Very soon, it will be the first day of a new subject!I love first days!!! I love first sessions in classes, seminars, in-company training or start-up meetings!!! Everything is possible the first day. The objectives that appear in OUR syllabus, minds and hearts are ALL possible. “This subject is all about how to combine operations and processes of Tourism companies with Web-Engineering. We will learn how to provide services before, during and after a trip, making all departments and members of the chain of value work as a single organization.” Let’s go for them!!! Everyone can become the best Touristologists in town, create the new, new disruptive star-up, become the intrapreneur of the year in her/his company, to start a promising journey to become a Manager of Hotel, Airline Company or a Travel Agency, or the new, new Intermediary/Infomediary… In this first class, there will be dynamic students with strong ideas that I want to challenge… to see/think/feel these ideas with another view, another attitude… Touristology’s one!!! Some people teach or talk about how to use other people technology. Technology to automatize processes that exist today. We prefer to talk about the technology that YOU can build in order to automatize the processes that you design in order to implement competitive Business Models for our beloved sector! Technology makes processes faster NOT BETTER. If the processes are not well defined. If they are not a good implementation of a competitive business model focus on value (NOT in low price) then, they are not worth to learn. I like to show this picture to the future of Touristology!
You can, easily, exchange pick up a book for visualizing YOUR own Business Model value orientated, implementing it in YOUR operations and processes then, developing YOUR own tools using the three technologies mixed in heaven (that we talked about here) to improve YOUR operations and processes providing Trustfulness (Blockchain), Scalability (Artificial Intelligence) and Ubiquity (Augmented/Virtual Reality).
Is it more complex? YES! But ... what is the alternative? To follow the easy path. Copy Business Model low price orientated. Listening to the people that explain how the Tourism is right now... Letting the concepts, vocabulary and frameworks of Web-Engineering to other people...Never willing to learn how to code, nor even learn how to communicate with developers. How can you become a Project Manager if you don’t know their lingo? What are the consequences of following the easy path? Price war in order to sell your services. Lack of direct relationship with your #Tourists. Difficulty to seduce them to appear in your Tourism Enterprise/Destination when is more convenient to them, to YOU, to YOUR enterprises, to YOUR inhabitants. Some people call this situation OverTourism... We prefer to call it.. Lack Of Touristology!!!! You have to enjoy mixing together Touristology and Web-Engineering. You have to learn how to wear different HATS! To provide a good servuction during the Check-In / Check-Out process…put your Hotelier hat on! To create, communicate and commercialize a tourism package for a generic or specialized group… put your Travel Agent hat on! To sell NOW for THIS Day/hour… put your Yield/Revenue Manager hat on! To develop, or to manage developers, in order to create the technological tools that automatize your processes, put your Web-Engineering hat on! We are Consilient Thinkers, nimbly passing from one Science to another, smiling and loving to dance…even under the rain!!!! We will be dancing very soon! I love Intellectual dancing with my Touristologists! Meanwhile, as I will say in OUR first sessions… I’m NOT important YOU ARE! Waiting for YOUR Study Cases, Waiting for YOUR project groups, waiting to see YOU becoming the best minds in the best sector ever!!!
The most intelligent sensor on earth willing to provide a service to THEIR community while earn a living through micropayments in Non Fungible Tokens format!
Getting Customized /Syndicated and Pro-amized 3 C’s After, during and Before the TRIP.
Getting solutions to potential problems, enjoying the magic of Service Recovery , seeing the benefits of Travel as one of the best way of Transforming their life both, in Personal and Professional level.
Sending customized /syndicated and Pro-amized 3 C’s to any member of THEIR community!!! To Local, professional enterprises... To relatives, colleagues!!! Sharing travel experiences, sharing opportunities to improve the professional/personal life of their relatives and members of their community.
3C’s? People go to Internet to get/send Content, Commerce and Community as John Hagel explained long time ago. By the way, John Hagel also explained the power of building Communities in Internet!
Will Tourists find “This” interesting? Well, it depends... if they control THEIR data and they can decide WHO, WHAT DATA and WHEN can see it.
If they can get more security before, during and after the trip. If they can help the members of their community AND ALSO get a profit...
