Your lack of knowledge of Tourism is the REAL problem!

Too many times appear people... “experts_in_anything_but_Tourism” talking/writing about all the problems of our beloved sector!

Yes, Tourism can be both a boon and a bane BUT why this people only focus on the bane?
Why don’t they talk about Tourism generating synergies with other economy’s sectors? Specially, sectors with interest in internationalization AND related to Tourists’ motivation to Travel!
Why don’t they talk about how Tourism can help to visualize the use of new, new Technologies like for instance Generative AI, that made me to write these tweets? 

OR Blockchain providing Trustfulness!
OR  Augmented / Virtual Reality providing Ubiquity (Yes, I know that today is #Metaverse … BUT… Ubiquity is our homage to Mark Weiser)
#UbiquitousComputing allowing to connect in Real-Time the Tourists, members of their community around the world and all the members of the chain of value!
Allowing to give support and provide opportunities from the beginning to the end of the trip.
Opportunities?
Tourist helping local enterprises in their internationalization process #Travel2Earn!
Tourists sharing transformative experiences with members of their community around the world!

Why “experts_in_anything_but_Tourism” don’t explain this?
Well, the answer is clear!
1) Their lack of knowledge of Touristology’s principles…
1-A) First International Tourism THEN, Local!
1-B) First Specialized Tourism THEN, Generic!  

1-C) Build and manage all the Trip’s Chain of Value! Make it able to work as a single organization!
As it happens in ALL the sectors, the ones that control the chain of value win the game!
2) They also have a lack of knowledge about Touristology’s tools.
2-1) Servuction
2-2) Yield Management

All this lack of knowledge, don’t allow them to visualize and catch the opportunities, neither how to avoid/minimize any potential problem (carrying capacity…)
I repeat! Tourism is NOT the problem. Your lack of knowledge about Tourism is the REAL problem!
Learn how to define and seduce Tourists that through a trip will improve their personal/professional life.
Learn to create and manage the chain of value for each one of the segments.
Learn to create Hybrid Experiences in order to get extra revenues from members of their community around the world!

Improve both the profitability and the sustainability!

In a nutshell…Learn Touristology!!!

Diversify from Tourism? Open your mind! Learn Touristology!

 I’m fed up with “experts_of_anything_but_Tourism” saying all day long…
- It is bad for a country to be specialized in Tourism! They have to diversify its economy!
Diversify from Tourism? It is much better if you open your mind!
Tourism is excellent for Tourism companies (specially, if they try to manage all the chain of value, of course!) BUT ALSO, Tourism creates synergies with any other sector of the economy with interest in internationalization AND related to Tourists’ motivation to Travel!
What better way of internationalizing any economy’s sector that seduce people around the world related to THIS sector?
Wine? Food? Seduce experts (and wannabes) sommeliers from around the world!
Architecture? Seduce experts (and wannabes) architects from around the world!
Games? Seduce players and Game Developers from around the world…
I could go on for a month, but I think I have made my point!

Maybe, we can go deeper and practice a little bit of Yield Management!
If we have a specialized community, one specific day, in our Tourism Enterprise / Destination we 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!!!
All these opportunities that Tourism brings are not only for countries, also for enterprises!
The other day, a bunch of brilliant Touristologists (Christian Emunds, Nicolle Hernandez Yarleque, Marta Martínez Rodríguez, Isabel Molina Muñoz, Lara-Sophie Piroth, Leoni Strommenger) made an excellent presentation about how Netflix can diversify their revenues offering cruises for GROUPS of their own customers!
As usual, they enlightened me, the rest of the class, and students from other grades…providing examples of Specialized Segments related to this company. 

I love helping to build the best minds for the best sector ever!
I love to see how they can apply Touristology’s principles to other sectors!
I love Touristology!!!
 

Connecting the dots: Photogrammetry, Computer Vision...Touristology!

 You can enjoy watching the following videos, Touristologists!!!
JUMP is a very good example of an immersive experience!

Can you visualize how to combine it with members of  their community in the REAL scenario?
Welcome to Hybrid Experiences in the Metaverse!
Welcome to the possibility of breaking Space/Time prison
- BUT…Jordi! To reproduce this scene is very difficult! To seduce Tourists to do activities together is very difficult! To…
- STOP making excuses! Open your mind! Become a Touristologists!!!
Artificial Intelligence can help us to reproduce any scene with a lower cost and faster time!
Enjoy this video where Rene Schulte says the sentence of the year!
Generative #AI creating 3D models “like when photography came along right like painters were basically saying, oh they are cheating”

Enjoy this video to learn a little bit about NeRF!

You as a Touristologists (the best minds in the best sector ever) can create, communicate, and commercialize Hybrid Experiences for GROUPS inside Specialized Segments!
If not you.. Who?
If not now.. When?

Touristologists…Learn to code!!!

I began to be a Touristologists builder 30 years ago.
I have always loved to combine Touristology and New Technologies (two hands, remember?)  

