FOMO? JOMO!!!

Touristologists! Do you ever have the feeling of FOMO?
Fear of Missing Out?
Be sure, that you choose right what to miss out!
Forget about the popular post in the most popular Social Networking Site!
Forget about the most cited papers in the academic world!
Forget about people talking about Blockchain only mentioning how to invest in Crypto!
Forget about people talking about AI and explain how to use OTHER people models!
Forget about people talking about the Metaverse and only wish to visit/create OTHER worlds!
You can JOMO this!  Joy of Missing Out!
Joy of keeping your attention in the special’s ones!
The ones that create their own SnS in order to provide whatever a Tourists and his/her international community need Before, During and After the Trip!
The ones that use Blockchain in order to connect, in a trustable way, all the members of the chain of value! The ones increasing privacy only sharing the specific information for each transaction. The ones sharing the profits, in real time, based on the desires and rights of each member of the community. The ones, designing DynamicNFT to customize the Servuction and how to get points and rewards in Loyalty Programs 2.0!
The ones that create their own models of AI based on their own data and verified by their own people!!!
The ones able to visualize how the Metaverse can provide Hybrid Experiences joining together people (Tourists, Inhabitants) HERE/NOW and members of their specialized community Around the World / At any time!!! 

Breaking Space/Time prison!
The ones showing their knowledge about Operations and Processes of Tourism Destinations/Enterprises and how to improve them with New Technologies.

The name of them? Touristologists!!! 

The best minds in the best sector ever!!!

AND…above anything else, FOMO the latest post in OUR blog! The blog of the ones that felt in love with #Touristology!!!

Touristologists…. Definitely…Learn2Code!!!

We love AI!

We enjoy talking about the similarity between how we manage AI and Tourism (basically, using other people’s technologies/Depending on other people’s Tourists VERSUS developing our own technology/Defining and seducing our own specialized segments)
Furthermore, Artificial Intelligence is one of the three technologies mixed in heaven, (Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and Augmented/Virtual Reality) to provide Trustfulness, Scalability and Ubiquity, allowing us to break space/time prison!
You can call it the Metaverse, Internet3D, Spatial Computing, Web254…We don’t care about names. We care about providing profitability and sustainability to Tourism and any other sector related to Servuction (Health, Education, Gaming…)!
Nowadays, that some people (some of them because they want to sell THEIR services, some of them because they want YOU to become dependent! Some of them without any technological idea about AI, some of them…) say that thanks to AI we don’t need to learn to code… AI will code for us!
We, strongly, claim!
Touristologists…. Definitely…Learn2Code!!!
Please, remember Matthew effect! “The Matthew Effect refers to a pattern in which those who begin with advantage accumulate more advantage over time and those who begin with disadvantage become more disadvantaged over time (Dannefer, 1987; O’Rand, 1996). The result is ever-widening differences between the advantaged and disadvantaged.”
AI is an excellent example! The ones able to create their own models using their own data and supervised by their own people, will have an abundance.
The others will create a dependency!
It is time to remember those who said…Don’t’ learn to drive…AI will drive for YOU!
In 2025 “Companies will need to prove the application, safety and ease of use of autonomous systems. If they fail to win over potential users, self-driving cars will remain parked.”
So…Learn to drive to get the control when AI is unable to do it!
In a similar way…Learn to code to get new perspectives, to CREATE the new, new thing!

Even Anthropic, the developer of the conversational AI assistant Claude, doesn’t want prospective new hires using AI assistants in their applications, regardless of whether they’re in Marketing or Engineering.
We are at the beginning of AI getting a little bit of common sense BUT, we will need experts able to create this new AI! And to do that YOU will need to learn to code!
Roger Penrose famously said that human consciousness in non-algorithmic. So, it is not possible to modeled it by a conventional digital computer… maybe using a quantum one?.
Neural Networks can model the conscious side of our mind (of course with limitations. Please, read, Kurt Gödel’s incompleteness theorem and the marvelous book “Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid”. Curiously this book together with “1984” by George Orwell and “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley  have more meaning TODAY than ever!), maybe Quantum Computing can model the subconscious one!
We will also need Psychology! As you know, to me, the best Psychologist of the world is my wife! Then, you can pay attention to Maslow. Then to Chip Conley the first that take the ideas of Maslow and apply them to Hotels and Tourism.
So, we need to try to combine multiple approaches. For that reason, we have to create teams of people from different Sciences! Welcome to the Consilient world!
We like to define ourselves as a Consilient thinkers 

We need more consilient thinkers to advance further in AI development!

Which is the biggest difference between AI and Humans?

So far, AI just COPY.

We are able to CREATE.

BUT…To create we have to code and be sure that AI doesn’t make any mistake…Keep the spirit up!

