High Value Tourism: Low Volume Footprints

High Value Tourism: Low Volume FootprintsOn Creating a New Model for Tourism That Doesn’t Cost the EarthAnna Pollock, Founder Conscious Travel, CEO DestiCorp UK.

Keynote PresentationPATA Adventure & Responsible Tourism Conference • Paro, Bhutan • 4 February 2012

Anna Pollock • email: [email protected] • Founder, Conscious Travel 1

Bhutan: Happiness is a Place

I must begin my talk with a personal and heartfelt thanks to PATA for inviting me to speak at this conference; to Karma Lotey, President of ABTTO who was instrumental in bringing the PATA conference to Bhutan, and to the people and leadership of Bhutan. You have all contributed to the fulDillment of a long held dream of mine – to visit your Kingdom, a place where happiness and community well-‐being are the primary goal of its leaders.

I am pleased that many thinkers and even a few politicians around the world are Dinally recognizing that GDP is not an accurate or appropriate measure of well-‐being. It was creation of the Gross National Happiness Index combined with the introduction of a tariff to ensure tourism developed in a slow and controlled manner that caught my attention some 3.5 decades ago and has inspired me since.

Bhutan was the Dirst and only country to do what I now believe is the solution to the ills of current mass tourism and that is to protect and nurture a unique place. So it’s highly appropriate that you would wish to study this topic in a country that has placed such importance on values, protection, and well-‐being.

Bhutan is also the country to distill the beneDits of travel in one meaningful sentence that also serves as its brand tagline – Bhutan: Happiness is a Place.

Having begun with sincere words of gratitude and admiration, let me proceed with a salutary tale. It’s a tale from another mountainous land thousands of miles away from here where monks gathered in monasteries perched on rocky peaks for prayer and spiritual enlightenment. The place is Meteora in Thessaly; the date 1971; and the event: adoption of a new prayer into the Greek Orthodox Church. The prayer was an attempt to seek God’s help in dealing with a troubling problem. So many tourists were visiting the monasteries that the monks were leaving. The


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short prayer was entitled “For those endangered by the Tourist Wave” and it read:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on the cities, the islands and villages of our Orthodox Fatherland, as well as the holy monasteries, which are scourged by the worldly touristic wave. Grace us with the solution to

this dramatic problem and protect our brethren who are sorely tried by the modernistic spirit of those contemporary western invaders. 1

And that prayer was offered up in 1971 when international tourism was one Difth its current size. I doubt there are many monks left there now.

Now I’d like to think that if it were a Bhutanese monastery the monks wouldn’t have to rely on divine intervention. Their unhappiness would have registered in the Gross National Happiness index and corrective steps would have been taken!!

Tourism to Greece has been going on for centuries and that destination was clearly at a different stage in its development than Bhutan but the story is both relevant and cautionary. Tourism can be a force for good but all too often its effect resembles that of a Tsunami, generating high impacts

and low returns and it’s time to be honest about that.

So sticking with the mountain metaphor, I’ve used this image to convey the challenge that tourism operators face as you leave the precipice of low value, high volume tourism and cross the abyss to get

to the richer pastures of greater yields, more sustainability and lower environmental and social costs.

I have divided my talk into three parts:

1. The bad news – what’s wrong, what needs to be Dixed and why

2. The good news – the change drivers we can harness to make the changes that are so necessary;

3. A framework that will help us vision a better future – a destination for our journey

So let’s face the challenges of our current situation realistically and with courage.

What’s the bad news? I am going to make some assertions now – I won’t have time to back them up so if you disagree raise a question in the interview section.

1. In about 60 years, tourism has grown nearly 100 times from less than 10 million to 1 billion international overnight trips. That may sound like good news – and the growth is impressive – but there are signs that, as an efDicient economic engine, it’s running out of steam. At best, it’s producing diminishing returns; at worse, it contains within it the seeds of its own destruction. In plain language, we’re killing the goose that laid the golden egg.




2. What started as the aspiration, a luxury enjoyed by a wealthy few, is now a universal commodity generating small and diminishing returns. In good times, we encourage overdevelopment; in bad times we drop prices creating a vicious cycle that beneDits developers who have little allegiance to a place; but at the cost to local tourism operators of mostly small businesses who must ride the roller coaster of boom & bust.

3. Despite our valiant marketing efforts, we cannot control the factors that cause the ebb and Dlow of tourism demand – be they the economic vitality of source countries, political stability, currency exchange rates, or lack of natural hazards. They Dluctuate like the angiogram of a patient having a heart attack! Overall demand may continue to rise globally but locally is highly volatile, and subject to peaks and troughs that undermine proDitability and resilience.