I, strongly, believe that being able to code, help US to visualize in a much better way New Business Models for OUR beloved sector! 

It also allows you to implement these Business Models inside Operations and Processes of Tourism Destinations/Enterprises!

For instance, to know Touristology and be able to code allows you to avoid being one of the
people that make me tweet
“The same people/approach that said in 1996
- Let’s create a website and forget about the 'Brick and mortar'
In 2022 are saying
- Let’s create a/the #Metaverse forget about Real-Life.
#HybridExperiences then, now, always!!!”
By the way, in 2003 they said we need a “Second Life”!

In 1996, it was all about Internet. Websites connecting to Data Bases. Java as a programming language. Artificial Intelligence to transform information into knowledge…
In 2007, we had to add how to code Mobile Apps into our toolbox. Java for the Android Ecosystem, Swift for the iOS one! A little bit of Flutter trying to reuse the famous Java sentence “Write Once Run Anywhere”
In 2014, it was the beginning of Internet 3D, Augmented/Virtual Reality (the Metaverse): Games Engines (Godot, Fyrox, Bevy…). Rust as a programming language. Blockchain adding TRUST. Artificial Intelligence also transforming 2D images into 3D Scenes!
In 2022, the connection between Tourism and New Technologies is stronger than ever!

We have the possibility to break Space/Time prison offering Hybrid Experiences that Tourists and Inhabitants Here / Now can enjoy with members of their Community Around_The_World / At_Any_Time. 

We can enjoy theses Hybrid Experiences Before, During and After the Trip!

 
As Michael Black tweet few days ago…
“The #metaverse is not a video game. It’s a blurring of the boundary between our physical and digital selves. It’s about putting the real world into the digital and putting the digital into the real world.”
In the same tweet, He added…
“Capturing, understanding, and modeling humans, their interactions with each other and the world will not only unlock the metaverse. It will enable new forms of e-commerce, improve our health, support us as we age, & provide a foundation for disruptive and creative new businesses”
All began in 2014, when Mark Zuckerberg fell in love with Virtual Reality experiencing Tourism to a villa in Tuscany, Italy. Virtual Reality is important BUT you have to combine it!
In 2023 some users of Horizon Worlds will also use a web browser or Zoom
Welcome to #HybridExperiencies!
Touristology provide to US tools to manage Space/Time related to services where the Customer has an active participation in the creation of it (Servuction, Yield Management). 

Using OUR coding skills, we can create OUR own Metaverse’s platforms (instead of using other people’s ones!!!).
Using OUR Touristology’s skills, we can define, build and seduce OUR own Specialized Segments.
Time to be leaders and NOT followers!
Time to be Touristologists!!!

Making the most of The Metaverse in Tourism!

Nowadays, there is a tendency in Tourism Destinations highlighting the importance of being “there”.
You can enjoy this video from Visit Sweden

 

They have created a storytelling experience only available there. A geo-restricted transformational journey… in times of the Metaverse that will be created to overcome Space/Time prison!
It seems as they are afraid of (or against) the Metaverse. They visualize the Metaverse as Virtual Reality… a different new world, and they have nightmares of Tourists not travelling to their wonderful Tourism Destination/Enterprise.
It recalls me, when I was in Peru and they were afraid that USA create a thematic park representing the Machu Pichu. I say to you the same that I said to them. A thematic park representing the Machu Pichu is an excellent promotion!

In the same way, to create YOUR Metaverse platform representing your Tourism Destination/Enterprise can be an excellent way of promotion! BUT… not only that! The Metaverse can also make possible hybrid experiences between Tourists, inhabitants, and local enterprises HERE/NOW and members of their community AROUND_THE_WORLD/AT_ANY_TIME which is a source of new revenues stream and also an increase of the sustainability of your Tourism Destination/Enterprise.
It is also a pity that…

1) They don’t practice a little bit of #Segmentation (Future writers, 3G Family, Environmentalists…) and get, as extra benefits, Groups Creation and the possibility to create, communicate and commercialize International Routes.
2) They don’t allow to share a transformative experience NOW with the one enjoyed by a Tourist that was there in the past.
Again, breaking Space/Time prison is the name of the game!!!
By the way, in order to add TRUST. To be sure about the real identity of the Avatar/Hologram with whom you are sharing the experience…Blockchain to the rescue! 

 

OR a Hybrid Experience NOW for people in different Space, like a wedding 

 

“…the couple was physically present at a real-world hotel venue along with some guests, their digital avatars were also present within The Sandbox metaverse and could be seen by guests who joined remotely. The event was officiated by The Sandbox co-founder and chief operations officer Sebastien Borget in a digital avatar form.”
There is plenty of room for improving 3D scenes using #AI in Real Time
BUT… It is another good example of breaking Space/Time prison!!! 