By the way…Use Neovim!!! It is more than a text editor (thanks to the LSP protocol). It will help you to be closer to machine’s heart and soul!!!

By the way... Above anything else...

Love, passionately, Touristology!!!

Servuction + Yield Management = Profitability

As I said in the previous post, 33 years ago I began to learn and practice our beloved Science… Touristology!
My first company training for a Tourism Enterprise? A 5 start hotel in Barcelona!
The topic? Yield Management!
I didn’t know about this technique/art at this time, luckily the dynamic duo provide me an enlightening introduction to it that I was able to mix together with my knowledge about Marketing, Finance and New Technologies!
It was love at first sight!
As we talked in this post, Yield Management uses almost all the things that awake/arouse my intellectual curiosity.
Can Servuction (the great idea of Pierre Eiglier) be related to Yield Management?
I am, absolutely, sure that you remember that Servuction means the participation of the customer in ALL the 4P’s of Marketing (Product / Price/ Promotion /Place). 

No customer, no service, no Yield to Manage!
BUT… we can go deeper in this connection, as I try to represent in this slide:

If you have the knowledge, skills, attitudes to seduce a specialized segment of Tourists using a customized Servuction. You can also seduce one of them to create GROUPS (as you know, “GROUPS” is another word carved into OUR minds) to get a new service in your enterprise OR IN ANY OTHER ONE related to the trip OR the motivation of travel of YOUR Tourists!
Of course, if this Enterprise…
1) It is willing to customized the Servuction to the desires of your Tourists.
2) It agrees to pay a commission to you.
3) In exchange that you send the Group in a date that they have a low occupancy. THE NAME OF THE GAME? Yield Management!
So, you provide a solution to other enterprises.
You provide customized services to your Tourists
And you get a commission!
Excellent example of the WIN2WIN expression!
We are Touristologists!
We focus on creating, communicating and commercializing high value services, in order to get profitability and sustainability for all the members of the chain of value!
 

I want 33 more! At least!!!

Today, 33 years ago… I began my transformation into a Touristologists builder!
Today, I feel more important than ever to create the best minds for the best sector ever!
In order to be in the fight, at least other 33 years, this is the present that I ask to the Three Wizard Kings.
“Gods, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.”
Serenity, Courage and Wisdom… those are real gifts!
Some people believe that in 2025 I am just an old dog… YES! But still learning new tricks!

Age is not a limitation! My happiness, my passion, my vocation is from within. I’m not immune to external events it is just that I have been in worse places and circumstances and there is an eternal truth: whoever resists wins!
I still want to be a Touristologists! What about you?
I still want to revolutionize our lovely sector! What about you?
I still want to make clear than Touristology is a science! What about you?            

                 THE BEST IS YET TO COME!!!

AI and Tourism! Connecting the dots!

The other day, I enjoy reading an article from one of the fathers of modern Artificial Intelligence.

He loves the evolution of AI! BUT… He, strongly, thinks that we have to improve OUR knowledge!

“today’s AI aren’t going to get us artificial general intelligence… Today’s models are really just predicting the next word in a text.”

I share this vision!

For that reason, I strongly ask to the future of our beloved Science NOT only use AI BUT ALSO learn how to create it!

I express this idea in this way in Twitter (sorry, “Z”?… “Y”?...”W”?... anyway, we don’t care about names!)
“Touristologists!!! Learn2Code. Learn to create your own models, using your own data and verified by your own people!
Enjoy privacy!”
Also, enjoy deeper customization both in Servuction and Yield Management!

Also, use this knowledge to generate new revenue streams!”

I can summarize these ideas in the following way…and connect them with how we could manage AI and our beloved sector!!!

 

I, also, found very interesting this video by Eric Siegel. He claims that Predictive AI It is more important that Generative one

Maybe, we prefer to use Detect AI. The one able to detect different versions of our Tourists and customize the information, what to buy or to sell, with whom to meet, that we recommend to them!

Anyway, we don’t care about names!

Not, when we talk about the Metaverse (this post is a good example)

“…Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Augmented_Virtual Reality. These three technologies are mixed in heaven to provide Scalability, Trustfulness, and Ubiquity  to OUR operations and processes. You can call this set of technologies Metaverse, Internet3D, Web254…But, we don’t care about names! We care about providing profitability and sustainability to our beloved sector!”

Neither, when we talk about Yield Management!

“Differences between Yield and Revenue? We don’t care! We care about providing a solution to the problem of low occupancy, price war and lack of direct reservations!

Why do We have to care about names in Artificial Intelligence ?!?

Generative AI? Predictive AI? Detectable AI?  We don’t care about names! We care about AI providing Scalability in order to improve and customize in Real_Time our #Servuction and #YieldManagement processes.