Definitely, it is possible to transform Tourists in sensors!
Then, you can know the STATE of the Tourists and the STATE of the International Specialized Community that they are members.
You can paraphrase STATE in Touristology’s terms as the Location/Proximity of the Tourists and members of their community.
The STATE also means the Versions of ME (you can get more information here or here). Everyone needs different 3C’s depending on their mood. Everyone needs different 3C’s depending on who is next to him/her right here/right now!
At the end of the day, tools like Kafka Streams (or any Streaming Processing Software) can...
1) Ingest and process the high-volume data provide for Tourists’ shadows.
2) Capture the STATE of the Tourists using State Stores.
3) Expose this STATE using PUSH and PULL queries.
Do you want to learn more about stream processing? Enjoy the videos of confluent the creators of Kafka Streams!
So, Tourists can become sensors in movement.
Sensors that can get help, solutions to any potential problem that can happen before, during or after the trip!
Sensors that can be aware of transforming opportunities to improve their personal or professional life before, during or after a trip.
Tourists that can provide and share valuable 3C’s for the members of their international and specialized community. Making the most of the three technologies mixed in heaven that we talked about here...
Using Artificial Intelligence in order to provide Scalability getting and sending customized, syndicated and pro-amized 3 C’s at any place in real time.
Using Augmented and Virtual Reality in order to provide ubiquity seeing here (a physical space, a video conference, a game...) 3C’s customized, syndicated and pro-amized.
Using Blockchain in order to...
A) Trust the voices, images... sent to them.
B) Privacy. Having all control about when get or send information. Having all control about what information is shared in any transaction.
C) Profitability. Getting and sending micropayment in Non Fungible Tokens format!
We talked about Micropayments in Non Fungible Tokens format here. The big difference between Fungible and Non Fungible is based on the capacity to use code in order to customize the TOKEN... the thing... we want to share.
I mean, each Tourists or member of the international specialized community could have a customized TOKEN based on:
A) The desires that they have.
For instance, this Tourist /member of the community right here, right now wants this specific set of things. Thanks to SYNDICATION it doesn’t matter that they are owned by different members of the chain of value.
B) The acquired rights that they have
This Tourists /member of the community has the right to get these things. He/She has the credentials (a grade, an authorization...) that prove that. Thanks to BLOCKCHAIN we can trust that this is true. Again, thanks to SYNDICATION it doesn’t matter that they are owned by different members of the chain of value. We can use a little bit of PRO_AM here. If the Tourists /member of the community has built a group then, the value of the TOKEN will increase.
Do you see? Micropayments highly configurable based on the desires that they have right here / right now AND the acquired rights that they have, can provide Trust, privacy and profitability!
In the 90’s it was all about to seduce intermediaries around the world. You had to organize meetings with intermediaries (Travel Agencies, Tour Operators... even transport companies) of different countries and then, they would send THEIR Tourists to you. We traveled around the world doing consultancy, teaching, building teams focus on creating a startup able to develop the new, new thing! Then, in 1996 Internet change everything! It was NOT the end of the intermediaries. It was the beginning of a new kind of Intermediaries. The beginning of On-line Travel Agencies (OTA), Central Reservation Systems (CRS), Social Networking Sites (SnS)... We also had to seduce these new intermediaries. They can bring THEIR Tourists. They can help us to promote our Tourists destinations or Enterprises. They can sell THEIR data about THEIR Tourists to do marketing research, to practice a little bit of retargeting, to enjoy the power of marketing 1 to 1 .... We had to learn new scenarios. We had to learn new technologies and again... We travel around the world doing consultancy, teaching, building teams focus on creating a startup able to develop the new, new thing! Then, in 2016 we realize that we must gain more control over the direct relationships with OUR Tourists. We can benefit from the power of Platform Economy! We can build our OWN communities. We can help OUR Tourists to help us creating GROUPS. “GROUPS” is another word carved into OUR minds Touristologists. There is nothing wrong with individual tourism BUT, If we want to run a profitable business… it will be easier, powerful, endurable… if we work with groups! We can visualize new business models also using the three technologies mixed in heaven:
Blockchain = Trustfulness
Artificial Intelligence = Scalability
and
Augmented /Virtual Reality = Ubiquity...
to improve OUR operations and processes as we describe here..
