periodic quantitative and qualitative evaluations of the

implementation progress, and take corrective actions when the actual performance deviates significantly from the plan in order to ensure that the organization is prepared to undergo a formal evaluation.

Group 4-7 Appraisal of the processes’ maturity

Review the processes in each organization to determine the degree of implementation and institutionalization of the selected process areas with the objective to identify the potential gaps that must be addressed by the organization to satisfy the goals of the improvement initiative. Certification against the international standards and models.

Parallel capacity-building services:

Strengthening the regional market for ICT solutions

Positioning local ICT products and services on the regional market and developing cross-border/cross-sector cooperation in the region. www.IT2Business.org

Strengthening the regional capacity for IT quality models implementation

Development of training and certification centers and training and certification community of practices. www.Quality2IT.org

Sustainability of the results achieved, Centers of Excellence and Innovation (CEIs)

Establishment of a large regional network of CEIs with access to highly professional trainings, capacity building expertise, and/or connections to EU and US research centers and programs.

Strategy development Support the countries in the region with the formulation and implementation of ICT related strategies.

Figure 1. Program Architecture – ICT Competitiveness Pyramid


Program Activities

ProgramResults

ORGANIZATIONAL INFRASTRU-

CTURE IN PLACE

ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY BUILT

ORGANIZATIONAL

EXCELLENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY

PR OCESS IMPRO VEMENT CAPACI TY I N PLACE

IN CREASED COM PETI TI VENESS

ICTLEADERSHI P

I ndicators of achievement:•90% of the persons who are t rained implementgood practices in their work

•80% of the organizations* use the good pract ices to i mprove thei r processes•65% of the organizations* launch init iative for cont inuous process improvement

Indicators of achievement:•70% of the organizat ions* increase their competit iveness based on more effect ive and eff icient processes•50% of the organizat ions* gain s trategic competit ive advantages based on continuous improvement of the eff iciency and ef fect iveness of their processes

Indicators of achievement:•10-20% of the organizat ions* completely implement and are cert ified for the leading industry models and standards•30-40% of the organizations* part ially implement the leading indust ry models and standards and have obtained intermediate validat ion

OR

GA

NIZ

AT

ION

AL

IN

FRA

ST

RU

-

CT

UR

E I

N P

LAC

E

Results oriented towards building of organizat ional capaci ty

PR O CE SS IM PR O VE ME NT

C AP AC ITY I N P LA C EResults oriented towards increased compet itiveness of the ICT sector

Development of the base for increased ICT

competitiveness through qualit y

1

Creat ion of implementati on capacit y – profess ional training and certif ication

2.2

B uilding awareness and init ial training

2 .1

pr og ra m infr ast ru ctur ein p la ce

Process Improvement Program Initiation in SMEs

3

le ad ers hip a nd d ecisio n- ma ker s’ co m mitm en t

le ade rs hip a nd d ecisio n- ma ker s’co mm itm en t

Quick assessment of the processes maturit y in a

cluster of SME s

4

Process Improvement Program implementation on

c luster and on SME level

5

imp lem en tat io n cap acit y

clu ste r of or gan iza tion s co mm itt ed to the p ro gr amo pe rat ion al plan id ent ified

n eed for a war en ess a nd t ra ining

Readiness check for process maturity

appraisals

6

Process maturit y certif ication

7

p ro cess ma tur ity

pr ior it ized g oa lspr oce ss im pr ove me nt pla ns

ap pr aisa l p lan s

in du stry le ad er s cer tifie d o n th e la test m od els a nd stan da rd s

*Percentage are indicated against the initial number of organizations

Sustainable Financial Model One of the major objectives of RCI is to ensure sustainability of the ICT activities, and to obtain commitment for the latter from other stakeholders in the region as well. To achieve that end, the various project activities receive different levels of funding:

• The initiation activities such as awareness, elaboration of analyses and studies, project planning and management are almost completely funded by RCI (80-100 percent).

