Building the best minds in Tourism!

In OUR classes, seminars, in-company training or start-up meetings in order to define (or redefine!) the Business Model and the Technology Scheme, we have to use the right methodology. I mean…
Simple/repetitive/ copy-the-way-Tourism-enterprises-work-today
VERSUS
Complex/creative/ let’s-define/visualize-the-way-Tourism-enterprises-will-work-in-the-future
I could make OUR life easier providing summaries and funny videos that you can memorize and then pass a simple test, BUT my job/passion/mission is to build the best minds in the best sector ever!
I want to be sure that I build on you the following competences:

Competence: To listen to someone, get his/her message, extract the knowledge and then read/look at/talk to… and get your OWN conclusions.

Competence: To convey your own ideas in front of an audience and argue/improve your position even if others disagree and/or they give new visions/examples right on the spot.

Competence: To seduce local Tourists BUT also INTERNATIONAL ones. To wait for other people to bring their Tourists BUT also to know how to seduce your OWN ones!

Competence: To adapt to any Tourism enterprise and follow their processes BUT also to be able to improve them AND visualize a new disruptive idea and be able to implement it!

Competence: To practice simple segmentation (Leisure, Business, Groups, the-ones-who-make-the-reservation-in-this-channel…) BUT also deeper one, in order to get better RevPar, TRevPar and GopPar!

I’m a Touristologists builder. I help to create the best minds in the best sector ever! Minds able to visualize, imagine, improve how to manage new scenarios. Competences that machines/robots will start to develop in no less than 10 years! By the way, I’m building these machines too!

Can you feel the power of Touristology’s principles?

The other day, I was reading an excellent article about ICELANDAIR. This article  explains that “Iceland should be a good air market right now. But increased competitive capacity is putting major pressure on Icelandair. The carrier's new CEO is going to have to find a way to get the airline back on track. ”

What about... YOU are the NEW CEO of ICELANDAIR!!

Can you read the article and using your Touristology’s frameworks explain your set of strategies? Are you willing to practice a little bit of your favorite subject??? Here you have a kind of blueprint…

So far, the former CEO has tried to do the following…

1) Appear a low cost competitor lowering the price? His answer? Mark down the price!

2) A Tourist want to travel from USA to London. His idea is that He/She spends time and money in the middle!

3) Thinking about opening new routes (India…)

Good ideas? Bad ones? What do YOU think?

Let’s see what Touristology can bring to the table (remember in disruption table if you don’t have a seat… YOU are the meal!!!)

Is it a good strategy for an airline company to sell other components of a trip? Well, EasyJet, Ryanair  and now Virgin are doing so…

Wouldn’t be, even better, if they practice deeper segmentation and develop special packages for specialized Tourists?

Do you want an example of deeper segmentation providing 1) Loyal Tourists with a high Identity Refreshment 2) The possibility to create groups and sell to them new and more customized services, getting a higher profitability 3) The advantages of Long Tail distribution and communication allowing to distribute and communicate your services with zero o no cost….? What about the one that I shared with you in this Tweet? Can you connect the dots? Are you able to provide an example where an airline company try to seduce this segment?

Can you see the BIG difference if you organize a meeting in any place (before, during or after the trip) for these “Digital Nomads? Meetings with possible investors, future customers, employers, trainers… Do you see the potential growth of revenues sources from these meetings. Do you see a higher relationship between the airline company and this segment? Do you see the advantages of Long Tail Distribution and communication?

Can you feel the power of Touristology’s principles?

I can provide thousands of examples of specialized segments BUT… I am NOT the important one… YOU ARE!!!

BUT… Jordi! I work in an airline company… I have/want to sell seats!

I want to keep my business simple! At the end of the day, as Steve Jobs say…

“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

OK! Let me convey this fundamental Touristology idea in a very simple way!

Your business is NOT selling rooms, seats or F&B… Your business is to satisfy your Tourists, providing what they need, when they need it, in the way they need it!

But… Jordi! this idea is simple, BUT its management is complex!

Exactly, for that reason you will need to become or hired a Touristologists!!!

I love Touristology’s games! What about you?

Platform Business Model in Tourism.

These days I have been travelling in Web-Engineering land. I have been enjoying how to create Deep Learning models in TensorFlow and PyTorch, learning how to make them available in a native mobile application, trying to combine them with Augmented Reality and Blockchain… I like to travel in Web-Engineering land!!! BUT… You know, my Touristology’s voice never sleep! So, to me, it is almost impossible not to listen to experts talking about our beloved sector! In my opinion (WHAT DO YOU THINK????) there are two important missing ideas when they talk about Platform Economy and Tourism that I try to summarize in this post…

1) Experts in whatever applying their knowledge in Tourism… Stop highlighting the customer journey (inspiration, consideration/planning, booking, experiencing and sharing). Is this journey important? Of course! BUT in Tourism exists a REAL journey… the trip! For that reason, successful Tourism platforms will be the ones providing a customized experience from the beginning to the end of the trip.

