Good practice:

Regional Destination Organisation of Ljubljana Region (RDO of Ljubljana region)

The 4 key activities of all RDOs in Slovenia are promotion, development, distribution, and training activities. In the case of Ljubljana region, the main challenge was promotion & better visibility of the region. In this way Ljubljana makes better use of the attractive offer in its hinterland & directs visitors of Ljubljana to discover the region. The main objective: to provide conditions for accelerated tourism development. Other objectives: to strengthen collaboration in joint planning, design & marketing of tourism & facilitate the exchange of good practices (GPs).
The current document Tourism Development and Marketing Strategy in the Central Slovenia Region 2017-2022 prioritizes: promotion, products, sustainable development, sustainable mobility, marketing & coaching.
Employment of a RDO coordinator has brought great results in development of tourism offer: joint tourist products, coaching according to the needs, better visibility & media coverage. The RDO coordinator connects stakeholders & representatives of the municipalities (RDO Forum), gets to know their needs & challenges and tries to find a solution for them, e.g., connecting them with others that have gone through & solved similar issues (exchange of GPs), helping them with promotion, organising different trainings, etc.
The main stakeholders & beneficiaries are RDO Forum, individual tourist places, providers, restaurants, accommodations, local tourist guides, tourist agencies, as well as local communities.

Annual budget from 26 municipalities is approx. 165,000€. Other sources of financing (beside co-financing of municipalities) are tourist tax funds and funds from city gambling tax. In 2017 a position of RDO coordinator was established to manage the RDO activities.

Since 2017, when a position of RDO coordinator within Ljubljana Tourism DMO was established, more than 25 new joint products have been developed and promoted with the focus on hiking, cycling, gastronomy and sustainability, several training sessions organised (on average 3-5 per year, e.g., how to develop tourist products, digital marketing etc.), more than 90 journalists visited the region, and the region has been constantly presented on the Ljubljana Tourism portal & its social network.

Challenges encountered: different levels of development and different needs in particular municipalities; unresponsiveness of providers (lack of time, interest, or human resources, demanding procedures, and bureaucracy).

RDO of Ljubljana region achieves greater recognition and visibility through collaboration, networking, joint planning, joint product development and marketing. The results show higher sales with less investment on the international tourist market.
With joint marketing in collaboration with Ljubljana the hinterland of Ljubljana (individual tourist places, providers, or destinations) achieves recognition and sales on the international tourist market easier, faster, with less investment and with greater effects. This would not be possible, if individual providers would act alone, as they would not be competitive and attractive.