• Human resources strengthening activities such as training and qualification are funded in cooperation with other business support programs and the firms that benefit from the respective trainings. The RCI contribution in these activities is in the range of 30-50 percent.

• Certification and consultancy activities provided to the firms in the region are supported up to one third by RCI.

• As soon as the programs are successfully piloted in a certain country, external - in many cases non-USAID - funds are used in order to ensure continuation of the programs initiated by RCI.

Utilizing the Global Software Development Models for Increased ICT Competitiveness in Eastern Europe The launch of the program afforded an important opportunity for small firms and new entrepreneurs: the opportunity to build effective cooperation based on quality, using the latest models for organization and management of software engineering processes such as Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI). The CMMI model is well recognized by the ICT leaders as the de facto standard


for advanced software development and delivery of complex ICT services. The complexity of the products and the influence of internal and external requirements and pressures indicate that, in the future, organizational prosperity will be highly influenced by the willingness of the organizations in the region to address process improvement across the entire product development life cycle – from conception through delivery and maintenance. Getting the people-process-technology triad working at “its best“ is a must for those organizations in the region that want to compete on the global market.

Through CMMI process improvement, organizations could gain five primary types of benefits: • Cost: reduction in the cost to find and fix a defect; improved average costs for software

development; • Schedule: increased percentage of milestones met and predictability of meeting schedules; • Quality: improvement in quality, related to reducing defects over time or across product life cycle; • Customer Satisfaction: recognition on the global market, improved customer satisfaction and

increased client base; • Return on Investment: positive return on investment from CMMI-based process improvement. In many cases, CMMI is considered a strong advantage for subcontracting in the value chain of multinational corporations such as Boeing, Siemens, Motorola, Toyota, General Motors, JPMorgan, and government agencies such as the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy. Therefore, CMMI implementation is an important step towards increased competitiveness on the global market for high-quality software solutions. Another important aspect of effective cooperation based on quality is the ability to effectively lead and coach development teams. Therefore, in the course of the program, the team of ESI Eastern Europe started introducing companies from the region to the concept of how to manage projects quantitatively in order to complete projects on schedule, within budget, and with all requirements met. Through the use of the Team Software Process (TSP), leaders are given an example of both a strategy and a set of operational procedures that use disciplined software process methods at the individual and team levels.

THE RESULTS: The boom in the development of the ICT has changed South East Europe’s image from a destination with resellers and testers to a destination offering products and/or services, and brought benefits at the firm and regional levels.

Firm level benefits Four main types of business models are used by the firms supported by RCI. The software improvement program was aligned with the specific objectives of the business model used by a given company.

• Cost-efficient software outsourcing The outsourcing model is used by companies focused primarily on software development based on well-defined client requirements. The main competitive advantage is the cost efficiency of the production. Companies are able to produce high quality software at a lower cost compared to the development prices in other locations. There are companies following this model in their architecture design and management activities, but the majority uses it for the development of product parts/modules according to the requirements defined by the client. The RCI SPI program has enabled companies to provide efficient and effective outsourcing services using this model.


• Value-added software development and partnership This business model includes activities targeting the complete life-cycle development process for the clients such as business analysis requirements development, software development, testing, and deployment. The companies using this business model are focused on bringing value or improving the business productivity of the solution and not just in the software development. The SPI program has supported those firms to be able to optimize the production and design process for small projects (around 8 – 30 developers), integrate their teams into large-scale projects, and complete separate activities in correspondence with the overall project implementation process. • Own products In addition to outsourcing and value-added services, some of the companies that were supported by the RCI activities developed and marketed their own products such as ERP systems for small businesses in specific economic sectors, banking systems, CRM systems, document management, web design and others that targeted local or regional market niches. Many of the companies had leading positions in their market niche in the region. The RCI ICT program supported those firms in optimizing the development process and improving the positions of their products. • System integrators and consultants A few of the participants in the SPI activities were system integrators building relatively complex IT systems. RCI activities were aimed towards improvement of the processes related to value added services such as deployment and support of ICT systems.