4. We have persuaded politicians of the beneDits of tourism in terms of spending and jobs but have never assessed the social and environmental costs. So we measure success in terms of volume of visitors not net beneDit or well-‐being because it’s easier but it’s also misleading.

5. Just at that moment when travel is considered by many to be a fundamental human right, proDit margins have never been thinner and resilience – the ability to withstand further external shocks -‐ is weak.

Consider this -‐ By 2030, the world will need at least 50 per cent more food, 45 per cent more energy and 30 per cent more water — all at a time when environmental boundaries are throwing up new limits to supply. It will also need to have reduced its production of carbon by over 80%. At the same time, the UNWTO is forecasting a doubling of international trips even though tourism is currently dependent on fossil fuel, is a major generator of carbon and user of water, land and concrete.

It doesn’t take a Ph.d in economics to Digure out that when rising demand clashes with diminishing supply, prices will rise.

Airlines can shout “unfair” and foul all they want but someone has to pay the cost of absorbing the carbon travellers generate and personally I’d prefer to pay a little extra now than impose a very real and punishing cost on my grandchildren’s well-‐being.

6. Nor can we assume that government support for marketing and infrastructure will continue. Record levels of public debt; the demands of an aging population in developed economies and the explosion of youth, who will need to be educated, employed or otherwise kept busy in developing nations, will put enormous strains on public budgets;

7. Traditional “push” marketing doesn’t work any more. Power has shifted from the supplier to the customer whose trust levels are at an all time low. The days of clever marketing spin are almost over. Your customers now rely on each other for information and, thanks to the proliferation of new channels and constantly changing technologies, your investment in marketing must go up at the very time your returns are diminishing.

And if that sounds rather daunting, permit me to layer in one other key fact – and that is at this point in history most leaders and experts have given up trying to predict what’s going to happen next. The bofDins and spymasters in the US military have a 4 letters to describe our world and it




starts with a V. 2

With V pointing to extreme volatility; U pointing to uncertainty; C to complexity; and A for extreme ambiguity.

Now bear with me – I promise this is going to be a positive, uplifting talk but we can’t expect to Dix a problem unless we understand what caused it.

I started my list of “bad news” by talking about mass tourism’s operating model. What do I mean by that? Simply put, it’s the set of shared operating assumptions and beliefs that are often invisible and implicit but shape how we behave. They are the glue that holds a system together. Another word is mindset or paradigm.

Tourism is a relative latecomer to the economic scene – literally taking off with the arrival of methods of mass transportation – the railway, the passenger liner, and the jumbo jet. Being the young sector on the block, it looked to the manufacturing sector for ideas on how to organize and manage itself and applied the model of an assembly line. Elements of a trip -‐ accommodation, transport, entertainment, dining -‐ were perceived as products that could be assembled as packages that could be positioned, priced and promoted.

The industrial model is all about producing more for less and it’s worked well. The UNWTO conDidently project tourism to reach 1.6 billion trips by 2020. Now that’s a doubling of the number handled just three years ago. Domestic travel is growing faster and could easily be 8 times that in terms of movements. Do you see why I use the image of a tsunami?

Despite the optimistic forecasts of aircraft manufacturers, it’s unlikely that these projections will be fulDilled. There simply are no straight lines in nature. All life is cyclical and growth cannot continue inDinitely. There is a universal pattern that applies to animal or plant populations, civilizations, or even ideas. It regularly appears in college classes on tourism as applied to the rise and inevitable decline of a destination.3 To my knowledge it has not been applied to tourism as a whole but I believe now is the time to imagine we are at the inDlection point globally.




So that’s how I see the global dilemma. While the situation will vary from one destination to another the overall pattern will be repeated.

Having got the bad news out on the table, I’d now like to tell you why I am so excited and optimistic. There is a cure to VUCA and there are forces we can harness to “do tourism” differently.

First of all, lets’ turn VUCA on its head and have it mean something much more positive

V – Can stand for a Vision of Tourism That Values all participants and the Places in which their relationships take place

U – could be for Understanding – we can examine our unexamined assumptions and change them to create wealth and well-‐being that doesn’t cost the earth

C – could be for the Creativity and Collaboration needed to move from the old to the new. I’ll add a third C for Caution – don’t underestimate tourism’s destructive force; and

A -‐ can stand for the Agility we’ll need to respond to mammoth change and the Action we will need to take,

You can see now that this is going to involve an awful lot more than changing light bulbs and washing our towels less frequently….

Nor will we make much progress unless we delve beneath the surface and dig deep beneath surface trends and organizational structures and processes to understand what really has to change.

To determine whether we can reverse the trend and create high value and low impact, we have to start with two key questions:

• How are the values held by your source markets changing?

• Through what lenses do they view the world and how are they changing?

