The TWO Golden Rules of Touristology

Everything has a beginning. You must fall in love with your profession. You are a Touristologist because you are a global expert of segments willing to travel or getting what a travel can bring to them. It was an honor and a privilege to play intellectual tennis with you.

Not long time ago I introduced a study case about a tourist destination (Taiwan to be precise), in one of my sessions and one of my students (nowadays one of the best Touristologist in Touristology’s land!)  said “This tourist destination s***s!” and followed with “I don’t know anything about this destination” This was the beginning of the two golden rules of Touristology. The bedrock of the best practices in this new science.

Golden Rule number 1:

In order to make consultancy / sell a tourism destination (hotel, tourism packages…) you MUST

…fall in love with the tourist destination /Tourism Enterprise

Otherwise, it’s impossible to find something unique /competitive, attractive for a segment.

Other destination can have better…. Whatever BUT this destination/enterprise is so special!

Golden Rule number 2:

In order to make consultancy / sell a tourism destination (hotel, tourism packages…) you MUST

…know the destination BUT ALSO the segments in a global world.

If you don’t know…

First: Learn…. MORE! Second: You are a touristologist NOT an expert in one destination. Your job is to know the world tendencies in travel, know different segments, know where they meet and what provoke them to travel. Then you listen to people in the destination / hotel / travel agency and create the magic of linking Demand with Supply trough a chain of value!

Even though myself for time to time I have to review these golden rules of Touristology. It is what I call bifocal Touristology.

You have to deal with the day by day activities BUT you also have to look for new opportunities. Nowadays you only have local tourism? That’s perfect BUT don’t lose the track of international tourism.

You are tired and you see your destination or enterprise as a boring place… Umm it’s very difficult that you communicate and commercialize this place properly. Time to fall in love AGAIN with your destination. It’s just a matter of will!!!!

In order to become a Touristologist it isn’t enough with a degree or a business card. It’s a matter of brain, heart and guts!

How do I know if you will be one follower of these rules? Easy, when you were at my classes I play tennis or Basque pelota with you? I mean, I try to define a concept in Touristology Do you just take notes or you try to improve it? When I put an example Do you bring another (Usually better than mine!!!) or you just copy my example to put it in the final test?

Thank you very much to play intellectual tennis with me!!!!!!

How to find the Profitability’s path?

It’s not about work or holiday… It’s about being bored or having fun!!! Why first specialized tourism and then mass tourism? My own 1,2,3 and international routes. Finally, Touristologists running the show!

This summer I went to an old fortified city. In order to get there you have to take and old train (the one that you see in my profile picture in Facebook or Twitter!) which takes you through the Pyrenees Mountains. It’s a happy trip! It was a family trip “Not work” –said my love- “just relax” “of course”- I replied.

But… you know… Touristology it’s like a drug (a good one) you can’t take your framework as you take your glasses off! So, when I see the city full of tourist, shops selling the same staff that you see in other cities, 4 start hotels on sale (Who wants to pay a lot of money to see and listen to a long row of tourist up and down!)…

My Touristologist brain becomes to think. How to find the profitability’s path for this place? “First specialized tourism then generic” – repeat over and over Touristology’s voice!!!

To change from mass to specialize tourism it isn’t easy!  Anyway nothing is lost until you stop fighting! Less improve the actual situation using the methodology and approaches of the best science ever… TOURISTOLOGY!!!!

This city can’t be a super two (there are similar cities like this around the world). So, as usual you have two ways:

1) Create your own 1,2,3. That means look for specific segments and little by little change/complement mass tourism with specialized one. This is far away from easy. I strongly recommend that tourist destinations and companies begin his strategic orientation the other way around. I mean, first specialized then generic (See figure 1 to see a visual representation).

 

Once specialized Tourism is working you have an organization, a team of people experts in identification of tourist’s needs and motivations, in customization of the supply, in everything necessary to bring tourist from there to here. In a nutshell experts in 1,2,3, theory.

You also have a positioning in the market from which it’s easier to bring generic tourism and local tourism. To do the other way around it isn’t impossible but, definitely, much more difficult!

Based upon this organization and positioning it’s easier to try to become a super 3 for each one of these specific segments.

One of the possibilities of becoming a super 3 is…

2) Create an international route. Look for something interesting for specific segments that imply a visit to several cities /places. This is almost indispensable when you want to attract tourist from abroad. For instance, link the visit to master or postgraduate program something similar to http://cbpnetwork.com/upcoming/study_trip2011/  Or create badges, stamps or passports like foursquare and so on.

“What!?!?! Now I have to send my tourist to other places?” – Will say the people in charge of the tourism destination (that earlier on I gave homage in this blog).

Yes! – I calmly reply – Because in this way you also will get their tourists.

Yes! Because in this way you also will create a competitive product in the international market.

Yes! Because in order to do that you will need to create an organization, a team of people focus on international tourism…

Sometimes it’s even worst! When I tried to do consultancy for a tourism destination (sorry, right now I don’t remember the name neither the place!!!)  and they say “But… We already do that!” I have to bite (strongly) my tongue and just say “To create 20,000 leaflets, to visit a couple of tradeshows and to pay for an ad in a local newspaper is just NOT enough!”

“Wait a moment, but.... to organize all this you will need...”

Finally!!! You will need a good bunch of Touristologists running the show!

JDVhotels.com a good example of 1,2,3 theory

What is 1,2,3 theory? / Why super 3 is the next logical movement after my own 1,2,3? / How to reverse 75% reservations OUT of my web  and 25% IN my web? / Why do hoteliers need a little bit of Touristology?

JDV is a good example of 1,2,3, theory. For starters...

1) The Demand: Discover / provoke customers’ needs. In our field that means to know what make people travel OR what need can be satisfied or better satisfied trough a travel (Are you familiar with Divorce Tourism?)