The ESI Center of Eastern Europe conducted a special survey among the companies that participated in the SPI program (2006-2009). Twenty-two companies from Armenia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, and Moldova participated in the survey. All of the firms were small- average number of employees per company was 57, and 9 of the companies had less than 25 employees The survey included CMMI and ITMark certified companies, companies that were in the process of CMMI and ITMark certification, and companies that didn’t manage to fulfill all the requirements for ITMark certification at the time of the interview. The questionnaires were filled out by senior managers or owners of the companies. The conclusions of the survey are summarized below: • 82 percent of the companies increased their competitiveness by more than 20 percent • 85 percent of the firms reported increased client satisfaction and 58 percent of the companies

reported decreased “time to market” • 37 percent of companies reported sales increase of 20-50 percent due to the CMMI/ITMark

implementation program Each company that participated in the survey highlighted specific benefits related to their own business. Examples of such benefits were:

• Company 1 (Macedonia) – development and implementation of ERP solutions o “ The most visible result we have seen is having real-time reporting on what is really

happening within our company. Our managers have online access to all of their projects and can instantly see which tasks are on time, which are lagging behind schedule so they can push the team or add more resources to the team to get the task done on time.”

o “Processes are planned, documented, performed, monitored and controlled at the project management level.”

o “The pressure created by insufficiently well defined requirements was decreased and we reduced the time needed for their implementation.”


o “Before the ITMark implementation “the deadlines were set only as a wish”, because they could not be objectively estimated”.

o Subsequently the company continued its SPI initiative and achieved advanced ITMark certification.

• Company 2 (Moldova) – development and implementation of banking systems “When implementing ITMark and as recommended by CMMI we introduced a new practice in our work with Banks: When we receive requirements we create a prototype of our vision of the product and then discuss it again with the client. In 80 percent of the cases our vision appeared to differ a lot from the client’s vision. Previously this created a lot of rework. Now we can assure a correct vision of the requirements and final product that are understood correctly by us and the clients.”

• Company 3 (Bulgaria) – a small Bulgarian IT company, offering a broad range of hardware and software solutions o The company has received a number of awards over the years, in particular from their

main client – a big multinational company. o The company has been working with the ESI Center of Eastern Europe with the objective

of reaching CMMI Maturity Level 2. o To keep the company’s clear and strategic business objectives at the forefront of all

activities during the complete SPI initiative, the ESI Center of Eastern Europe suggested carrying out an intermediate evaluation based on ITMark. The evaluation helped the company to sustain and further develop its business with its main client- a division of Siemens.

o The Company passed all the three areas of the ITMark evaluation and was CMMI certified. Regional level benefits One of the most important results from the “ICT Competitiveness Pyramid” approach on the regional level was that the companies and associations from different countries in the region covered by RCI created a regional community of practice and launched several joint initiatives in order to increase the ICT competitiveness of the whole region. With the support of RCI, the associations which had initially recognized and committed to the pyramid model such as the Bulgarian Association of Software Companies (BASSCOM), and the Macedonian Association of ICT Companies became regional leaders in the promotion of ICT competitiveness. They were able to launch regional projects in which to transfer their experience to other associations in the region. ICT Indicators 2005-2013

In 2009, RCI started new regional activities aimed at enlarging the regional market for IT solutions, developing training and certification networks, and building the foundation of the “ICT Competitiveness Pyramid” in new countries such as Georgia and Ukraine.


Table 3: ICT Pyramid Results GENERAL ELEMENT/INDICATOR

CORRESPONDING ESI CEE INDICATORS

Cumulative total 2005- 2013 February ESI Eastern Europe and related organizations

Number of firms receiving USG assistance to improve their management practices

No of SMEs that participated in CMMI/ITMark, PM and other professional trainings;

520

Organizations attending events where ESI presented RCI activities

2304

Number of firms receiving USG assistance to invest in improved technologies

No of SMEs that participated in CMMI/ITMark trainings and practical workshops; No of SMEs in the IT Business Solutions Network www.IT2Busines.org; No of SMEs in the IT Training and Certification Network www.Quality2IT.org.