Maybe, in order to overcome their fears and visualize the new Business Models of the Metaverse they need advice from the best minds in the best sector ever!
Just remember, Touristologists!
The Metaverse is not a “Thing” is not a “Definition” ...
It is the process of manage, in a more efficient way, Space/Time. And We, as a Touristologists, are masters and commanders of the tools that Touristology provides in order to manage Space/Time: Servuction, Yield Management…
What are you doing TODAY with actual technology to try to break Space/Time prison?
How are you trying to share the transformative power of a trip HERE/NOW with members of a community AROUND_THE_WORLD/AT_ANY_TIME?
 

Twelve years ago…

Twelve years ago, I began this OUR blog to talk about Touristology OUR Science.
I love to share Touristology’s principles around the world! Remember Touristologists…The world is OUR office!
Touristology’s principles helps us to analyze and visualize new business models and then implement them inside the operations and processes of our beloved sector. 

Of course, using the RIGHT technology (not the fancier one, not the flavour of the month…)
Let’s practice OUR Touristology’s principles, Touristologists!
Remember, if you don’t practice them… they will get rusty (I love Rust, but this is from another post!!!
1) A few days ago, everybody was talking about Starbucks using Blockchain
Here, we have a post of Polygon (a layer 2 solution in top of Ethereum)
“Today, we are thrilled to announce that Starbucks Coffee Company is working with Polygon to provide the blockchain technology to build its recently announced Web3 experience, Starbucks Odyssey.”
Here, an article from Techcrunch
You must be sure of using an expensive technology, like Blockchain, only if you use its innovative/different features!
Blockchain can improve a Loyalty Program and build a better community IF you are dealing with a DYNAMIC (new enterprises, suppliers, intermediaries, infomediaries…) and INTERNATIONAL (from different countries) chain of value. In this scenario, Blockchain provide Trustfulness that allow customers to get points/rewards using three innovative and different features
A) Sharing Identity with privacy: You can add new international members in the chain of value where the customers get a customized #Servuction only sharing the identity information needed in “this” specific transaction and for the time it is needed.
B) Shared Ownership: The possibility of sharing the ownership of an asset/enterprise. It could be a percentage of the revenues of OUR Tourism enterprise! So, every time that the Tourists makes a reservation or seduce somebody (or a GROUP that He/She creates!) to appear in OUR enterprise/chain of value member, automatically gets a percentage of profits in tokens format.
All trustable, all fast, all in real-time!

C) Customized Micro-payments in Real-Time. Using #NFT (nowadays people prefer to call them Dynamic NFT) you/Tourists can create dynamic packages which personalize the #Servuction during ALL the trip(s) in any company of the Chain of Value, depending on the moods of the Tourist and the people next to the customer in each moment, during the trip or at your enterprise OR in the Metaverse.
So, is the world’s largest coffee brand using Blockchain to take their already powerful rewards program to the next level?

Starbucks is using Blockchain to do traceability able to guarantee the quality of their coffees. This is an excellent example of using the important features of Blockchain!
By the way, “these NFTs will be bought using a credit or debit card — a crypto wallet is not required. The company believes this will make it easier for consumers to engage with the web3 experience by lowering the barrier to entry.”

2) In which way your enterprise can use Blockchain and seduce DYNAMIC and INTERNATIONAL members of your chain of value to use it? What do you do to remain competitive in front of the Big Players?
Shh… don’t say it to nobody, the answer is…
A) Using the innovative/different features that Blockchain provides
B) To focus on specialized segments that require a level of implication and relationships that big players are not interested in achieve BUT small and middle enterprises can, thanks to  Pro_Am ideas and Deeper Segmentation!!!

3) Is it possible to use Blockchain to improve the Servuction and Yield Management processes in International Routes?
Starbucks also offer trips as a rewards in the Loyalty Program,  to its Hacienda Alsacia Visitor Center, located on the grounds of its Costa Rican coffee farm.
Interesting possibility to create International Routes focus on specialized segments! But to do that… they, definitely, will need the best minds in the best sector ever! 

Opportunities for MY Touristologists!!!

Twelve years ago, I began this OUR blog in memory of an eternal Touristologists who always defended that Touristology is a Science....OUR Science!
The fight goes on!

Today, yesterday…Tomorrow! Tourism and Internet!

The best years of my professional life have been linked to the best sector ever (Tourism, of course!) and Internet.

30 years ago, I taught my first class in Touristology.

I soon realize that my students in their last year knew more about Tourism than myself. I put all my energy and effort to change that! I learn from my students (I still do!), I learn from other teachers, I become a regular in the library, I talk with any professional related with Tourism… The more I learn the more I wanted to become a Touristologist! I knew that the best way to learn something is to teach it. So, I got voluntary to teach any subject: Financial Maths, Business Administration, Statistics, Technology, Economy, Entrepreneurship… anything BUT with always ending up “TO TOURISM”. After two years I was absolutely in love with Touristology. When I decided to do my PhD. I chose as a topic … Touristology, what else!!! 

