WHY???

- Jordi, Why do I have to learn Deeper Segmentation? Why Simple Segmentation, based on demographics (age, country of origin…) is not enough?
This is the question that some of my students, participants in a seminar, members of a team of a future disruptive StartUp… ask to me. Maybe YOU, reader of this OUR blog focused on Touristology, have the same question!
I will try to provide an answer. We can represent Deeper Segmentation with this slide...

We know that we are dealing with a deeper segment when it can be linked with three profit generators:
A) High level in the Maslow Pyramid (customized for business uses by Chip Conley). When you have your Tourists in the second and third level you can keep your price and you can find more ancillaries products to sell to them because you know what is really important to them. Usually, in simple segmentation leisure, business, Tourist low price orientated, millennials, generation Z… the main factor of differentiation is a low price. In deeper segmentation you only have a segment if they love to define themselves as… if they love to meet other customers similar or complementary to them… if they love to get a customized service!
B) You can create GROUPS both of Tourists and professionals (and future professionals) willing to sell, hire, to know more about them. Do you agree that is better to sell a product/service to a group that a single person? Do you agree that if you are able to seduce an international group to your place (Tourism destination enterprise) your place become a magnet for this segment? In simple segmentation a group (MICE) is a segment. In deeper segmentation you can create a group inside this segment!
C) You can use Long Tail. You can use specialized social networking sites, where you have to pay less or not pay at all, in order to promote or distribute your services. You also can create YOUR OWN Platform! In simple segmentation you have to use generic channels of promotion and distribution, always asking you for a higher commission and for a lower price for THEIR Tourists. In deeper segmentation you can use/create specialized channels!
-Jordi Why is this so important NOW?
Because… have you been seen an increase of competitors and substitute products/service lately (AirBnB, Uber, OYO Rooms…)? Do you think that this trend will increase or decrease? What will you do to remain competitive???
Because… do you believe that the number of people asking for lower prices will decrease or increase. Are you able to provide this price PROFITABLY? If the answer is yes, perfect. Otherwise…
Do you believe that new luxury is to get a customized service, enjoy something tailor made to you?
Do you believe that a trip has transformation power, that during a trip you can become a better person, outcome personal problems, increase your creativity…  increase your networking, get contacts around the world,  increase the bounds inside your family, your business, your StartUp…
In order to remain competitive, you have to add Deeper Segmentation in your toolbox. You need to build international communities based on specialized segments in your own Platforms!
Forget about offer “More for less”; “To provide a Quality/Good service”… Good, More, Quality are SUBJECTIVE terms! Be sure, that you provide a service able to better satisfy their specialized needs!
For that reason, you have to learn Deeper Segmentation, future of Touristology! Because (as a Teacher) I’m only good if you are good! If you will have a promising career in our beloved sector! If you are able to create the new, new disruptive StartUp! If you are the best minds working in the best sector ever!
I love to build Touristology minds!!!!

Digital Nomads: A good example of Deeper Segmentation!

The other day, I shared with my fellow Touristologists this video about Digital Nomads claiming that they were a good example of Deeper Segmentation. 

Do you agree?  

Today, I will try to bring more information about this segment… Here you can see how Tourism Destinations are trying to seduce these Digital Nomads. We can find plenty of information about Thailand, Budapest, Costa Rica…. but let’s enjoy this video from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: 
  

Not only Tourism Destinations… Here we have an interesting example of Cruises from Nomad Cruise 

Apartments offering workspace like nomadx. We can also find sub-segments inside, like this one on this video for  families 

Can we study/analyze/try to improve/detect threats and scams… using OUR favorite frameworks?  

Deeper Segmentation: 

1) Identity Refreshment 2) Groups creation 3) Long Tail Distribution. 

PEST/Strategic Triangle /4P 

Strategic Triangle 

I Love Touristology’s games! What about you?!?!?

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!