Note I said “in your markets.” To the Bhutanese in the audience I’d mention that your values and trends are not necessarily the same as the ones that have underpinned the western worldview and helped drive the growth of western economies. But we’re living at an historic point in time when the worldviews of indigenous peoples are still closely connected to place and spirit might converge with the perspectives and values held by an inDluential segment of “western” cultures.

For example, here’s a list of assumptions that have underpinned society for the past 250 years. Take a minute to scan them – maybe you’ve never thought of them before. Some you might agree with; others you may not. But I can assure you everyone is being challenged right now and the world won’t be the same as a result. It’s because these core assumptions are now being found wanting that I can retain some optimism that higher values and less impacts from tourism might be achievable going forward.




Let’s stick to territory you’re familiar with – tourism and look at the last assumption on the list4.

When we talk about tourism as an industry we see things or products being assembled by businesses in pursuit of proDit. And in the name of that pursuit, people can be displaced from their homes; fragile beaches can saturated, coral reefs destroyed; children’s lives wrecked; forests cut down or cultures that have provided meaning for centuries made objects of entertainment.

But this isn’t how it is or needs to be. Tourism is really a community of people in relationship with each other and the setting or place in which their encounters, and their experiences take place.

The truth is that tourism operates more like a network than an assembly plant with rigid processes and a hierarchical control structure. Apparently, the term industry was introduced on a recommendation by Henry Kissinger in order to give a youthful phenomenon legitimacy in the eyes of an industrialized society.

Tourism is all about people meeting people; it’s about relationships between people and between people and the natural world.

Tourism isn’t about objective things that can be produced but about experiences that can only be had by the person having the experience.

Our guests are people; our employees are people; our suppliers are people; investors are people and residents of the host community are people too. The good news is that as people, our needs and wants and, most importantly, our values are changing and changing fast.

In a network change can’t be dictated or imposed from the top or a central source. Instead, change spreads like an infection. It can and will come bubbling up from communities – perhaps started by individuals but spread by connections and community and accelerated by passion and enthusiasm. So you are as much in control of the future as I am. Each of us is situated on the frontline between the old and the new. Every decision we make affects the total outcome.

The goal, as Carlos Christ encouraged us to consider in his endnote presentation, is to imagine a day when we won’t need adjectives such as responsible, sustainable, eco, geo or even conscious to




describe a fringe or minority form of tourism. The goal will be for all tourism to be living up the principles behind those adjectives.

CHANGE DRIVERSSo let’s now look at the positive forces that we can harness to bring about this transformation and generate higher yields with lower impacts.

The biggest change driver is this thing called “connectivity” – humanity now comprises some 7 billion souls and 1 billion are now on Facebook struggling with new timeline!. Another i/2 a billion are tweeting….

It’s this connectivity that’s changing our view of ourselves.

Thanks to the technology that got us into space, we each know that we share a common home and that we’re all connected.

Our understanding of this beautiful planet is also changing. We now have a perspective and the data to understand that planet earth is a living, breathing organism capable of self-‐regulation and adjustment.

We’re also recognizing that its resources are limited and it operates according to some physical laws that cannot be broken. So we may have one planet but we need three to sustain life on the planet at current levels of consumption and waste production.5

The recession of the middle of the decade brought about by the near collapse of our Dinancial system has shown that our current economic system is seriously Dlawed.

Connectivity also creates transparency and harsh truths cannot be hidden any longer.

Connectivity is accelerating the diffusion of new ideas.

Digital connectivity also accelerates a demand for travel. While we may meet online in digital space, real connection occurs in the analogue world.

We each leave home with a fantasy and often then experience reality. Sadly more and more travelers are coming home disappointed. The following three images show what would be the fantasy of the beach in Thailand made famous by Leonardo di Caprio in the movie and images of today’s reality. This is the reality today.




Experiences like this make it painfully clear that there are limits to growth. While we may all think we have a right to travel, exercising that right means that fewer and fewer other people will have the opportunity to experience “must see” destinations without crowds of other people being in the frame of their digital pictures.

Sadly, the majority of operators are reluctant to let go of a mindset that enables them to exploit landscapes, ecosystems and cultures in the name of economic growth. In the week prior to leaving for this presentation, Thomas Cook posted this blog post and exciting “infographic which identiDies our top 5 destinations to visit before they’re gone”. (Note; the original wording on the blog has subsequently been edited out. The current version of the post is here.)

And almost on the same day a story broke about the way in which tourists were inDiltrating remote Indian tribes in order to get pictures of exotic and naked tribes people.

Thanks to all that connectivity , the conversation it enables and the growth in consumer power, this kind of irresponsible behaviour will be subject to growing criticism in the future and the impact on reputation and share value could be huge.