This experience has to include all the services needed for the Tourist. Which services? the ones decided for and by the Tourist! Syndication technologies (Web Services and Web Scraping would help us to provide an INTEGRATED and SYNCHRONIZATATED digital customer experience. Welcome to Web 3.0!!!

2) Experts in whatever applying their knowledge in Tourism… Stop highlighting INDIVIDUAL experiences… start focusing on COMMUNITIES experiences. Start thinking in the power of groups created for and by the Tourists! Groups in order to get discounts for services. Groups in order to get customized product/services for the community, even to create, communicate and commercialized new product/services based on the interest of your community. Groups creation is a fundamental action for building profitable Tourism enterprise AND it is strongly connected with PLATFORMS where people go to share, meet… create GROUPS!

Here you can enjoy the vision of John Hagel. In this article, He conveys the necessity to change from the three I’s—intercept, isolate and insulate (the PUSH) to the three A’s: attract, assist and affiliate (THE PULL).

Intercept means getting people’s attention wherever they are and whenever you need them. Then you isolate, trying to get your message across without interference or distraction. Finally, marketers have tried to insulate people over time to create a walled garden where it’s just you and me forever.

On the other side, Attract means motivating people to seek you out (or as Touristologistly we say… Seduce!). Assist means helping people before and after a purchase, so they get more value and use from your product or service (Remember in Tourism, that means during the TRIP, the real one!). Finally, instead of focusing on one-to-one marketing, bring in any and all participants that could be helpful to the prospective buyer, creating a broader ecosystem of participants that the customer wants to interact with (So, create groups BY and FOR the customer. Create communities!!!)

In a nutshell, the customer journey? Of course, the REAL trip! Offering Transformative experience better satisfied during a trip and inside a Group! This will mean a better transformative experience for the Tourist and a more profitably enterprise for intermediaries/infomediaries and service suppliers! How on earth is possible that Hoteliers define groups as an important segment (we can discuss if Groups is a segment 8-)) and don’t promote and make easy for the Tourist the creation, communication and commercialization of their own packages!

Start building communities, if your Tourists don’t talk each other, don’t create groups of interest, and create, communicate and commercialize their own products focus on satisfying necessities better satisfied during a trip… you don’t have a community, you have a bunch of customers and above all else you are NOT making the most of the Platform Economy!!!

But.. JORDI! - all these concepts customized, syndicated, Pro-Am creating groups… are very similar to the ones we practice with the name Web 2.0 Business Model, right?

Exactly, Touristologists! Thanks for noticing it!

Touristology is a science and you are at least, as good as any other scientist, my fellow Touristologists!!!

Improving Medical Tourism applying Touristology’s principles!!!

The other day, I was reading an interesting article related with Medical Tourism and some start-ups focused on it.

Usually, Tourists are looking for a better quality-price balance, to have a pleasant and fast recovery and to return as nothing it had happened.

I found very interesting this video about one of these new new enterprises:

Can you try to improve it using Touristology’s principles?

Do you think that you can create a more profitable business if you add to YOUR Platform /Social Networking Site / Online Travel Agency...  students from universities around the world willing to learn with an international vision AND professionals willing to do a little bit of international networking?

What about going deeper in the segmentation process? Is this  specialized Tourism? Of course! Can you go deeper? Can you focus on people that have these necessities and then offer a solution to their necessities better satisfied during a trip? Why do you want to make an operation in your knee? For sport reasons? For running with your son/daughter? To feel forever young? For ….

Do you think that Blokchain can be useful in this scenario?

Can Blockchain provide… A shared and trusted identity (Credentials of the professionals, quality of the materials…). Smart contracts linking together actions and consequences. Secure payments…

Can you use a little bit of Deep Learning to connect practitioners and customers? To connect the best procedure or material with a customer? To analyze better and faster a radiography?...

Can you use a little bit of Augmented Reality? To show to the customer the final result? To provide a better training for both University students and Professionals?...

Come on Touristologists use YOUR frameworks! Otherwise, they will get rusty!!!!

Enjoy your holydays!

Just remember WE don’t take holidays, WE just travel around and abroad in order to know other markets, make international contacts, plan future business… 

I LOVE TOURISTOLOGY!!!

Land, Factory… PLATFORM!!!

Marriot CEO has a clear idea about it! - I said to my daughter the other day…
Here you have an excellent article with his declarations”
“We Are in an Absolute War for Who Owns the Customer’”
“the next big innovation in hospitality will take place at the platform level.”
“Not to be unfair to them (Tourists), not to steal their data, but to use it in a way that causes them to say, ‘You know what? I like what Marriott is doing with my information. It’s making my traveling a little better.”
Jordi! What are you talking about?

Sorry, Touristologists I have to explain myself better…
The other day, I was reviewing with my daughter the different economic systems (Capitalism, Communism, Socialism…) and its evolution during the last centuries.
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!