We have to learn new scenarios. We have to learn new technologies and again... We will travel around the world doing consultancy, teaching, building teams focus on creating a startup able to develop the new, new thing! Defining your segments. Building YOUR community. Helping them to help you creating GROUPS. Offering to them anything that provide a solution to any potential problem in real time. Offering to them anything that provide opportunities to transform/improve their professional/personal life before, during and after “this” trip OR “any” trip. This is the power of Platform Economy. This is the power of Touristology!!!
This is a new year! Time to focus on new paradigms, time to focus on new business models, time to provide #Security to OUR Tourists, #Profitability to OUR Tourism Destinations and Enterprises and #Sustainability to our beloved sector! The Three Wizard Kings bring to me three specials gift this year. The first gift? Well, it is a GIF! Trying to convey the vision of the future of Touristology! The second gift? The courage to implement it! I got it! Doubts, fears and uncertainty have disappeared. Strength, hope and entrepreneurial power run through my veins! The third gift? A team to build it! I am building it! I have been a Touristologists builder for the last 30 years! I have been mentoring and creating teams for the last 30 years. Time to build one more time! The gift in gif format say to US...
Build your own communities: Some people have pass from the same 4P’s (product, price, promotion and place) for everybody to a customized 4 P’s for each Tourists. It doesn’t sound bad to me... BUT ... In the process, some of them have loose the power of GROUPS. Remember Touristologists, to build a community in your own platform is a source of profits for your Tourism Destination or Enterprise. Ignore old Business Models using Technologies: Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and Augmented /Virtual Reality are technologies mixed in heaven to provide Trustfulness, Scalability and Ubiquity to OUR operations and processes. They also allow us to reuse OUR beloved concepts Customization (in Real-Time) Syndication and Pro-am to generate new business models. Disruptive business model? No, they just IGNORE old ones! I am talking (for instance) about.. Ownerships sharing: Instead of a single owner, multiple owners will own and rent Tourism Services. Services focus on value (NOT IN LOW PRICE). Micro-payments based on Non Fungible Tokens. Fungible? It means it can be easily replaced /interchangeable by something identical. Non-Fungible? It means that each one could have CUSTOMIZED information or attributes based on desires and acquired rights that make them UNIQUE. Examples? A plane ticket: Different passenger names, destinations, departure times and seat numbers ancillary services, recommendations of 3 C’s (I mean, Content, Commerce and Community). IoT mixed with AI can provide Scalability to this customization and easy payments. Blockchain can provide Trust. Spatial Computing (AR /VR ) can provide Ubiquity making this 3C’s to appear at your fingertips in Real-Time! Stream Processing: All this 3C’s will generate a wave of events (the World Wide Wave!!!) that Touristologists have to manage in order to provide solutions and opportunities to improve/transform the personal and professional life of the Tourists and members of his/her community around the world, Inhabitants and local Enterprises! We are wave data managers, and we have to combine it with our skills as wave managers of Tourists in order to get more secure, profitable and sustainable Tourism destination. We are Wave managers! We are Touristologists!!! Just remember, Touristologists! Put off your worries, BUT don’t put off your dreams neither your duties that you know you have to do in order to get them!
I ask this question to myself, Touristologists! When I was a child, I never understood mathematics. I didn’t like Math. Just learning formulas that I didn’t understand... Then, one summer, I found a wonderful teacher and I saw the meaning of Mathematics. I fell in love with it! In my first job as a Touristologists builder in the University, I was the Math Teacher, Financial Mathematics to be precise.