Before this age of transparency perhaps it didn’t matter what people thought; or you could at least hide the truth; now it’s the key thing that matters. According to NASDAQ some 60-‐80% of the value of publicly listed companies can be attributed to intangibles such as brand equity, reputation and human capital i.e., the capacity of the people in a company to be creative, adaptable, innovative and relevant.

This shift in how we value companies is occurring at the same time that people are valuing the acquisition of things less and meaningful experiences more.

The clue to understanding why this is happening lies with a psychologist Abraham Maslow who many of us may have encountered in marketing courses. Dr. Maslow suggested that, as individuals, we spend our lives pursuing a changing set of needs. The Dirst four needs – physiological, safety, love & belonging, and self-‐esteem – are described as deDiciency needs. Right now people of all ages are realizing that meeting their “deDiciency” needs alone doesn’t bring about happiness. The latter state can only be reached by committing to grow, by seeking knowledge and wisdom and acting in service to others; in other words fulDilling “growth needs”


http://blog.thomascook.com/infographics/5-endangered-places/

http://blog.thomascook.com/infographics/5-endangered-places/



Here’s a map of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to seven levels of consciousness6. There’s a point of transformation when individuals put more emphasis on community and the common good than the satisfaction of purely selDish goals. A signiDicant number of people are going through the transformative phase right now. After which, stuff or experiences aren’t enough – they must be meaningful, have purpose, and contribute to the whole.

And we’re seeing this shift taking place in front of our eyes in developed and rapidly developing economies. It’s important because this shift is affecting what people buy, how they spend their time and which companies they choose to work for.

This shift is neither generation-‐, age-‐ or culture-‐speciDic. While it is partly driven by an aging population (older people generally tend to become more interested in matters of the soul or spirit in their advancing age); the Generation known as Gen Y (born after 1980) seem to have jumped up




Maslow’s needs hierarchy at a much younger age. According to Tim Elmore in Growing Leaders, some 61% of Generation Y feel personally responsible for making a positive difference to the world and expect their work to be transformational as well as transactional.

This shift in values is not only affecting people as consumers but our beliefs and assumptions about relationships. As we mature we start to think less about our individual selves in isolation but as community. Richard Barrett has summed up this trend as a shift from “I to we” such that Dirms should now concentrate less on being the best in the world, to “being the best for the world” as increasingly they are being judged as much by the values they adhere to over the products they sell.

By the way, this is why Bhutanese and many indigenous peoples are around the world, are more mature than their visitors from the so-‐called developed western economies! They’ve always known that well being has relatively little to with money. You need some but, after a certain point, more isn’t always better.

And this is why Bhutan is a destination whose time has come!

These changes in value are having an enormous impact on attitudes to business. Until just a few years ago, it would have been heresy for anyone to have denied that the prime focus of business is to make money. But the business literature now is teeming with papers and books suggesting that business is really about doing good and making the world a better place7. Edelman, the US based agency that measures how people around the world exhibit trust, has suggested that the Difth “P” in the marketing lexicon is Purpose. Edelman found that 86% of consumers around the world expect business to place at least equal weight on society’s interests as their own business interests.

As you can tell from the title of Richard Branson’s latest book, Screw Business as Usual, some major assumptions are deDinitely being challenged and returning to “business as usual” is highly

unlikely in a VUCA world.

There’s even a growing group of companies in the US that call themselves “Conscious Capitalists”. They are committed to capitalism but argue that it needs serious “tweaking.” The group includes some very successful enterprises including Whole Foods (a supermarket that generates the highest retail sales per linear foot of shelf space than any other worldwide); success stories such as Amazon, Zappos, Google; pioneers like Patagonia and in travel & hospitality Southwest Airlines, Kimpton Hotels and the Joie de Vivre Group founded by Chip Conley – hotelier turned very successful management guru. In depth research

conducted by Raj Sisodia, David Wolfe, and Jagdish Seth and detailed in an excellent book called,




Firms of Endearment, has shown that their Dinancial performance outstrips peers in the Standard & Poor by a ratio of 10:1.

Conscious Capitalists are adamant that companies that set themselves a purpose higher than the pursuit of proDit end up being more proDitable than those that focus exclusively on monetary returns.

It’s not surprising, given people can, at various times, be bosses, investors, suppliers, employees and customers, that consumers are also becoming more conscious (mindful, awake, aware and alert). There is a spate of literature easily accessible on the impact of the recession on consumer values and their Dindings are remarkably consistent. I have identiDied several of these studies on my website and encourage you to look at http://conscioustourism.wordpress.com/theconscioustraveller/

In short, a growing number of consumers around 30% -‐ are becoming awake, aware and alert; they making considered, mindful or conscious choices about what they buy and whom they buy from. The agency BBMG summarizes them in this way.