 
So -said my daughter to me- Hoteliers, Tourism destinations using these platforms are like “proletariat” working for “bourgeois” and getting a low salary /profit and for that reason they need a lot of Tourists and this become a problem like gentrification, locals not happy with the Tourism sector…
Why don’t they build their own platforms? - Touristologistly, my daughter asked?

 
Well, they can do it! As all My Touristologists know but, in order to be and keep being competitive they have to use “long tail” theory. I mean, they have to build platforms providing support to the customer from the beginning to the end of the trip FOR SPECIALIZED SEGMENTS as we saw here.

 
There are plenty of opportunities in the Tourism sector! The question is… Do you want to work for yourself or for the real winner?

 
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 and Web-Engineer, 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!

Tourism Transforming Tourists. Touristology’s vision!

The other day, I shared with you a tweet about the Transformational Economy. 

I highlighted in the tweet that this transformational economy could be even more important in Tourism!
Could we relate this Transformational Economy with Touristology? Of course, we can! Tourism to become a better person, to overcome illness or personal problems, to create bonds with your family, with your colleagues at work… to get new perspectives, to get a bunch on creativity, to get international contacts...! I LOVE #Touristology  What about YOU?
Some of you sent me messages, e-mails, phone calls asking for more information… So, here I’m writing this post!
The idea of Transformational Economy has it origin in the article that Joseph Pine and James Gilmore wrote in Harvard Business Review. Here you can find more information.
The same authors predicted that Transformation economy would be the next step.
Anyway, what I want to highlight is that in order to provide an experience (and even more if you want to provide a transformation!!!) it is NOT enough saying so. You have to follow a process… Touristology’s one!
Phase 1: Define a segment AND identify the necessities that they could better satisfied during a trip
Phase 2: Build a chain of value in order to give support from the beginning to the end of the trip.
Phase 3 and 4: Improve the processes that will allow the transformation in the Tourists using Web 2.0 Business Model.
Phase 5 and 6: Be sure that you serve this process in the right device. What is the right device? The one selected for the Tourist!!!
Touristologists like to summarize this process with this slide

Do you want to implement this process in your Tourism Enterprise /Destination?
If you have any doubt… don’t ask me! Ask any of my Touristologists, they are the best minds working in the best sector ever!!!

Different enterprises... same negative consequences!!!

From time to time, the future of Touristology, the wannabe future disruptors entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs… proudly say to me.

“ Jordi, I have the new, new thing!

I always reply with this sentence… Are you sure? Everything has happened before! In Internet as well…more often than not… the new business model and the new technological schemes… are the forgotten ones!

Now, people talk about different enterprises changing the Tourism sector giving support to the customer from the beginning to the end of the trip…. TripAdvisor buying Bokun (as I tweeted here); Booking buyings FareHarbor; Marriot buying PlacePass; AirBnB buying Trips/Trip4real…

At the end of the day, they want to become the big Tour operators of the 60’s. There are some important differences BUT some dangerous similarities from the point of view of Tourism destination and their service providers.

What are the important differences?

1) These new digital aggregators change static/prefixed Tourism packages for Dynamic ones. They engage customers making very easy to select the best components of the package. Thanks to syndication they offer plenty of choices (at the best possible price, don’t forget we talk about generic Tourism, right?). Thanks to Machine Learning they proposes the best options and improve the communication and commercialization process. Thanks to pro-am they add the opinion of other relevant Tourists!

2) They change “I own the components of the package OR I control them” TO “I don’t own anything I only get a commission!”

So, clearly, the business model and operations and processes are different BUT the consequences for the Tourism destination and their services providers are very similar…

Get Tourists loyal to foreign’ enterprises which get most of the profit and don’t get any negative consequences.

Get Tourists looking for experiences, BUT low price orientated. So, in order to be profitable, it is necessary to receive plenty of Tourists.

As we need plenty of generic Tourists, usually, appear at the same place and at the same time!

It is very difficult to seduce THEIR tourists when is important for US…

If they were OUR Tourists, we could send them around the world!

Is there a way out of “Different enterprises... same negative consequences”?

Definitely, YES!!! Now, it can be different!

In the 60's it was very difficult to compete with big Tour operators. Basically, for two reasons:

1) They were very focus on the Tourists from where they create the business. If you try to sell Tourism services directly to the Tourists they warn you “We won’t promote your destination!” Nowadays, the big players are international ones! The world is OUR office! Your customers are around the world and it far more difficult that somebody say to you “I don’t recommend YOUR destination TO MY Tourists”!!!

2) To create a Tour operator meant a big investment!  BUT now it is different!!! Thanks to cloud computing you can create an internet platform as powerful as the one from your competitors and you have the power of specialization!!!

From 1 to 1 Tourist to N to N. From individual tourists TO Groups' creation of an international community THAT YOU MANAGE!!!!

The world is changing very fast! Do you want to get the opportunities and avoid the threats? Stop doing your operations and processes in the usual way because “That’s just the way it’s done”…Follow the innovation path! Touristology’s one!!!