At that time, everybody was talking about Internet. So, I tried (I still do!) to see how new technologies could improve our beloved sector. How new technologies open the door to new business models and then, how to implement them improving operations and processes of Tourism enterprises and destination….

Soon, I realized that in order to fully understand the potential of Internet and visualize new business model I had to learn how to code Internet apps, how to store information, how to transform this information into knowledge using Artificial Intelligence.

Today, this vision is the same, I try to highlight this evolution in this animated gif. I hope you like it.

 

As you see, there are similar things…

1) Browser: Build your own Ecosystem!

Java (JVM) Applets...

Rust Wasm

2) Neural Networks need memory, need context…

3) Dynamic Packaging in Tourism

In the 90s, Tourism destinations/enterprises began to create webpages (plenty of them, just uploading its brochure on it!)

Forget about customization of the service (Servuction)!

Forget about offering services from other companies related to the trip or its motivation!

Do I have to highlight again the importance of understanding new technologies in order to visualize new business models and know how to manage its implementation?

Nowadays is the same just different technology (that we have to know when to use it!)

You can call it Databases, Web Services; Web Scraping……

You can call it Blockchain/NFT, Stream Processing…

Biggest Difference between Internet in 1994 and 2022?

Ubiquitous computing / Metaverse breaking Space/Time prison!

Metaverse will open the possibility to Humans to be more similar to a God. We can be a little bit out of SPACE/TIME prison.

In the Metaverse, we can share an experience with our friends, relatives, members of our community even if they are in a different SPACE/TIME. We can be Tourists in one Tourism Destination and the others can be around the world… 

So, we can break SPACE.

What about the TIME? We can share an experience and rewind it at any moment!

If you want to be more specific…

1) Thanks to Artificial Intelligence providing scalability and transforming 2D images in 3D scenes ready to appear in hybrid experiences in the Metaverse!

2) Thanks to Blockchain providing trustfulness about the desires and rights of all the members of the chain of value in real-time.

If somebody, ask you who is better prepared to deal with the #Metaverse… just listen to your inner #Touristology’s voice…

The #Metaverse is OUR place #Touristologists!!!

 

They are still here!!!

I began this blog with an homage to all the people with a lack of knowledge about Tourism and responsibility over it.

(By the way, the post was written mixing Spanish, Catalan and English… I love mixtures!)

They are still here; they are very powerful… if we want TOURISTOLOGY to become the best Science ever! If we want Touristology to be the driver of increasing add value of our beloved sector…we have to say goodbye to them... the homage didn’t work!!!

Long time ago, I enjoyed practicing a little bit of “Bleisure” in Peru. I gave some classes in the morning in different Universities. Some consultancy projects the rest of the day… Some visits to wonderful places…

I was perplexed, when I discovered that in some Universities of Tourism, in the subject of Geography they taught the geography of Spain! Why? Maybe, some copied the subjects from Spanish Universities… maybe….

Nowadays, I have the same feeling when I saw Universities of Tourism that just teach how to manage Tourists when they are in the Tourism Destination or Enterprise. 

Forget about managing all the trip!

Forget about understanding and building a Chain of Value! Forget about offering International Routes!

Forget about TOURISTOLOGY!!! 

WHY? 

Maybe, because some people don’t know about how to create and manage trips…

Maybe, because they don’t believe that Tourists can improve their personal/professional life through a trip meanwhile they also increase the profit and wages of local enterprises and take care of local culture and heritage.

Maybe, because they like to say that Tourism is a low-level Grade in the University.

Maybe, because they think that to teach Tourism you only need to be an expert in another Science and provide some examples about Hotels, or Tourism Destinations…

Maybe, because they like, so much, to say that Tourism is a low add value sector.

Is it so difficult to see that almost any sector in the world is low value IF YOU DON’T CONTROL THE CHAIN OF VALUE and you are focus on customers low price orientated?!?!?! Is it so difficult to understand that Generic and Specialized Tourism have different chains of value?

Maybe, because some people don’t believe that Touristology is a Science…

All these experiences arousal in my a very interesting question… What is the criteria to select the subjects, the teachers, the competencies, the concepts, the language of the subject, the necessity to teach how to code to the future of Touristology????

As always, Ferreter and Mora can help us to make a good consideration… “extremes are not for situating yourself they are for knowing your situation” Let’s see the two extremes

We want to help to create minds able to improve our beloved sector… Or we just want to get temporally happy students?

Can you imagine in HEALTH… the important thing is to have HAPPY CUSTOMERS?

Obviously, in health the important thing is to be healthy!!!

The same in EDUCATION. The important thing is that they learn USEFUL things that allow them to understand reality and be able to improve our beloved sector!!!

The battle is going on my fellow Touristologists!

Be aware, be ready! Be the best minds in the best sector ever!!!

Web3.0? THE WEB!!!

Long time ago, we wrote a post talking about Web 3.0 from Touristology’s point of view, of course!
Now, that everybody is talking…again…about Web 3.0 We can remember the key ingredients that we highlighted in this post with the potential of improving our beloved sector.

-    Improve our beloved sector?
-   Of course! Helping Tourists to experience an improvement of their personal or professional life. Helping Inhabitants to get a new vision of their reality and visualize opportunities in a connected world. Helping Local Enterprises (related to the trip OR to the motivation of it) willing to increase exportations, to make international contacts, to do marketing research from other countries, to hire the best candidates with an international vision…

 
In this post, the key aspect highlighted were:

INTEGRATION AND SYNCHRONIZATION.

 
Web 3.0 can make a chain of value built for a specialized community, work as a single ecosystem.

So… no matter which device the Tourist, employee, collaborator, or inhabitant is using... no matter which with  member of the chain of value they talk or have an open process (Marketing, Human Resources, Finance, Servuction, Yield Management…) all the members with a direct relation with the operation and process will get the CUSTOMIZED 3 C’s (thanks John Hagel for creating the 3C's = Content, Commerce, Community) with total privacy for anyone.
In order to achieve that you can use Data Bases, you can use Blockchain, you can use Holochain...

 

you can use…
As we also mention in this other post Web 3.0 is already here. We believe that there is only ONE WEB!
Web 1.0, 2.0, 3.0… (you name it!) are not an evolution of the web BUT an evolution of our use and understanding of it!
We are NOT people that create/have a software/solution looking for a problem. We are Touristologists looking for the best technology and Business Model to improve our beloved sector! 

Blockchain (NFT) as an investment? It could be interesting! BUT… We are thinking about a way to generate TRUST and customized processes in Real-Time while the Tourist, members of the chain of value, Inhabitants, Local Enterprises are part of OUR Ecosystem/Community!
Artificial Intelligence to analyze BIG DATA? It could be interesting! BUT…We are thinking about providing Scalability using Intelligent Data able to customize the Servuction and Yield Management processes. Generating groups of similar or complementary people and seducing them to appear when and where is more convenient to them and to us!
We also think about how to pass from a few pictures to a 3D Scene in Real-Time. A key ingredient in order to create Hybrid Experiences!
Augmented_Virtual Reality to recreate OTHER worlds? It could be interesting! BUT …We are thinking about a way to increase the transformation power of a trip and provide opportunities and solutions to potential problems from the beginning to the end of the trip! Reviewing and sharing Hybrid Experiences Before, During and After the trip! Breaking the Space/Time prison!!!

By the way…
#Blockchain + #AI + #AR_VR = #Metaverse

We will be here spreading news, selling you as the best professionals on earth and developing with you our own pirate ship to seal Touristology’s seas!!!

The Metaverse, like the chain of value…. You have to create and BUILD it!

Both concepts, The Metaverse and the Chain of Value are very important in Touristology’s principles.
Both concepts, ESPECIALLY when we talk about SPECIALIZED Tourism,  have to be created and BUILT. Otherwise, you will end up using other people’s Metaverse AND/OR chain of value that, usually, is what it happens in GENERIC TOURISM!
When you use other people Metaverse/Chain of value…
They will send THEIR Tourists when is more convenient to them, without taking into consideration any carrying capacity issues.
They will offer to them THEIR hybrid experiences. They will get most of the profit.
They will impose to you their commercial and technological conditions… wake up!
Increase the number of Specialized Tourists (the ones willing to improve their personal/professional life through a trip) visiting your Tourism Destination (or enterprise) through the chain of value you create and build.
Define your own segments based on Psychographics! Forget about demographics (Age, country of origin…)
Then, inside this Chain of value, build your own Metaverse, in order to provide solutions from the beginning to the end of the trip. In order to provide your hybrid experiences before, during and after the trip.
Be sure, that you proof to YOUR Tourists that using YOUR Metaverse they will get a transformative Hybrid Experience with the potential to improve the lives of the Tourists, inhabitants, local enterprises and members of their specialized community around the world!

Stop using distracting devices! 

Stop promoting other people business model (you can call it FastGram or TukTak or….)  

Be a deleter of the “IM” letters in the impossible word.

Don’t be an excuses finder!  

Don’t be a “I listen 5 minutes if I don’t understand... I disconnect!”  

AND Become A Touristologists!!! 

See you in Touristology’s world!  

See you in the Metaverse’s world that WE have to build and create!!!

 

First International Then Local!

As you remember, one of our favorite Touristology’s principles is “First Specialized Then Generic”.
We also have another beloved one, always discussed in OUR classes, seminars, in-company training or start-up meetings in order to define (or redefine!) their (OUR???) business model ….
“First International Then Local”.
Nothing wrong with Local Tourism BUT as in our beloved sector we have the carrying capacity issue... as we have limits in the time and resources… in order to be sure that we build a profitable and sustainable Tourism Destination /Enterprise… First International Then Local.
In a nutshell, these two principles enlighten the way to focus on Specialized Segments. To be sure that you fulfill their needs through ALL the trip and you can prepare to them International Routes!!!
This is only possible, if you have the skills, the contacts, the attitude, the knowledge… in order to visualize, select all the members of the chain of value, visualize and implement the activities/events that best help them to improve their professional and/or personal life, either in this world or in any world (for instance…the Metaverse).
Let’s enjoy this example that I was sharing with the future of Touristology…

  

To be sure that, Touristologists run the show, they have to know how to BIND together all the enterprises, the people important/relevant for the Tourists and the people, enterprises who can benefit by the visit of international Tourists. Remember, IoT? Internet Of Tourists!!! Tourists can help your inhabitants, your enterprises to be more productive, profitable, and sustainable. This is the power of Touristology!
I said BIND?

Let’s enjoy this video by Rainer Stropek talking about one of our favorite technologies WASM and the new language programming which we felt in love with: RUST

Do you see, He talks about “wasm_bindgen” passing data between Rust and JavaScript using Serialize/Deserialize (for instance!).
I love to mix Touristology and Web-Engineering. Well, it is very easy, because both Sciences were born to work together!
WASM will help us to increase the communication between all the members of the chain of value!
WASM will help us to gain control of the Chain of Value. In this world and in the Metaverse! Where important enterprises will try to build their Metaverse and charge high commissions to other people to use it... 

“Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other Meta executives have previously criticized Apple for charging developers a 30% fee for in-app purchases via the App Store.”
I have a message to you in order to avoid that!!!
If we use the browser using WASM. If we can distribute code using WASI we can help to build a more open Metaverse!

 

Touristology and Web-Engineering

I always love mixing together Touristology and Web-Engineering!
I, strongly, believe that the main problem when we try to apply New Technologies in our beloved sector is the lack of trained people able to…
1) Visualize new business models made possible by new technologies and then,
2) Implement them into Tourism Destinations/Enterprises.
These trained people have to visualize how the transformation power of a trip can improve the personal and/or professional life of Tourists meanwhile, improve the profitability and sustainability of the Tourism Destination.
These trained people have to apply Touristology's principles and best practices. Tourism has some key differences with other sectors that they have to take into consideration.
SERVUCTION: In Tourism (like in Health and Education), they have to visualize and implement new technologies in order to make easier for Tourists to choose specific behaviors, because, as you know, Tourists are an input in the process of Servuction.
YIELD MANAGEMENT: In Tourism they have to visualize and implement new technologies in order to seduce Tourists to appear in our Tourism Destination at the best moment for us and to make the reservation when we have a low booking pace because, as you know, what you don’t sell today is lost forever.

Even though, these limitations in Space and Time can be a little bit broken thanks to the Metaverse!!!
WE DON’T SEND PRODUCTS. WE TRY TO SEDUCE/BRING TOURISTS: In Tourism, in order to improve our profitability and sustainability we have to control the chain of value of all the trip. If we don’t do that, others will do it! Profitable enterprises control the chain of value of creation, communication and commercialization of their products (think in Apple for instance, they control the production, the design, the apple store and App Store…) with a big difference… we don’t send products away! We try to seduce Tourists to appear here from any place of the world! As we always say in OUR classes, seminars, in-company training or start-up meetings in order to define (or redefine!) the Business Model and the Technology Scheme…Customer journey in Tourism? THE REAL TRIP!!!

Thanks to new technologies, we can make all the enterprises that the Tourists have to deal with, to work as a single ecosystem. 

We can use WebScraping to get and send the 3C’s (Content, Commerce and Community) in all the websites, mobiles apps of the enterprise’s members of the chain of value.
We can use WebServices to get and send the 3C’s  in all the Data Bases of the enterprise’s members of the chain of value.
We can use Blockchain to do the same, because all of them are using the same “Data Base”.
We can use Events /Streams processing in order to get and send these 3C’s in Real-Time!
Now, appears a new possibility (well is the rebirth of an old one. First was Java with Applets and “Write once, run anywhere” in 1995). It is Rust using WASM and WASI providing portability and security
 

If you increase the connections between all the members of the chain of value, you can better control it! You can better seduce your Tourists to appear when is more convenient for you and to them! You can better customize the servuction process!
By the way, the name of these professionals able to visualize and implement these improvements in our beloved sector? TOURISTOLOGISTS!!!

The best sector ever needs the best minds!

Traveling is a basic human need that offers plenty of potential to improve/transform the personal and professional life of Tourists. Like all other basic needs (eating, sleeping, learning…), it needs a Science for its study and proposals to satisfy it in the most effective and efficient way.
I’m a Touristologists builder! I love to build the best minds for the best sector ever! My job is to create frameworks able to encapsulate/concentrate knowledge that, at first, they seem difficult to learn BUT, when you make the effort, when you make these frameworks YOURS frameworks you can improve the profitability and sustainability of any Tourism Destination or Enterprise!
I am feed up of people with neither knowledge of Tourism nor a strategic vision about how to make it more profitable and sustainable critizing it… saying that Tourism is a sector with low add value… saying that the Science of Travel doesn’t need the best minds to properly manage Tourism Destinations and Enterprises.
Nowadays, something similar happens with the Metaverse. Like Tourism, the Metaverse is not something that happens… It is something that we have to build!
If you want to build the Metaverse and use it to improve the profit and sustainability of Tourism Destination and Enterprises, you have to know about Tourism and, the set of technologies mixed in heaven that help to build the Metaverse
I mean, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and Augmented /Virtual Reality which respectively provide Trustfulness, Scalability and Ubiquity to OUR operations and processes.

Let’s take for instance, Artificial Intelligence…

In The Metaverse, it will appear scenarios both develop for designers BUT ALSO real scenes based on where the Tourists’ camera is looking at. Creating Real-Time point cloud of the physical environment using SLAM (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping) captured by photogrammetry/photoscanning (a lot of photos turned into 3D models), LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging)…
AI can increase the performance of this process helping to create these 3D scenarios in Real-Time. You can enjoy this video to visualize the idea…

Do you see? Experts in the Metaverse and Touristologists can visualize, create, and animate these scenarios from real places, also new characters, new skins. Characters develop as mesh and riggings BUT also scanning real Tourists/Inhabitants, members of their specialized community around the world. 

Together, they can trigger events rooted in the Tourists’ space and context. Events based on “Anchors” 3D models that all the members of the community will see in the same position and place. Events that will generate a wave of events (the World Wide Wave!!!) that then can be processed (Stream Processing ) in order to provide solutions and opportunities to improve/transform the personal and professional life of the Tourists, members of his/her community around the world, Inhabitants and local Enterprises!

Let’s consider Blockchain or similar alternatives focused on build a decentralized Internet. 

You can enjoy this video of one of the most fun and enlighten series, “Silicon Valley”

 

 

One interesting proposal is Holochain they define themselves as “An end-to-end open source P2P app framework”.
Do you see? Experts in the Metaverse and Touristologists can visualize and implement the best decentralized technology in order to build the best Metaverse!
Paraphrasing Linus Torvalds who said “Talk is cheap. Show me the code.”,  when people talk about Tourism and Metaverse…
Show me your knowledge in New Technologies that are helping to build it! Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and Augmented /Virtual Reality.
Show me your knowledge, management experience in Servuction, Yield Management… about how a trip can improve the personal and professional life of specialized communities of Tourists, while take care of culture and create richness and employment for the tourist destination.
Show me your desire to learn and help to improve profitability and sustainability of the best sector ever! Otherwise, you are just talking!

Escher, as always, helping us to visualize complexity!

I have been enjoying the last 30 years being a Touristologists builder. My motto is to learn about something interesting then, convey this knowledge to someone willing to learn then, see how they improve their lives using this knowledge making me the happiest and proudest man on earth!!
During all these 30 years, there are a few things that appear over and over.
“Tourism is a low value sector”, “Tourism is managed by itself”….
Today, I don’t want to talk about these silly comments by people with low level knowledge about our beloved sector!
Let’s focus our attention on other comments related to the relationships between new technologies and Tourism.
- “Internet will be the end of Travel Agencies” people said in 1996. Something similar happened with Blockchain in 2016, some people will say the same with the Metaverse…
Technology don’t destroy enterprises! Technology update, change or just IGNORE old Business Models!
As we always say in OUR classes making and homage to Escher… in order to provide a good analysis you have to know about BOTH technology and Tourism Business Models, otherwise your analysis will be incomplete!
Touristologists have to understand new technologies, visualize new business models and know how to ask (OR do it themselves) the implementation of these new business models!
Escher represent this idea with this wonderful picture. How is possible that the two hands appear if one hand is drawing the other one? This is only possible if we take a higher vision and visualize Escher drawing everything!
In the same way, Touristologists have to know about New Technologies and the Business Models and Operations and processes of Tourism destinations and Enterprises!

Far from destroying travel agencies, Internet opened the possibility of creation of On-line Travel Agencies (OTA)
- Generic OR Specialized, Jordi?
BOTH!!!
Generic, playing the low-price game:  Expedia, Booking…
Specialized, playing the value game:
Travel agencies seducing books lovers to travel to the places where the story of the books happens.
Travel agencies helping to improve relationships between mothers and daughters.
Travel agencies offering new perspectives and possibilities to architects  OR ... OR ...
Nowadays, people with low level knowledge about Tourism could say…

“Metaverse will end Travel Agencies”! Metaverse open plenty of opportunities for Travel Agencies willing to deal with Hybrid Experiences!!! BOTH Generic and Specialized!!!

Hybrid experiences in the Metaverse?
It is a classic. It is a trip inside a trip.