I have started thinking about the ways in which these general consumer trends apply to the market of travelers. Again I welcome you as a visitor to my web site on the subject: http://conscioustourism.wordpress.com/theconscioustraveller/ and a longer paper is available for clients on request.


http://www.amazon.com/Firms-Endearment-World-Class-Companies-Passion/dp/0131873725

http://www.amazon.com/Firms-Endearment-World-Class-Companies-Passion/dp/0131873725

http://conscioustourism.wordpress.com/theconscioustraveller/










Hopefully I have given you sufDicient evidence of the change drivers that will make it easier to create a viable alternative to mindless, often destructive mass tourism and create an alternative, conscious form of travel that is environmentally sustainable, socially just and spiritually fulDilling.

A NEW MODEL

So now let’s get to the creative and fun part – the last part of my presentation. What might this alternative to mass industrialized travel look like? I am calling it Conscious Travel. It integrates the thoughts underpinning sustainable, responsible, eco and geo travel with the perspective of consumer value shifts, experience design, values-‐based leadership and conscious capitalism. It is not designed to compete with or undermine the Dine efforts being achieved by others active in the above Dields but to pull together a holistic approach that helps operators see the whole picture.

What I want to do is sketch out its key features and invite you to join with me and others in developing it further. Let me start with some broad brush strokes that suggest how a new model might differ from an old:

FROM PRODUCT TO PLACE

First we have to get back to the roots of tourism and why people travel.

The Dirst change is a shift in focus away from a product which can so easily become a low value commodity to a place that can be valued, celebrated, expressed, and experienced

The industrial model broke everything into components and compartments and, in our case, focused on products (hotels, rental cars, activities) and paid attention to their attributes.

It feels as if we’ve cut ourselves off from the juice, the spirit of travel. This sterile industrial mindset takes the life out of travel which is all about a journey, an adventure, an exploration of somewhere, some place that’s different to home.




So a focus – an obsession with Place – and what makes it what it is and different is now essential for two reasons.

1. Places are scarce and therefore precious. Each place is the outcome of 13.5 billion years of evolution, the present geography of the setting, the history and culture of its people and the connections and relationships of its residents. None of us can create that! There is only one Bhutan; one Vancouver; one Samoa.

Now I was never that good at economics but I did grasp the law of scarcity. Diamonds are scarce so command a high price. And if the market gets Dlooded de Beers pulls them off the market. So if Places are scarce why do we sell them at a discount? How have we allowed cheap and mindless travel to dominate the landscape of tourism?

2. As human beings we are both grounded and inspired by re-connecting with the

land, the landscapes, the seasons, the smells and sounds of a place; its past and present; our aspirations for its future. The Conscious Traveler – and that’s the one you want – seeks out the different, the authentic and the “real. ” They are the ones that want to visit farmhouses and monasteries and get involved with Bhutanese life but, by the way they don’t want to do this in large groups. The one thing these travelers hate is to see other travelers, who are called tourists around them if they can avoid it!! The experience has to be carefully stage managed. Small is indeed beautiful and slow is better than fast.

Dear hosts – Bhutan is a jewel in tourism’s crown. I’ll be blunt. Thanks to the foresight of your past and present King and his government you have been wise and cautious. I know you now need to increase the economic beneDit from tourism, but have conDidence in and conviction about your own value .

Don’t be pressured. I understand there are 65 hotels in the Paro valley – all full during festivals but struggling at between 10-‐30% occupancy year round.

You’ll be told your tariff is too high – it isn’t. You’ll be told you have to grow faster – you don’t. Furthermore, as you grow your market, you’ll see more developers and hoteliers want to build more capacity. Don’t let this happen until your existing suppliers are operating healthy and Dinancially stable businesses.

Worse still, you’ll be pressured to put in the services that developers say tourists need and want – golf courses, tennis courts, casinos, shopping malls and MacDonalds. But I can assure you the kind of traveller you need to attract – the one that shares your values would be appalled and profoundly disappointed if we found them here – wouldn’t we?

Bhutan is special because it’s still different. The look on our faces yesterday told that. We, the PATA delegates , are a jaded bunch – we’ve been there, done that! If some individuals in this room cashed in their frequent Dlyer points it would feed many Bhutanese families for years! But these sophisticated and discerning travellers looked like kids yesterday – our eyes were wide open; jaws had dropped to the Dloor! There was magic in the air. They felt young again! Such that the core purpose of tourism had been fulDilled within hours of arrival.8

But to protect this place you also have to engage everyone




a. because members of the community are the ones who will meet and greet and talk with your visitor. They are the ones with the stories to tell; they are the ones who can invite guests into their homes for rice wine and butter tea. But they need to be prepared and protected too. The stall holders in the market in Thimphu surprised us with their grace, charm and quiet dignity. They didn’t pressurise, pester or cajole and, as a consequence, shopping was a pleasure not an afDliction. But if tourism grows too quickly and these Bhutanese are exposed to enough of the rude behaviour that tourists can often exhibit, the ambience could deteriorate to no one’s beneDit.

b. to make sure everyone beneDits. And this is where your policy of Gross National Happiness can be such an effective tool. Make sure from today that tourism generates net beneDit; make sure it is always contributing to well-‐being. Having learned more of your GNH program since I got here, I am conDident that you will but tourism will need to be carefully managed as well as marketed.