2) The supply: It can be a tourism package, a component of a possible package (Hotel, restaurant, sightseeing-walks, a place to meet someone related to travel motivation...) , a tourist destination... but in all the cases... it has to be transformed in a product / service customized to a specific segment.

3) Last but definitely not least (I always love this expression!!!) the chain of value that helps you  to communicate and commercialize your service because it adds value with services provided from external companies or organizations and it helps to get the trust of the customer: YOUR CUSTOMER!!!!

JDV had made a strong bet in creating MY OWN 1,2,3 (see graphic 1) and then the next logical movement is to become a super 3. This it was the case of Wyndham http://www.wyndham.com  first they specialized in businesswomen and then they create www.womenontheirway.com to sell to this segment other hotels and services in a change for a commission, of course!

For the moment they work effectively in create their own 1,2,3. They create a hotel base upon a magazine (for instance, Rolling Stones) in this way they get free publicity and sometimes a new investor and they focus this hotel to customer connected to the magazine’s lifestyle.  If you visit their website http://www.jdvhotels.com/  you will see that they try to focus on families, and on several segments they define with the information they get from their customers. Visit http://www.jdvhotels.com/matchmaker to get an idea about how they do that.

They decide long time ago that 75% of bookings trough central reservation systems with an average commission of 20% it wasn’t the good track and become the adventure to change this number, nowadays 75% of the reservations are made through their own website!

They are also one example of long tail theory, they not only appears in sites related to tourism but also with others related with lifestyle (www.demotivation.us;www.notengotele.com; www.youtube.com...). This is far away from what you can do with the long tail but is a hopeful beginning!!!

I’m sure that in the future they will try to explore the super 3 way. Any bets? The dices are rolling!

Anyway, Wyndham and JDVhotels are a wakeup call for all the lodging industry. It’s time to take control of your chain of value in order to get the trust of your customer, get information, transform it into knowledge in order to customize your services, improve your pricing strategies and get cheaper and more effective promotion and place.

As Chip Conley (the founder and CEO of Joie de vivre hotels) says in this video “Business has to want to change itself!” By the way I prefer Dale Carnegie over Daniel Goleman but this is just me!

If you are in a hurry and want to go straight to the point  see this one in order  to know something more specific about how he try to reverse the 75% Expedia  to 75% www.jdvhotels.com

Well... 1,2,3 theory, Long Tail, Business model and Psychology, a little bit of Web Engineering... Welcome to a Consiliant world http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consilience!!!!

It’s a different world full of opportunities! Take them or they will become a threat as others use it to take control of your chain of value!

By the way, to do that you need... That’s right A GOOD TOURISTOLOGYST!!!!

Putting together Touristology and Web Engineering!

Business Model in Tourism / How Web Engineering fits in each model / is there a difference between knowing the path and walking the path (examples and personal experiences)?

This summer I have been working at my Web Engineering skills. One of the most gratifying things of returning to Touristology after working at Web Engineering  is to feel that you are a genius, basically because  I have clearer frameworks (by the way, I have the same feeling when I change from English to Catalan or Spanish!!!).

But I strongly believe that Touristology, Web Engineering and English make a good combination, even though some of my students think otherwise. Can we work It Out? 

I want to put together Business Models and Technological Schemes and try to forecast the future of the tourism sector. As the Beatles say “Only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong”

So, here I’m trying to put together Touristology and Web Engineering!

This summer in Catalonia (and in the rest of the world!) it had been a strong argument about the necessity to change the business model of some tourist destinations. Exactly what do they refer when they said that? Sometimes I believe that they don’t know what a business model mean but they use this expression because sounds right (I believe that because I have been listening the same for the last 20 years!!!).

Basically, we have just two Business Models in Tourism:

1) Mass Tourism: Price and economy of scale orientated. Demand looking for the cheaper price. Supply and intermediaries focus on maximize revenues by increasing the number of tourist.

2) Specialize Tourism: Add value oriented. Demand willing to pay the right price in order to get what is important to them. This can be related to the travel or something that they get through the travel (experience, international contacts, new perspective, new segments, new markets, the feeling that your friends are not define anymore by geographical boundaries BUT for similar or complementary interest/hobbies/taste …). Supply focus on maximize the profit, both for increasing the price and for increasing the margin thanks to control the chain of value (topics already discuss in this blog). Intermediaries also specialized following long-tail and pro-am theories.

All the rest of sometimes called Tourism models are in reality typologies of Tourism (cultural, scientific, ecotourism, MICE….). Which will be Mass or Specialize depending on the rules define above. It isn’t Specialize better of Mass or the other way around. They are just two clear different business model!

How web engineering fits in these two models?

Do you think that Google and Facebook are an important component of you chain of value?

It depends on the Business Model!!! Surely they are important for mass tourism BUT they are merely complementary in the specialize one. In Specialize tourism is far more important that you develop YOUR Google (A place where your customers, your employees and members of the chain of value find everything they will need) and YOUR Facebook (A place to share, to find, to build…).

Who does have to think the whole application? A Touristologist or a Web Engineerer? Do you think that a Touristologist must know the technological scheme or he can leave all this topics to the engineers?

Do you believe that www.travelmuse.com or www.tripit.com will revolutionize the tourism sector?

Are they focus on Mass or Specialize tourism? Can we develop something better? Must we combine Touristology with Web Engineering?

My motto had always been knowing the path and walking the path. So, in the next posts I will try to combine interesting examples with personal experiences. It will be difficult and time consuming BUT IT WILL BE FUN!!! 

I hope you like it and if you want to comment or ask anything … Make yourself at home! At the end of the day this is not MY blog it’s OUR blog. The blog of the ones that believe that Touristology is a science!!!