Opening doors and connecting dots

And old Chinese Proverb said "Teachers open the doors, but you must enter by yourself” and I add… Once inside, begin to connect the dots to create your own frameworks. Touristology is a door, definitely worth opening and the 1,2,3 theory and chain of value can help you to connect the dots. I mean your segments from countries of origin around the world and the services that you provide. 

As I always say, you can use a chain of value already created/there or you can set up your own one, BUT you can’t ignore their power. If you really want to be successful in XXI century Tourism you have to use 1,2,3 theory. What? You still don’t have a clue about 1,2,3, theory? Ok, time to introduce my video! 

People (not Touristologists!) like to talk about the latest social networking site, the latest gadget, the latest central reservation system, a fancy monument in their tourism destination. A good Touristologist likes to talk about chains of value.

Take Pinterest for instance, (check this video out if you are not familiar with Pinterest) it can be more or less interesting as a business model.  You can also analyze it with the matrix I provide in this post.

What do you think? Does it seem useful for the Tourism sector? Can you use it as a marketing research tool? You can take beautiful pictures of your hotel, resort, heritages… and you will learn what your customers find interesting and worth sharing. Do you want to make your website appealing for different segments? Are you not sure what kind of pictures, video… work better for each segment? Maybe Pinterest can help you!

BUT the real thing, the Touristology one, when Pinterest becomes really interesting is when you integrate it into a chain of value!!!

Let’s consider that you want to attract a segment of affluent families, this will be number one, (even though I strongly recommend to use a higher level of segmentation as we mentioned here) then you customize your offer, this will be number two, and finally you use or set up a chain of value, number three.

In this chain of value, Pinterest could be interesting as a meeting place, basically because affluent women like to use it and they are the ones who usually plan the getaways for the entire family!

To me, it is a must to analyze social networking sites using a web 2.0 business model (like the one that I propose above). In the same way, when we are planning / doing consultancy / setting up our own enterprise…in tourism field, analysis only makes sense if you see the entire picture. I mean the possible chain of value that will allow you to get the trust of the customer and add value in order to satisfy their needs.

So, as a Touristologist, we analyze reality with our own glasses.

A new Social Networking Sites like Pinterest? Let’s analyze it as a possible member of a chain of value! Obviously, first you have to decide if you want to create a generic or specialized chain of value, but you already know that!

Now, our work begins adding the right members into this chain of value and then being sure that this chain of value works as an organization, in order to do that we have to make all the commercial and technological agreements. This is Touristology’s thinking!

Do you think/visualize travelchannel as another meeting point complementary with Pinterest for the segment of affluent families? Do you see tripology as an outgoing travel agency in this chain of value? Not sure? Maybe you need to go over this article and make up your mind!

Are you watching a television program on the travelchannel and you would love to travel to this place having the same experience that the main character or anchor has? Tripology can organize the travel. Do you think they fit in your chain of value? What kind of tourism products are they communicating and commercializing. Can we do something similar? Can we do something complementary? Can we create something for specialized tourism and then build up over a generic one?

Let’s continue with our chain of value, shall we? We see meeting places, then an outgoing travel agency, now it’s time for an incoming travel agency which can set up all necessary things in tourism destination, finally, suppliers of tourism services must be ready and coordinated as well. The final result? Tourists get support from the beginning to the end of the trip AND...

YOU HAVE BECOME A TOURISTOLOGIST!!!

Can you make a proposal for the commercial and technological agreements? Do you want or not to become a Touristologists?

IT’S TIME TO PROVE IT!