To me, the best Psychologist of the world is my wife! Then, you can pay attention to Maslow. He was the first to apply Psychology with the objective that individuals achieve their full potential. In our beloved sector, it was Chip Conley the first that take the ideas of Maslow and apply them to Hotels and Tourism. He loves to build communities between investors, employees, and Tourists. He loves to focus on value. He loves to create strong connections between the Tourism services and the internal motivation of Tourists. He describes this as “Identity Refreshment”.
If your Tourists feel that your services share the same values, culture that they have, if your Tourists feel that they are a better version of themselves using your services... it will be easier to don’t mark down the price and to get direct reservations.
Chip Conley's ideas are focus on PEOPLE. It is segmentation based on Psychographics NOT demographics. Segmentation where the most important thing is to make the Tourists feel part of a community of similar/complementary people. Segmentation where the employees /collaborators are also members of the Segment/Community that will put all his/her passion in customizing the Servuction process in order that Tourists can cover their recognized needs AND ALSO the unrecognized ones!
In a nutshell, Maslow/Chip Conley convey a very powerful idea…Tourists can improve their personal and professional life thanks to the transformation power of a trip!!!
We use the ideas of Maslow/Chip Conley in OUR seminars, in-company training or star-ups meetings in order to define (or redefine!) their (OUR???) business model. They help us to define Tourism specialization focus on People where is easier to create GROUPS and manage the chain of value from the beginning to the end of the trip.
Some people find difficulties to, clearly, see the difference between specialization focus on SERVICES and specialization focus on PEOPLE. Fear not!
Let’s see if we can highlight, in a crystal clear way, these differences! Ready? Steady? Go!!!
Segmentation focus on specialized people is the last tier of the following pyramid:
Where is easier to create GROUPS, where is easier to create activities and seduce the members of the Segment /Community to go there in a specific place, at a specific time, because doing these activities they can achieve, in a better way, using the transformation power of a trip, their desires, their dreams…both personal and professional.
Of course, it is our Touristology’s duty to be sure that the Specialized Segments that we choose are strongly connected with the values, culture, heritage of the Tourism Destination. Strongly connected with the necessities of local Tourism Enterprises AND NOT Tourism Enterprises and inhabitants looking for international opportunities!
Then, we have the second level of the pyramid where the specialization is based on typology of service: Cultural Tourism, Shopping, Religious Tourism...
We are talking about Segmentation focused on specialized SERVICES, where the most important thing is the typology of Tourism, and the Tourists are people that like this activity. BUT…Do we know the internal motivation to enjoy/choose this typology of Tourism? If you want to go deeper, here, we can see some examples about Religious Tourism, first talking about Segmentation focus on the Service and then a few examples of segmentation focused on PEOPLE.
This idea of prioritizing Specialized Segments focused on PEOPLE is strongly connected with the main objectives of YOUR Tourism Destination or Enterprise. It is very similar to one of the basics ideas in OUR science… “First Specialized then Generic!”
- BUT...Jordi! Why is so important First specialized then generic?
Because in life and in Tourism Management we have two scarce resources... Time and Money and we have to prioritize in which activities we choose to use them!
If, as usual, we first focus on Generic /Mass Tourism (I repeat, NOTHING WRONG with it) we can easily seduce Tourists to appear in our destination or Tourism Enterprise BUT…
as the main driver of Tourist's motivation is the price you get this undesirable consequences:
1) Appears, what some call, "OverTourism”, that we prefer to call #LackOfTouristology. At the end of the day, ALL Tourists at the same place/time... inhabitants not happy with Tourism.
2) Appears and intermediary/Infomediary with economy of scales that only will be profitable if they send plenty of Tourists to YOUR Tourism destination or enterprise. As they provide the most important thing for this kind of Tourists… they control the chain of value and they will ask you to control your cost (Low salaries! Low Profit!). They will get most of the profit and none of the inconvenient of Tourism that we talked about in the previous point.
3) At any time, can appear a powerful competitor, mark down the price … wait until you have to disappear as a competitor and then, mark up the price.
If we focus our time and money in Generic Tourism…Will we have time and money for Specialized Tourism focused on PEOPLE? Will we have the knowledge, the skills, the international contacts…???
On the other hand, if we focus first on Specialized Tourism focused on PEOPLE we can get the following strong points:
A) It is easier to create GROUPS
B) It is easier to seduce them to go to a specific place in a specific time. As you know their internal motivations you can create specific activities focus on improving their personal or professional life that can become a magnet for this segment. As we explain here.
Having an international specialized community one specific day in our Tourism Enterprise / Destination, transform our place into a magnet for members of this community, member of the chain of value, competitors (that will become collaborators!), people/enterprises willing to sell, to hire, to do marketing research... to OUR community. We will become the “This Community” world congress!!!
I love my wife! I love Maslow and Chip Conley ideas!
But…above anything else…I love Touristology and Touristologists!!!
Then, we have the second level of the pyramid where the specialization is based on typology of service: Cultural Tourism, Shopping, Religious Tourism...
We are talking about Segmentation focused on specialized SERVICES, where the most important thing is the typology of Tourism, and the Tourists are people that like this activity. BUT…Do we know the internal motivation to enjoy/choose this typology of Tourism? If you want to go deeper, here, we can see some examples about Religious Tourism, first talking about Segmentation focus on the Service and then a few examples of segmentation focused on PEOPLE.
This idea of prioritizing Specialized Segments focused on PEOPLE is strongly connected with the main objectives of YOUR Tourism Destination or Enterprise. It is very similar to one of the basics ideas in OUR science… “First Specialized then Generic!”
- BUT...Jordi! Why is so important First specialized then generic?
Because in life and in Tourism Management we have two scarce resources... Time and Money and we have to prioritize in which activities we choose to use them!
If, as usual, we first focus on Generic /Mass Tourism (I repeat, NOTHING WRONG with it) we can easily seduce Tourists to appear in our destination or Tourism Enterprise BUT…
as the main driver of Tourist's motivation is the price you get this undesirable consequences:
1) Appears, what some call, "OverTourism”, that we prefer to call #LackOfTouristology. At the end of the day, ALL Tourists at the same place/time... inhabitants not happy with Tourism.
2) Appears and intermediary/Infomediary with economy of scales that only will be profitable if they send plenty of Tourists to YOUR Tourism destination or enterprise. As they provide the most important thing for this kind of Tourists… they control the chain of value and they will ask you to control your cost (Low salaries! Low Profit!). They will get most of the profit and none of the inconvenient of Tourism that we talked about in the previous point.
3) At any time, can appear a powerful competitor, mark down the price … wait until you have to disappear as a competitor and then, mark up the price.
If we focus our time and money in Generic Tourism…Will we have time and money for Specialized Tourism focused on PEOPLE? Will we have the knowledge, the skills, the international contacts…???
On the other hand, if we focus first on Specialized Tourism focused on PEOPLE we can get the following strong points:
A) It is easier to create GROUPS
B) It is easier to seduce them to go to a specific place in a specific time. As you know their internal motivations you can create specific activities focus on improving their personal or professional life that can become a magnet for this segment. As we explain here.
Having an international specialized community one specific day in our Tourism Enterprise / Destination, transform our place into a magnet for members of this community, member of the chain of value, competitors (that will become collaborators!), people/enterprises willing to sell, to hire, to do marketing research... to OUR community. We will become the “This Community” world congress!!!
I love my wife! I love Maslow and Chip Conley ideas!
But…above anything else…I love Touristology and Touristologists!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment