Improve Tourism Degree? Wrong question!

Some people spend their days criticizing our beloved Tourism Degree!
Highlighting that they have a lack of… or too much of…
WE prefer to spread different news! That you can use the knowledge from Tourism Management in order to improve other economic sectors and their related Universities Degrees!
Let’s pour waves of knowledge around!

For instance,
1) Chain of Value: All international companies/organizations have to manage an international ecosystem composed by enterprises from around the world. Who knows more than Touristologists how to do that?
2) Servuction: Nowadays, plenty of sectors of the economy use/seduce their customers to be an active member in the production of products/services (When was the last time that an employee of your financial entity makes a transfer for you? When was the last time that you dream your Customers creating content for you?)! Who better that Touristologists to visualize, implement and apply service recovery in those processes!
3) Yield /Revenue  Management: Nowadays, plenty of sectors want to create/manage exhibitions, trade shows, conferences… activities with those sentences... to sell now or your lose forever…you sell now and you can lose the opportunity to sell it later for a better profit! Who is better prepare than Touristologists to manage these events?
Yield / Revenue focused on increasing PROFITS!!!
Focus NOT only on the management of the current demand BUT ALSO to generate new ones!
4) New Technologies: 
Where is more necessary to convey TRUST that in a sector where the Customer has to deal with plenty of different organizations.
When is more necessary to provide SCALABILITY that in a sector hungry for customization in Real_Time?
When is more necessary UBIQUITY computing that in a sector where the Customer has a NEW environment HERE/NOW and all his/her life is in another place of the world?
Who is better prepare than Touristologists to visualize and implement the use New Technologies in Real scenarios?
In summary….
Do you need experts in international trade? You can count with Touristologists!!!
Do you need experts in Space/Time management? To sell NOW/HERE? Seducing to the customer to be an active member of your community? You can count with Touristologists!!!
Do you want to improve the knowledge of your University degree? You can count with Touristologists!!!

Metaverse a failure? THIS AI a winner? Lack of vision!!!

All my life I have experienced on firsthand the necessity of learning to code! 

In 1991, I was working with a start-up creating an ERP for the Apple ecosystem. It was/is very difficult to be a Product Manager if you don’t understand code! 

The same happened when Internet appear… I had to learn Java AND review my mathematics notes (and above anything else… to take a lot of tea with several Mathematics gurus!) in order to fully understand Neural Networks and Intelligent Systems.
In the same way, to visualize and implement technological solutions to our beloved sector:
1) You have to know Travel Management. Otherwise, you end up only promoting your Tourism Destination and waiting for others to bring THEIR Tourists!
2) You have to know how technology works. Otherwise, you end up using other people software and creating a dependency!
I always try to convey this vision to the future of Touristology (Always two hands, remember?)
When some people talk about Tourism and new technologies, sometimes they make obvious this lack of vision!
- The Metaverse was not important. THIS Artificial Intelligence will change everything!
THIS AI won’t change everything! It just makes possible to render and put together tokens (words, expressions, symbols…) very fast and sometimes wrong (10-15%) using the technology that we have today.
On the other hand, The Metaverse offers a very interesting opportunity to increase the profitability and sustainability of our beloved sector providing Hybrid Experiences! Breaking Space/Time prison!!!

We love to talk about this kind of Technology in OUR blog! Here, we make an homage to Mark Weiser that, long time ago, coined the word “Ubiquitous Computing”, that increase the connection between people and their environment HERE/NOW and Around_The_World/At_Any_Time.  When is this connection more necessary than when you are travelling?  
You can call it Metaverse, Ubiquitous Computing or Spatial Computing… you know, our lack of attention for people having strong arguments around names is legendary! We prefer to focus on visualize and implement New Technologies to increase profitability and sustainability in Tourism!
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…
BUT this feature is not possible with the rendering ways and chips that actually, we have.
What will happen when somebody develop powerful chips?
What will happen when we develop new mathematics ways of rendering?
What will happen when advances in Quantum Computing allow to connect two scenes faster of the speed of light no matter how far apart, they are in space. For instance using ENTANGLEMENT, as we explain here

Hybrid experiences in the Metaverse?
It is a classic. It is a trip inside a trip. You can enjoy a few examples here.
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!
Anyway, what is crystal clear is that for a REAL change using New Technologies in our beloved sector, you can’t TRUST in big corporations focused on short term profitability (willing to change its name for something similar to the Metaverse and stooping the investment a few years later!). We have to TRUST the knowledge, the skills, the attitudes of people loving to mix together New Technologies and Tourism! We need to build a community! We need to visualize and create the “Linux” of Operating Systems, the “Liferay” of Portals, the “Godot” of Games Engines… of the Metaverse!
Be aware. Be prepared, Touristologists!!! The Metaverse is coming. AI will be improved for more intelligent and powerful architectures. Blockchain will evolve from BlockPAIN to BlockGAIN and WE will change forever the way we define, enjoy and manage Tourism (and any other sector related to Servuction and Yield Management!
As sure as Touristology is a Science!