I was known for My Touristologists as “the teacher of Math”. It was in 1992! I was the teacher able to explain difficult things (Math) in an easy way. Can you imagine what my little me would have thought about that? Everything is possible in life WITH continuous effort, trial-error methodology and whatever it takes attitude! When, I began my Doctoral Thesis in 1996, one of the Teachers (The excellent PhD. Jaime Gil Aluja) was talking, all day long, about Fuzzy Logic and Neural Networks. At the same time, all the teachers and my colleagues were talking, all day long, about Internet. You know me, I always try to control everything (in my dreams!!!) So, I went deeper in my Math knowledge. I also learnt how to code for the Internet (HTML, JAVA (Specially, Servlets) Web Servers (basically, Tomcat) Data Base (Oracle and MySQL)... I chose Artificial Intelligence for my doctoral Thesis. Of course, trying to find a practical application to our beloved sector. In 2000 I got a “Cum Laude” for it! Since then, I have been teaching other subjects in Touristology. Nowadays, I am more focus on Marketing and the improvement of Operations and Processes of Tourism Destination and Enterprises. My favorite Operation? Yield Management. It is a wonderful combination of Marketing, Finance and Web-Engineering! I still am, from the point of view of My Touristologists, the Teacher able to explain difficult things (Math, How to be a Developer...) in an easy way! Then, in 2015, several technologies appeared and other reappeared. I am talking about Blockchain, Augmented/Virtual reality AND Deep Learning. Deep Learning? Well, it was an improvement of all the things that I had practice, long time ago, in my doctoral thesis. Neural Networks have now plenty of names: Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) as Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN)... So, here I am... falling in love AGAIN with Mathematics mixed with Coding skills (nothing beats JavaScript for the frontend, Python for building Deep Learning Models, Java for Stream Processing, Swift for the Apple Ecosystem, Flutter for the Google one... AND, of course, visualizing new Business Models and how to improve Operations and Processes in our beloved sector! Here, you can visualize one example that make me Tweet... Working with one of my favorite topics #AI Applying it to OUR beloved sector #Tourism Visualizing new Business Models and Opportunities Implementing the operations and processes! How to add TRUST in the process? #Blockchain How to add #HybridExperiences? #AR and Virtual Reality I love #Touristology!!!
Do you see? In order to deal with new technologies in order to improve Business Models and Operations and processes of Tourism destination and enterprises, you have to work hard! You have to practice your Mathematics and Coding skills! If you really want to adopt new Technologies (Blockchain, Augmented / Virtual reality, Artificial Intelligence...) you have to do whatever it takes! Touristologists... when somebody or, even you, say to yourself “You are not able to learn Mathematics or Coding skills” Remember! They are excuses finders. They are not members of the elite club always looking for opportunities, always looking for solutions! You have to choose! You want to be an excuses finder OR... Do you want to become a Touristologists?!?!? If you choose to be a Touristologists. I will be here, waiting for YOU! This is NOT my blog. It is the blog of the ones who fell in love with Touristology!
These days have appeared new ideas trying to find alternatives for our beloved sector. I try to identify, classify and, together with my Touristologists, improve them in OUR classes, seminars, in-company training or start-up meetings. A fundamental question for our Science is... How to make a clear difference between New Segments focus on SERVICE/PRODUCT or focus on PEOPLE? This is of great importance in order to guaranty security for the Tourists and profit for Tourism enterprises and destinations. Because, if you have a New Segment focus on People... 1) You can create and build a community. 2) You can benefit from the power of Platform Economy and create your OWN platform. Then, 3) Inside YOUR platform, YOU (or your Tourists using PRO-AM allow you to achieve SCALABILITY) can create GROUPS. As you know, “GROUPS” is another word carved into my mind. There is nothing wrong with individual tourism BUT, If you want to run a profitable business… it will be easier, powerful, endurable… if we work with groups! Managing groups gives you more bargaining power, economies of scale, more leadership and control over you chain of value… so, what are you waiting for? 4) Even if to travel is not possible, your platform can offer to YOUR Tourists:
International contacts
The possibility to share ideas with similar or complementary people
To get news perspectives
Access to anything related to their motivation...
Let’s see a few clues in order to know if your Segment is focus on People and not in Products/Service?
Do the members of this Segment Identified themselves as…? Are they proud of going to a place that treat them as…? Do you think that they love to meet with other members that are similar or complementary to them in order to improve their private or professional life? You can describe them as a segment BUT if they don’t describe themselves, if they don’t share interests, if they don’t want to be together… then it won’t work!