586

IT awareness events participants - individuals 4920

IT awareness events participants - organizations 2304

IT events - awareness, training, assessments, workshops, practical in-house, etc.

224



CASE STUDY: Tourism Development in the Western Balkans THE CHALLENGE: Western Balkans is a region rich in globally significant cultural and natural assets. The competitiveness of this region as a travel destination lies in its rich historical heritage, authentic culture and well-preserved nature. The image of an undiscovered part of Europe sprinkled with historical sites, stunning landscapes, and authentic communities attracts travelers interested in exploration and off-the-beaten-path experiences. While each individual country has a lot to offer, the joint marketing of the Western Balkans as one destination enhances the competitiveness of the entire region. For many travelers, especially those from distance starting destinations, the ability to combine two or more countries into one itinerary based on specific interests or convenience is a large factor in the ultimate purchase decision. Unfortunately, uneven economic development, socio-political dynamics associated with the break-up of former Yugoslavia, and severe military conflicts in some of the countries has made cooperation in the region difficult. To function as one integrated travel destination (as frequently desired from the demand perspective) countries in the region had to establish effective cooperation to develop joint tourism products (cross-border routes, common themes, joint attractions, etc.), deliver authentic regional experiences and market themselves as one destination. Tourism and the Local Context: According to the recently updated long-term outlook and assessment of future tourism trends produced by the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the number of international tourist arrivals worldwide is expected to increase by an average of 3.3 percent per year from 2010 to 2030. This represents some 43 million more international tourist arrivals every year, reaching a total of 1.8 billion arrivals by 2030. Europe has consistently been the biggest generator of international arrivals and is expected to account for more than 45 percent of arrivals in 2020, maintaining an average growth rate of 6.5 percent. While Northern and Western Europe have seen much slower growth in recent years (Northern Europe: 5 percent in 2011; Western Europe: 3 percent in 2011), Central/Eastern Europe and Mediterranean Europe have been the main generators of growth on the continent (percent in 2011). The power of tourism lies in its significant economic impacts. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and Oxford Economics, in 2011, tourism generated 9 percent of the global GDP. One in every twelve jobs (255 Million in total) around the globe is supported by tourism. This is 6 times more than the global automotive industry, 4 times more than the global mining industry and a 1/3 more than the global financial industry. In Europe tourism is the biggest employer, exceeding the auto industry by a factor of 3.


Based on The World Bank publication “Transformation through Tourism Harnessing Tourism for Growth and Improved Livelihoods”

Source: The World Bank, Transformation through Tourism (2012)

The deep political and economic reforms in the last two decades have created a lot of challenges for WB economies. In many countries, historically important industries have declined due to lost markets or economic restructuring. This has led to vast unemployment, increased poverty, and economic decline of entire regions (Table 1). Agriculture remains an important source of living but it is mostly fragmented, inefficient and uncompetitive. Table 1: Unemployment and poverty figures for WB countries

Country Unemployment (2011)*

Population below poverty line

Albania 13.3% 12.5% (2008)

Bosnia & Herzegovina 43.3% 18.6% (2007)

Kosovo 45.3% 30% (2011)

Macedonia 31.4% 30.9% (2011)

Montenegro 11.5% 6.6% (2011)

Serbia 23.4% 9.2% (2010)

Note: *Some of the figures might be exaggerated due to hidden unemployment. Source: CIA Factbook