 

From BlockPAIN to BlockGAIN

I love to share my experiences both, as a developer and as entrepreneur (In a single word…as a Touristologists!!!) related to how to use new technologies to improve profitability and sustainability of Tourism enterprises/Destinations or any other sector related to Servuction. 

The other day, I was talking about one of our favorite Technologies…Blockchain and, as always, appeared an exceptional opportunities finder formulating this interesting question (meanwhile, the excuses finders where in another level…the low one!) 

- “Jordi, when do you recommend using Blockchain instead of a regular Data Base? 

- As our intellectual friend Ferrater I Mora love to say…It depends! 

1) If you want to improve the connection between the Website/Mobile_App/Virtual_Reality_App… of different enterprises allowing them to work as a single ecosystem ( You know how much we love Syndication!!!) and all the members of this chain of value TRUST each other then, a regular Data Base it is usually better to avoid the BlockPAIN (you will need more time and cost to create something that is similar to what you get using a regular Data Base) 

BUT… 

2) If you are able to visualize and implement the new and very exciting features that Blockchain can provide then, you must use Blockchain and pass from BlockPAIN to BlockGAIN!!! 

- “Jordi, do you mean the features that you always share with us? 

A) Sharing Identity with privacy: You can add new international members in the chain of value where the customers will 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 or any 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. Here you can enjoy a graphical summary…

Tourists could be (If they want!) sensors in movement (as Touristologistly, we love to say..IoT? Internet of Tourists!!!) We will know the Location/Proximity of the Tourists and members of their community. We will know their “Versions of Me”. We will know the Yield Management situation of local enterprises near to them using Kafka Streams (or any Stream Processing Software) using PUSH and PULL queries. 
It sounds to plenty of new revenue streams/gains for everyone, to me! 

I love to share my experiences in OUR seminars, in-company training or star-ups meetings in order to define (or redefine!) their (OUR???) business model!
I love to share them in OUR blog! 

The blog of the ones that felt in love with Touristology!!!

It is always a good moment to apply Touristology to any sector!

As you know, with the knowledge we got managing Tourism (#Servuction, #YieldManagement, #NewTechnologies…)
1) We can improve other sectors of the economy (Health, Education, Video Games…)
2) We can provide synergies with other sectors of the economy related to the motivation of #Travel of #Tourists whose we define, seduce and manage ALL the trip.
Let’s see if we can put an actual example of improving other sectors! 

The other day, I was watching the news in the national television of Catalonia. They explained that the owners of the pigs are NOT the farmers (80% are in this situation).

The pigs are provided from an external company (“Empresa Integradora”) which control and supply the pigs and also manage the enterprise which transform the pigs into food. The slaughterhouse. (“Escorxador” in my beautiful mother tongue!)

Excellent example of control of the Chain of Value!!!

Farmers of the world, you have to try to manage all the enterprises! You have to try to have a direct connection with your customers. Otherwise, other enterprises will try to do it for you, keeping the profit and letting the risk on your hands. In the same way, that big intermediaries in Tourism manage all the trip and for that reason keep most of the profit and none of the bad consequences (all Tourists at the same place/time, low profit and wages for local enterprises, unhappy inhabitants…).

We say to you the same, that we say to local enterprises and Tourism destinations!

1) Seduce your own Segments (Customers with different motivations, in this case, related to Food and Beverage)

2) Build your own customized services/products to them

3) Do the distribution yourself

The name of the game? My Own 1,2,3!

Prove to the world and to yourself that using Touristology’s knowledge you can increase the sustainability and profitability of any sector of the economy!

Don’t stop there!

Don’t focus on YOUR service/products. Let me clarify this once and for all… your business it is not ONLY to sell rooms, food and beverage and meeting spaces OR PIGS IN YOUR CASE. Your business is to satisfy your customer, providing what they need, when they need it, in the way they need it! In this way, the tourists/customers will choose you, as THE accommodation/Food provider, OR even better, as my-trusted-partner-in-all-I-need-during-this-trip. On the other hand, you will increase your profits. This is what Yield/Revenue Management is all about!!!

Definitely, don’t stop there! 

Build your own PLATFORM and try to seduce member of your segments from around the world!!!

In 19th century rich/powerful people controlled the land as a way to get profits and rents.

Then, the Industrial Revolution appears, and the powerful ones were the owners of the Capital (I mean, the owners of the production means, factories, machines…).

Nowadays, the power will be into the hands of the owners of platforms or digital ecosystems that customers use and TRUST.

Do you need land? I own it!

Do you need factories, machines…? I own them!

Do you need platform, digital ecosystem OR CHAIN OF VALUE giving support from the beginning to the end of the trip….? I own/manage it!

Farmers, Hoteliers, Tourism destinations using these platforms are like “proletariat” working for “bourgeois” and getting a low salary /profit.

Do you know the VERY GOOD NEWS??? The new reality that platform economy creates, that was almost impossible in land or factory economy? YOU can be a winner! Using your skills as a Touristologists, YOU can create your own platform to seduce specialized segments related to international communities which have necessities better satisfied during a trip. 

If you feel that this is your call… I’ll be here waiting for YOU!