Ok, let’s review some new ideas that have appeared recently for Hotels and Airlines.
First, some examples of Segments focus on SERVICE/PRODUCT A) Co-working or Co-living: Local people that can enjoy having more space, better equipment and a relaxed environment in a Hotel instead of working at home. You also can call it “Day-Cation” Here you can see the examples of Hilton’s WorkSpaces or Hyatt Hotels’ program, Work From Hyatt expanded throughout North America. B) Something similar, but in this case focus on Tourists is “Workation”. Tourists that can stay in your destination /hotel for a long-stay
C) There are enterprises offering to sell your rooms by hours (to work, for romantic experiences, to just relax before a meeting...) like you can see in this add by... By Hours
By the way, interesting idea to offer its services as a SaaS (Software As A Service) and to play a little bit of Platform Economy or Butterfly Strategy!
D) Ghost kitchen in their hotels or Airlines Here you can see the example of Singapore Airlines offering “dining experience inside the Airbus A380” Another option is the “in-flight dining experience in the comfort of their own home”
More information about the possible evolution of Ghost Kitchen here
E) Your balcony as the best seat. Transform the balconies of your rooms as the best stands of a Rock concert as VIK Hotel Costa del Sol did! F) Others try to play the Subscription game, a kind of Netflix for Hotels or Airlines As you can see, in this article "such transitions could take time to bear fruit: You can’t speed up subscription profits — you have to play the long game. That may not be the quick fix the hotel industry needs right now."
All these ideas are very interesting BUT, as more and more enterprises are doing the same we can see the evolution from a Blue Ocean to a Red one!
What about... Instead of focus on selling YOUR products, YOU focus on satisfying Specialized Segments’ needs? Necessities... solving problems... finding opportunities... In this trip! In any trip! In anything important for this Specialized Segment! Time to try Deeper Segmentation. Let’s see some examples of New Segments focus on PEOPLE 1) Do you remember, Singapore Airlines that we talked about above in this post? They also offer “behind-the-scenes tour of our training facilities for the entire family.” Do you see the difference? Find out what it takes to be a Singapore Airlines cabin crew and pilot. Enjoy additional activities like the junior cabin crew experience, flight simulator training session and so much more. You can provide a learning experience for PEOPLE, wishing to become a member of an Airline. OR to provide a bonding experience for single dads or working moms or.... You can create a platform focus on this segment, you can seduce the members of this community to create groups, you can seduce them to travel together in a Bubble trip! Shangri-la does something similar they have a problem of low occupancy during weekends because most of their customers are business people. They Touristologistly make the most of nowadays social tendency... I want to be the best professional BUT ALSO THE BEST Parent!!! So, you can promote to your customers… use you hard earned points of OUR loyalty program to appear in OUR hotel during weekends and enjoy especial activities for your kids. Not only you are a great professional you are the parent of the month! By the way, good example of Versions Of Me !!! The business people doesn’t appear during the weekends BUT yes, the lovely parent! You can read this article and see how they are practicing these ideas. “In 2017 Shangri-La Hotel, Shenyang, in Shenyang China, launched its second round of “K20 Activities.” This two-day training program, available to travelers and locals, pairs up to 20 children ages five to twelve with professionals at the property for fun “training” sessions that provide insight into the in’s and out’s of luxury hotel operations.” Interesting practice Shangri-la!!!
2) YurbanHotels is offering its Hotels in Barcelona as studios for film and advertising shootings. A wonderful opportunity to focus on this Specialized Segment focus on People. The ones that want to create the movie, actors and actress willing to participate, producers wishing to invest time and money in the process. You can create your own platform. Offer hybrid events. Create and manage bubble trips offering SECURITY to your Tourists and Profit for your Business...
Touristology is yelling to YOU.. Don’t focus on selling rooms, food and beverage or meeting spaces! Focus on selling whatever your Segment need, when they need it, in the way they need it! Are you listening to your inner Touristology voice???? Pay attention!
4) Or Disney Resorts allowing Dogs! It is NOT a Dog. It is a member of My Family!