This focus on Place will also lead you to think of more creative ways of enriching the visitors’ experience and making sure that sense of magic can be sustained as you double the number of arrivals. Visitors in 2020 will also want to feel the magic we felt yesterday. They want to learn more, understand more, get more involved. To enable that you have to have activities, events and “attractions” that engage all the senses, throughout the day and at all points along a visitor’s journey of discovery and celebration from when they arrive at the airline check in counter to when they return home and start to share their experiences with friends and family.

Please remember this. People don’t come to Bhutan to sleep; they come to experience its uniqueness and be changed by it. Don’t allow your strategy to be driven by beds but experiences.

For example, the conscious traveller doesn’t want huge grandiose light shows with a cast of thousands and needing thousands of visitors a day to make money. They want the small scale, the intimate, the local, the handmade and quirky. They want to slow down and stay longer. You need them to slow down and stay longer and that will only happen if there are more things to see and do than time to do them.

As an example, we climbed up to the ruins at the end of the day. We were happy but tired and hungry and a little concerned that it was a stop too many. The tea and biscuits at the top of the hill revived us. Thank you! Then the experience of that magical place re-‐invigorated and re-‐charged us. But having 100+ people crawling over the ruins and clicking pictures of the view isn’t the way to get high yield with low impact.

Think of creative ways of shaping experiences in that setting that will result in memories that will last for ever and stories that will be told and retold. How about camping under the stars, listening to tales of Bhutanese legends told around an open Dire while masked dancers appear from the shadows, their silhouettes Dlickering on those sandstone walls?

Greater engagement leads to more meaning, more purpose and more curiosity which, in turn leads to more engagement, more relationships and more appreciation. More appreciation leads to more value and more value leads to more yield.




FROM BRANDING TO PERSONALITYThe next pressure you’ll have to face as the world gets news that you want to grow tourism is the pressure to develop your brand. You’ll be pitched by branding agencies from here to Timbuktu to design a logo and come up with a clever “tag line” – those few words that are supposed to entice us to visit but which 99.9% of visitors hardly notice and or ignore.

Again resist! Instead really get clear at what Bhutan means to you. Think of its essence or spirit that makes you distinct. What makes you different to Tibet, Nepal, Sikkim. What values do you share? (Postscript – Bhutan doesn’t need a better strapline than the one it already has developed: Happiness is a Place). All that’s needed now is to ensure that all participants in the Bhutanese community share a common sense of place and can express that to visitors in a variety of animated ways.

Our trip to the museum on Friday provided a glimpse of a magniDicently rich, colourful and complex culture that has survived for thousands of years. This facility needs to be prized as much as, if not more than, the few 5 star resorts in Bhutan.

Think long and hard of ways to express that personality in ways that don’t turn it into a show or make Bhutanese feel they are objects in a museum or zoo.

At the same time, use every form of creative expression available from art to poetry to music to mime, comedy, design, in a way that all senses are stimulated. When you wake up in the morning a guest should know that you are somewhere distinctly different and know where they are.

A successful destination has to be managed as much as it has to be marketed. The role of its leaders is not to dictate but to orchestrate in the same way that the conductor of an orchestra creates harmony from different players, playing different instruments but all expressing the same tune.

FROM PROFIT TO PURPOSEThirdly, let’s take a cue from the conscious capitalists and a host of other businesses that are Dinding out that proDit follows passion and purpose and not the other way around.

If we want to attract customers who will value our Places and the experiences we design for them; if we want to attract employees that will be Dilled with passion who tap into their innate creativity to serve a guest better; if we want to attract suppliers that are aligned with us and a host community that is supportive we will need to communicate a deep and inspirational sense of purpose and meaning.