At the end of the day, the same idea that happens in Hamlet! A son of a killed father making a play inside the play, in order to discover the killer!
The same idea that we can enjoy in this movie of Woody Allen “The Purple Rose of Cairo”. A movie inside a movie Touristologists!!!  

Time to begin creating, communicating and commercializing #HybridExperiences where #Tourists will be in one Tourism Destination and other members of their #SpecializedSegment around the world! Trips inside other trips!
Of course, you can do it for generic Tourism and focus on INDIVIDUAL Tourists…

 

BUT… listen to your inner Touristology’s voice!!! “First Specialized then Generic!"

Focus on Specialized Segments, build communities inside them, create or help them to create GROUPS. Sell to them anything that they need in THIS trip or in ANY trip or anything related to their travel motivation!
The Metaverse can be a Quantum leap for Touristologists and Travel Agencies!!!

 

Time is not linear but cyclical my fellow Touristologists! Knowledge, professional careers, personal relationships…have an evolution that is better described as a circle than a line.  Like in this picture by the genius Maurits Cornelis Escher… we believe that we are going up or down but in reality we stay in the same place. You can see in this picture some people that have stopped walking. Maybe because they believe that is not useful at all.
Don’t be like them Touristologists! Be aware!  Something is missing in this picture!
Time can advance as a circle BUT from time to time you get a quantum leap and you will have a chance to pass from one average circle to a special one.
Be prepare, be ready and wait for the quantum leap that can transport you to another circle… a superior one. Do you know who will have the opportunity to pass to the next level?
That’s right! The ones that choose not to stop, to keep loocking for new opportunities, to try new things, the ones willing to leave their comfort zone!  
Be ready, for the next quantum leap, Touristologists!!!!

Metaverse and Touristology: Breaking the Space/Time prison!!!

The other day, I was walking, running, practicing a little bit of Yoga and Kung Jung Mu Sul with my son.
He said to me….
    -  Dad, the other day I was reading your post about Metaverse.
   - It was you? I replied making another homage to Joan Massanés Vilaplana
   - … Why do you make so much emphasis with Hybrid Experiences? Is not the Metaverse all about visiting other worlds? Why do think that Touristologists are the best candidates to create transformative and customized hybrid experiences in this new world?
My son always provides intelligent questions. He remembers me My Touristologists .
Let’s see, if I can provide a good answer to him and to you…

Metaverse will open the possibility to Humans to be more similar to a God. We can be a little bit out of SPACE/TIME prison.

In the Metaverse, we can share an experience with our friends, relatives, members of our community even if they are in a different SPACE/TIME. We can be Tourists in one Tourism Destination and the others can be around the world… 

So, we can break SPACE.

What about the TIME? We can share an experience and rewind it at any moment!

Of course, we won’t break the SPACE/TIME duality totally, but we can be close to it!

In Touristology, we also have interesting concepts/frameworks dealing with SPACE/TIME duality. For instance, we have Servuction (the great contribution to Touristology of Eglier  and Langeard!)
In Tourism (as in Health and Education) we have a very important difference with other sectors! The customer is an input in the process of Servuction while that input it doesn’t exist in production. So, we need the Tourist here and now! 

Do you see? SPACE/TIME duality again!
On the other hand, trying to seduce Tourists at the right moment at the right time is the origin of Yield Management. We can define Yield Management as a set of Strategies and Tactics aiming to achieve two objectives
1) To seduce Tourists to make a reservation “today” that we have a low occupancy.
2) To seduce Tourists to make a reservation when we have a low “booking pace”.
What do you think Touristologists, Generic or Specialized Segments in the Metaverse?
In these new hybrid worlds, we can apply one of our favorite Touristology’s principles. As we always say, in YOUR METAVERSE… First Specialized, then Generic! So, nothing wrong with MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) BUT… first try to build your SMO (Specialized Multiplayer Online) where the members of the community will be members of a Specialized Segment and it will be easier to create groups and seduce them to appear in a transformative and customized Hybrid Experience, at a specific SPACE/TIME, in our Tourism Destination/Enterprise.

Do you see, Touristologists? If somebody, ask you who is better prepared to deal with the Metaverse… just listen to your inner Touristology’s voice…
Who is better prepared/trained for the Metaverse than experts in the Science of Travel?
Who can better create, communicate, and commercialize, transformative and customized Hybrid Experiences for Tourists travelling in different worlds?
Who can better visualize and implement Strategies and Tactics related to Yield Management?

Touristologists!!!

 
Today, 30 years ago, I gave my first class in Tourism!

 
Now, it is a great moment to be a Touristologists builder!
Let’s build together the Metaverse world. Let’s create, communicate, and commercialize the best Tourism packages.
Let’s improve the professional and personal life of Tourists while improving profits and sustainability for Tourism Destinations and Enterprises.

Can you feel my energy? It’s the most powerful force of the Universe. It’s the force of a dream burning inside… Touristology’s dream!!!