We care about AI generating 3Dscenes from videos or pictures. 3Dscenes able to appear in virtual reality allowing to share Hybrid Experiences between Tourists and  the members of their commynity around the world!  Breaking Space/Time prison!

We don’t care about names!

Don’t be a definition-provider! Become a problem-solver. Become an opportunity-finder!

Become a Touristologists!!!”

Profits from INSIDE Tourism’s Business models!

Ray Kroc was an innovator and discovered a way to get money OUT of an excellent managed Restaurant!
The restaurants were profitable BUT he visualized a way of making money in an indirect way!
When, a new restaurant was opened in a specific place, the prices of land and buildings around also increase. So, what about I am the owner of these buildings?!?
A good example, of someone thinking out of the box! BUT… This was in 1955!!!
Time to visualize new ways of increasing profitability for Tourism enterprises from inside Tourism’s Business Models!!!
Time to instead of searching for profit OUT of our beloved science… asset management, diversify from Tourism…
Use our Touristology’s knowledge to search for more profit and sustainability from INSIDE travel management!
Use it to avoid Sale&LeaseBack.
Use it to avoid selling your property to people that will manage it as usual (low prices, high commissions to the big intermediaries, low wages for OUR Touristologists, most of the Tourists will be at  the same Place/Time AND not synergies with other sectors of the economy!!!)
Time to stop making money OUTSIDE TOURISM AND increase revenues and profits INSIDE TOURISM!!!!
Time to show respect for OUR university degrees about Tourism!
Time to highlight the knowledge, skills and attitudes of the students we help to become the future of The Science of Travel!

Ready for a case in point?
What about Selina? One of the pioneers in the Digital Nomads segment but, maybe more in the promotion and seduction of investors that in the real Servuction (well known for their parties and an average length of stay of 3 nights). More focus on growth instead of getting profitability from Tourism’s Business Models (control of the chain of value, Hybrid Experiences, International Routes, anything that the Tourists need related to the trip AND their motivation to travel). 

Few months ago, Collective Hospitality (part of Destination Group) acquired most of their assets.
Maybe it is time to use a little bit of Deeper Segmentation, to focus more on PEOPLE that in specific services.
Why do you love to be a Digital Nomad?
With whom do you want to share the experience? Family (small kids, 3-Generation, my Pet is a member of my family, couple…)
With whom do you want to experiment a quantum leap in your professional life? Touristologists loving to work together with Programmers and Video Gamers helping each other to create, communicate and commercialize Hybrid Experiences OR Doctors and Nurses to improve Medical Tourism OR…
As we always love to say…Tourism creating synergies with other sectors!!!

Another one?
We talked about OYO in OUR blog

We talked about Motel6 highlighting its good practices in Marketing (doing marketing research to discover the most important segments, then learning about them, then doing effective publicity (“The Smart Choice”)
Now that OYO bought Motel6 from Blackstone, I hope that OYO increase the profitability of Motel6 learning from its good practices and trying to focus more on specialized segments in order to take the most of the creation of synergies with other sectors of the economy, that we, Touristologistly, like to represent with these graphics...

AND…if they don’t know how to do it…
Don’t ask me!
They have to ask to the best minds in the best sector ever…YOU!!!

OverTourism? Traffic jams? …Lack of Touristology!!!

The other day,  I was reading an interesting article about how OverTourism (That as you , perfectly know, we Touristologistly prefer to call it lack of Touristology!!!) is very similar to traffic jams.
Well, in some aspects, we can agree with this interesting analogy. At the end of the day, both happens as a consequence of Servuction.
To create the service, to create the traffic jams…we need the Tourists/cars right here/ right now!
BUT… which is the main difference?

#Tourism is NOT something that just happens! 
Somebody seduces and bring the #Tourists HERE/NOW
We have to increase the percentage of Tourists which we manage ALL the trip!!!
We have to remember that Specialized Tourists are easier to seduce to appear WHEN and WHERE is more convenient to them, to you and to everybody!!!
Then, you can also create, communicate and commercialize International Routes.
Then, you can do the same with Hybrid Experiences looking for increasing the profitability and sustainability of your Tourism destination!!! 

It recalls me, when some people talk about Yield Management and they only think in managing the existing demand.
When we compare Yield Managers with surfers. We Touristologistly love to say “the most important differences between first class Yields Managers and Surfers is that the former can alter /transform/ influence the wavelength of the wave while surfers (like regular Yield Managers) just adapt to them.”
Not only that! They can also CREATE new waves!!!
Problems with too many Tourist at the same Place/Time?
Forget about traffic jams! Forget about waiting for waves!

Look for Touristologists able to create a manage new waves, able to discover new revenue streams, able to increase the profit!
They are wave managers!
They are Touristologists!!!