To counterbalance their serious socio-economic challenges, Western Balkan countries possess a wealth of natural and cultural assets. They are home to ten UNESCO World Heritage Sites, vast areas of protected lands with habitats of rare or indigenous animal and plant species, ancient and colorful traditions, arts, rituals and other intangible cultural heritage (some of which is also included in UNESCO ICT List). Despite the globally recognized value of these assets, some of them have been subject to poor management due to limited funds and lack of capacity. The problem is exacerbated by low public awareness and poverty-driven illegal activities such as poaching, felling, treasure hunting, etc. Amidst this complex combination of challenges, many valuable assets with potential of becoming vibrant tourism attractions remain underutilized and hidden for the world traveler. The lack of development of these is also associated with missed opportunities for revenue generation and other benefits for local stakeholders. In summary, the major challenge for Western Balkans countries was to overcome differences and find a way to collaborate to benefit from the opportunity that the wealth of natural and cultural assets offers. The tourism industries in the countries needed to expand their thinking and connect with partners in neighboring countries to begin joining their offerings in a regional sustainable tourism portfolio. In addition, they needed to begin positioning themselves as one singular destination that invites travelers for exploration and adventure.

THE INITIATIVE: Numerous past initiatives to cooperate in tourism have failed in the past. It was hard to bring two countries around the table, let alone all six Western Balkans countries. The support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Regional Competitiveness Initiative (RCI) Project facilitated the establishment of a regional network of tourism stakeholders who began to realize the value of exchanging best practices and working together. This was a very important first step. Members of the regional network began to realize the importance of cooperation and to see the value of promoting the region together. Multiple meetings and discussions were held and facilitated to achieve that end, but reaching an agreement on how to make it happen was difficult. Another difficulty was that regional initiatives attracted many representatives of donor programs supporting tourism, but rarely motivated active engagement and commitment from the private sector. What was needed was an initiative so appealing and motivating for all stakeholders in the region that they were ready to put all differences aside and unite efforts. It needed to be an opportunity that was of interest to the private sector to ensure real involvement of the industry.

Regional Tourism Steering Committee Meeting Podgorica, December 2011


In the course of facilitating the search for such a uniting initiative, the RCI team came across the opportunity to develop a promotional insert for the National Geographic Traveler magazine. The National Geographic brand is globally recognized and associated with values that all tourism stakeholders in the region related to. At the same time, the audience of the National Geographic Traveler magazine corresponded to the profile of the travelers that all countries in the region were trying to target. This became the opportunity that brought all interests together. Stakeholders from the region began working together to facilitate the development and publishing of the insert. The activity was partially funded by RCI/ USAID, but required additional investment and active involvement from each of the participating countries. The process was not without difficulties and challenges, but ultimately, the supplement was produced. It was officially presented at different events, but most importantly it was included as a promotional insert of the magazine, reaching over 225,000 subscribers from the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands. Because the National Geographic brand was what efficiently brought Western Balkans countries together, the RCI program saw value in continuing the cooperation with the organization. The next opportunity to cooperate with National Geographic for the benefit of

the joint promotion of the region was to support the development of an online MapGuide for the Western Balkans (www.balkansgeotourism.travel). The idea of the MapGuide was to serve as an integrated platform that promotes the region as a single destination, and enables travelers to plan trips that reveal the authentic spirit of Western Balkans countries. If implemented well, it would become an effective market-access tool for authentic and distinct travel experiences within the region. As all activities involving National Geographic, this program had to be based on the values and mission of the organization. This meant that the MapGuide program naturally facilitated stronger commitment to the principles of sustainability at the regional and country levels. Another important aspect was that the MapGuide featured authentic tourism attractions and small, local tourism service providers who are the true carriers of the local spirit. This

Screenshot from the Home page of the Western Balkans Geotourism MapGuide Portal

First Page of the promotional insert for the National Geographic Traveler Magazine