4) Airbnbn now focusing on long-term stays Airbnb now focusing on new segments: Digital Nomads... Segments with necessities that will be better satisfied during a trip (international contacts/experiences, a boost of creativity, bonding experiences for professional or family groups…).
5) NH is offering Hybrid Events! They aim to Multinational Enterprises of groups of families. I am sure that you can visualize more examples of Deeper Segmentations Touristologists! The future? You visualize it! You design it! You create it!
6) SchoolCations “The $475-a-night Four Seasons Punta Mita, on Mexico’s Pacific coast, is launching a “schoolcation” program that provides tech support, classes, and “study buddies” who can supervise remote learning from a Wi-Fi-equipped beach cabana. (Stay for the semester, and it could cost $50,000.)”
7) Blind? Visually impaired? But... ready to Travel!
You can get help from AI! Seeing AI
You can also get help from Human Beings! Be Me Eyes As I always say mixing AI and Humans is the perfect solution!
Do you see the difference between focus on SERVICE/PRODUCTS and focus on PEOPLE? Do you see the power of creating and building a community? Do you see the power of having your own platform? Do you see the power of creating GROUPS inside it?
Here you can see a framework that will allow you to validate if a segment is focus on PEOPLE
1) Chip Conley pyramid: If I customize my Hotel/Airline/Tourism Destination... and my activities to them... Will it be a STRONG connection between the segment and the Service? 2-A) Butterfly Strategy: Could I sell other services from other enterprises? 2- B) "This community" world congress: Could my Hotel become a MAGNET for people / enterprises around the world wishing to do Marketing Research, sell something, hire employees... 3) Long Tail: Can I find this segment in Specialized places? Can I do, there promotion and distribution with more efficiency and less cost? IF the answer is YES...It is a good example of Long Tail! Then, as a consequence You can create Hybrid experiences for this Segment! You can create Bubble trips for this Segment!
Do you have any doubts? You can always ask to my #Touristologists !!! They are the best minds in the best sector ever!
These weeks I have been working with very interesting projects, a proposal of Tourism consulting, a new, new, new... startup, the creation of new Master and Postgraduates studies... I love Touristology’s projects. I love to work with people that you can trust, respect and admire! In all these projects I try to remind to myself and everybody three ideas strongly connected with Touristology’s principles. The necessity to build and manage the chain of value. The necessity of first focus on specialized Tourism and then in Generic one. The necessity of using Tourism as a profit generator for other economic sectors in your country (Technology, Games, Culture, Commerce....). Would you like to go deeper in these principles? I love to go deeper!
1) The necessity to build and manage the chain of value: It is not possible to provide Security to the Tourists and high Profit for your project if you are unable to build and manage the value chain. I mean, the set of companies and organizations that the Tourist uses from the beginning to the end of the trip.
In this way, you can create Bubble Trips (Groups of Tourists travelling together from the beginning to the end of the trip). You can solve any problem that the Tourist has to deal with. You can provide opportunities to improve her/his professional or personal life. If we seduce OUR Tourists to use OUR technological platforms instead of other people’s platforms that gain benefits and do not have the inconvenience of all the Tourists at the same place in the same moment (some people call it OverTourism. You also can call it... LackOfTouristology!!!) How is it possible that in XXI century people still focus on manage the Tourists only when they are in the Tourism Destination or in their enterprise? 2) The necessity of first focus on Specialized Tourism and then in Generic one. We have to define Specialized Segments. Show to them how to improve their professional or personal life through a trip. Allow them to book any service that they need through YOUR technological platforms. Then, you can complement this Specialized Tourism with the Generic one! How is it possible that in XXI century people still believe that first you have to promote Generic Tourism and then you can complement it with Specialized one?
3) The necessity of using Tourism as a profit generator for other economic sectors in your country (Technology, Games, Culture, Commerce....) If you select OUR Specialized Tourists, we can offer to them other services and products NOT related to the travel but highly related to their necessities which will enhance synergies with other sectors of the economy. How is it possible that in XXI century people still believe that we have to choose between Tourism and other sectors? If we build and manage the chain of value. If we first focus on Specialized Tourism and then in Generic one. Tourism will become a profit generator for other sectors!