Tourism must be put back where it belongs as the means to an end with the end being the well-‐being of all involved. This is why Bhutan’s time has come. Your Gross Happiness Index and associated screening tools help ensure that tourism serves the greater good. Tourism operators cannot be quiet and not become champions for sustainable practices, cultural regeneration and fair wages. Nor can they sit back and expect to be spoon fed. They must become the agents of change in their community asking not what the community should do for them but what they as tourism operators can do to make the community a better place. For more on that topic, see Good Morning Tourism Time For Your Wake up Call and It’s Simple Conscious Hosts Create PLaces That Care


http://conscioustourism.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/good-morning-tourism-time-for-your-wake-up-call-part-two/




http://conscioustourism.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/its-simple-conscious-hosts-create-places-that-care/






If you are a hotelier, a travel agent, a rental car company or tour company, it’s vital that you demonstrate you care for the environment, for the culture, for the wellbeing of your employees and the host community.

Now in this respect, Bhutan has a head start through its approach to tourism and its commitment to protecting the Place.

Bhutan has the opportunity to become a leader on the world stage if it puts time and energy into following through its commitment to community well-‐being. It can also make a major contribution to other destinations faced with similar choices. In fact, by speaking out as a nation on its struggle to balance protection with growth, the entire world will beneDit and Bhutan will more likely attract the right kind of customer.

And that is why you must also “walk the talk” as we say in the west. We know you care about your country and your environment but this has to become a priority. Tourism operators must become champions for good environmental practice – don’t allow litter, especially plastic to spoil your view. As demand for energy increases, invest in alternative sources. There’s no reason why all your tour buses can’t be “green” and your hotels produce zero waste and grow more of their own food. (Postscript – since preparing this speech, I have been introduced to the pioneering work undertaken by the Yangphei Adventure Travel and the Zhiwa Ling Hotel in Bhutan. Without a doubt,

this is some of the most exciting work undertaken by a tourism company ever seen. It encapsulates the essence of what it means to be a Conscious Host.9)

The world needs to hear more about the concept of Gross National Happiness and there is a growing appetite for it. In fact, you will have more success attracting conscious travelers and Dilling your hotels with high yield guests by talking about that in the right circles and through the right channels. It’s a supplementary approach to attending tourism trade shows and working through the trade but one I am sure will work if thought through and executed properly.

SHIFT FROM PRICE TO VALUE

Let’s get out from behind our computers and put less time into spreadsheets and complex yield management algorithms and more time into designing place-‐related experiences that WOW; that fulDill and transform a market weary of sameness and insincerity; that rejuvenate, inspire and make what was broken whole again; and that rekindle a sense of awe and wonder that the place deserves.

Let’s give our left brains a rest and get creative – how can a visit to my Place (not just my establishment) stimulate all aspects of a guests’ being – body, mind, emotions and spirit? Note; it is Bhutan’s willingness to talk about and focus on spiritual fulDillment that is its true point of difference.

How can we design and deliver multi sensory experiences that reconnect people with the earth through touch, taste, smell, sound, and design?

How can we bring everyone in the community along and enable them to share their love for and knowledge of our place using poetry, Dilm, prose, music, dance, cuisine, arts and crafts?

How can we be more effective in supporting our guests get the information they need to really enjoy their experience and leave wanting more. For the aim has to be to slow these guests down and help them savour their experience .




Because I am convinced that if you focus on these things as a community and not on the percentage point decline in your ADR, the value will rise. It won’t happen overnight but you will be back in control.

FROM VOLUME TO VALUE, FROM QUANTITY TO QUALITYPerhaps the simplest thing any destination could do, is change what it measures. Because what we measure causes us to focus our energy. We have to re-deUine success from the volume of trips to the net beneUit– the income from visitors less the total cost of accommodating them times the level of social beneDit. Now I recognize that isn’t easy but until we try, we will lose credibility. In the meantime, brainwash our politicians and discipline ourselves to at least count revenue per tourist and try and grow that and not foot count by 5% per annum!

And secondly, take a leaf out of de Beers book – de Beers is a highly successful Dirm that makes and sells diamonds. Limit supply! You wouldn’t let a doctor practice medicine in your community without a licence. Don’t let people build hotels or open up inbound tour operations without a licence and can demonstrate their values are in alignment with those of the community as a whole and they know what they are doing.

In conclusion, we, your guests and delegates to this PATA event, have been privileged to experience Bhutan at this sensitive stage in its development. It feels like time travel. Bhutan reminds me of the Bali I visited in 1973 but which is lost in that innocent form. You have the chance to learn from the mistakes of others and polish your jewel for all to see shining while contributing to happiness in Bhutan and inspiring others elsewhere.

The tourism community needs you as a beacon of hope and there are many in this room who would love to help and support you. Unlike the banks of the western world who consider themselves too big to fail, Bhutan is simply too precious to fail!

Thank YouAnna PollockFebruary 4th, 2012.




About the Author and Conscious TravelAnna Pollock is CEO of a consultancy, DestiCorp UK, and founder of Conscious Travel – an enterprise designed to help travel providers become Conscious Hosts and, thereby, attract Conscious Travellers who, together, can create a viable version of tourism that is “environmentally sustainable, socially just and spiritually fulDilling.”