meant that the platform was empowering smaller tourism service providers generally have very limited market access. Given all of these benefits, regional stakeholders were ready to commit to the initiative. Again, the main financial support was coming from RCI/ USAID, but each of the countries was expected to contribute additional funding and to actively participate. The process of planning and developing the MapGuide was facilitated by National Geographic’s team, and took regional stakeholders through a planning phase (generating ideas and designing a plan of action), a nomination phase (generating nominations for attractions and service providers to be featured on the MapGuide, and ensuring that they adhere to the sustainability principles of National Geographic), and a launch phase (official launch of the MapGuide and raising awareness among the broader public). Throughout the program, local stakeholders were also exposed to trainings to raise awareness of the geotourism principles at the core of National Geographic’s value system. National Geographic defines geotourism as: “…tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place – its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents.” National Geographic encourages the adoption of geotourism strategies around the world as part of its mission to “inspire people to care about the planet.” By working with stakeholders in the Western Balkans, the organization facilitated increased recognition of the value of the region’s natural and cultural assets. Adherence to geotourism principles was the main criteria for nominations in the MapGuide. This stipulation efficiently operationalized the importance of sustainable management of cultural and natural resources.

THE RESULTS: The Western Balkans National Geographic MapGuide portal was launched in June 2012. Working with National Geographic made regional stakeholders focus on the opportunity of promoting their region under the National Geographic brand and forget about many of the differences they have had in the past. There are several important results that this activity produced: Facilitate productive regional cooperation As described earlier, the value of working together was something that many stakeholders in the region understood. The regional network and different joint activities supported by RCI/USAID helped make some progress, but something really powerful was needed to reach a “tipping point.” The National Geographic brand proved to have that power. By inviting National Geographic into the process, and supporting the development of the insert and the MapGuide, RCI/ USAID secured the unification of regional stakeholders. The shared desire to be globally promoted by the National Geographic brand was more important to WB countries than the differences they had. The regional tourism network has existed as a mechanism for cooperation for some time before the aforementioned activities. The MapGuide program facilitated the creation of a second mechanism for regional cooperation – the WB Geotourism


Stewardship Council. Project activities were entirely based on joint efforts through these mechanisms, so now the tourism industry in the region has two operational and active mechanisms that continue to be effective means for cooperation towards the better positioning of the region as a competitive travel destination. The established cross-country group that worked together on the MapGuide continues to function as an entity that plans and undertakes cooperative initiatives to promote the region on international markets. Involve private sector One of the main challenges in facilitating regional cooperation was motivating the private sector to join in on cooperative efforts. In many cases, regional cooperation initiatives attracted private sector representatives, but never to the extent of taking the lead and investing time and resources. The value of being part of an initiative supported by National Geographic generated interest in the private sector. In addition, the fact that the MapGuide became a platform that enabled market access for local businesses that were committed to the authentic spirit of the region energized many tourism entrepreneurs and business owners. During the implementation of the MapGuide program, private sector representatives were engaged, and eventually started taking lead in the planning and coordination activities. Facilitate Recognition and Prominence for Local Assets An important challenge addressed during the implementation process was the limited recognition of the many valuable cultural and natural assets of the region. By putting the spotlight on the authentic and the local, the MapGuide program generated more focused attention on the value and hidden potential of underutilized cultural and natural attractions. One of the continuing roles of the Council during the project and now continues to be the identifying, recognizing, and classifying of such sites. Generate buzz and promotion The launch of the online portal was marked with a series of promotional events in Washington DC, planned and implemented by RCI (USAID), National Geographic, and tourism stakeholders from the Western Balkans region. Promotional events included an evening reception at the headquarters of National Geographic, open air exhibitions in downtown Washington, DC and exhibitions at the USAID headquarters. At least 2000 people were exposed to the regional promotion. The promotional events generated word of mouth and active media coverage (at least 3 country- and regional-level televisions, and more than 10 newspapers and online-media sources).

Photo from the Western Balkans Exhibition at Farragut Park Square, June 2012, Washington DC


Generate momentum for next steps One of the most important results of the partnership with National Geographic was the generated momentum in regional cooperation in to promote the Western Balkans. The excitement that accompanied the launch of the MapGuide, and the enthusiasm of the people who attended some of the promotional activities (exhibitions, receptions, etc.) in Washington, DC inspired regional partners to begin looking for new and interesting ways to work together and promote the region. Council members continue to be in regular communication, and are beginning to utilize contemporary means (such as social media) for promoting the MapGuide and regional travel.