She is currently developing an e-‐learning program (a series of webinars and workbooks) to enable operators of small tourism businesses shift their perspective and adopt practices that will assure their Dinancial viability.

The program is based on the assumption that Conscious Travelers, who will generate the greatest yield at least cost, will be attracted to Conscious Hosts. The program is designed to help tourism operators wake up and become aware and alert, mindful of the changing needs of their customers and able to operate a Dinancially sustainable business that is resilient to external shocks and that maximizes net returns to all participants.

As illustrated below, it’s a ten step program based on addressing ten questions. The objective is to build the inner capacity of hosts to respond to change and work collaboratively in communities to realise greater net beneDit from the tourism economy.

1. MINDSET -‐ How do you see the world? What assumptions are your actions based upon? Are they working? How might you change them?

2. BUSINESS CONTEXT -‐ How is Tourism and the Business Enviirnment Changing and what do you need to know about these changes?

3. VALUES & PURPOSE -‐ What values drive your approach to business and what is your deeper purpose that might attract the right employee and ideal customer?

4. CULTURE & BRAND -‐ What is your corporate personality and how might this be reDlected in your operations and communications?

5. IDEAL CUSTOMER -‐ Who is your ideal customer, what do they seek? How do your Dinds and appeal to them?




6. ATTRACTING & ENGAGING EMPLOYEES & SUPPLIERS -‐Who is your ideal employee and supplier? How do you attract them and align them around your core values, culture and personality?

7. STEWARDING & EXPRESSING PLACE What’s so special about your place? What makes your destination unique? How can you show you care about it? What are the essential aspects of environmental responsibility that you must adopt? How can you show you care about the unique culture of your place?

8. EXPERIENCE DESIGN -‐ How do you design your guests experience so that they stay long, savour and spend more and become enthusiastic advocates?

9. SOCIAL MARKETING -‐ How do you attract, engage, retain and inspire the right customers using the tools and channels relevant to them?

10. ON BECOMING A CHANGE AGENT -‐ How do you become a community change agent who develops more Conscious Hosts in and Conscious Travelers to your destination?

Contact InformationWebsite: www.conscioustourism.wordpress.comEmail: [email protected] Linked in: http://www.linkedin.com/in/annapollock Facebook: www.facebook.com/conscioustravelTwitter: @conscioushostSkype: PembridgeAnna


http://www.conscioustourism.wordpress.com

http://www.conscioustourism.wordpress.com



http://www.linkedin.com/in/annapollock

http://www.linkedin.com/in/annapollock

http://www.facebook.com/conscioustravel

http://www.facebook.com/conscioustravel







1 Source: The Final Call, In Search of the True Cost of Our Holidays, Leo Hickman, 2007,

Eden Project Books, available here.

2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volatility,_uncertainty,_complexity_and_ambiguity

3 For Dr. Butler’s recent views on Tourism Area Life Cycles, download a excellent summary

here

4 I am grateful to Carlos Christ, the keynote speaker at the end of the day, for

offering this explanation as to where the term “tourism industry” was derived.

5 http://www.oneplanetliving.org/index.html

6 I am indebted to Richard Barrett, founder of the Values Center and author of the New Leadership Paradigm for these two slides. Richard and his colleagues have developed an effective methodology for measuring the values held by companies and countries that is directly relevant to the travel community. 7 See Conscious Travel blog post “Screw Tourism As Usual”8 For thoughts on the deeper purpose or cause of tourism, your might enjoy Tourism What’s the Point?9 To see a Conscious Host in action, please read http://www.zhiwaling.com/index.php/gnhinbusiness/



http://www.amazon.com/Final-Call-Search-True-Holidays/dp/1903919991

http://www.amazon.com/Final-Call-Search-True-Holidays/dp/1903919991

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volatility,_uncertainty,_complexity_and_ambiguity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volatility,_uncertainty,_complexity_and_ambiguity

http://www.ibtcl.co.uk/web_documents/toursim_area_life_cycle_original.pdf

http://www.ibtcl.co.uk/web_documents/toursim_area_life_cycle_original.pdf

http://www.oneplanetliving.org/index.html

http://www.oneplanetliving.org/index.html

http://conscioustourism.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/screw-tourism-as-usual-will-2012-be-the-year-to-make-that-happen/

http://conscioustourism.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/screw-tourism-as-usual-will-2012-be-the-year-to-make-that-happen/

http://conscioustourism.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/tourism-whats-the-point-why-should-these-grads-work-for-you/

http://conscioustourism.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/tourism-whats-the-point-why-should-these-grads-work-for-you/

http://www.zhiwaling.com/index.php/gnhinbusiness/


