Stop making excuses! Complete your transformation!!!

Maybe, you don’t know yet, because you’re still in your cocoon and you are afraid… BUT you are HERE following your guts, feeling down in your heart that you want to become a Touristologists!!!
Some of you, will say - I’m NOT afraid.. I have my reasons
Well, you can call them reasons BUT they seem like excuses to me!
I have a list of those reasons /excuses that I have been collecting during my (near to) 25 years as a Touristologist builder.
1) I don’t give my presentations in English, because I prefer to put that off until I finish my undergraduate, then I will travel and work around the world… OR I don’t give my presentations in English because my teachers’ accent is not perfect!!! Reasons? Excuses? Blaming others? Avoiding Responsibilities?... you name it!
2) I don’t search for internships in “this” tourism enterprise, that I will love to work with,  until I get more free time, or until my University makes a special deal with it, or until I am sure that they want my… what would happen if they reject me? Or if I would annoy them with my phone call??? Reason? Excuses? Blaming others? Avoiding Responsibilities?... you name it!
3) I don’t want to design and create a Data Base, program a portlet, or build a native application or mobile web app... I’m sure that someday I will find a partner or a team willing to do this for me OR I will work for a company that takes care of that! Reasons? Excuses? Blaming others? Avoiding Responsibilities?... you name it!
4) First I will work with local tourism then when I get experience, contacts, attitudes it will be easy to search and attract international tourism.
What do you think… reasons or excuses???
You have to stop making excuses and complete your transformation!
I experience firsthand the same process. It all began when I stopped looking for a web developer and I decided to become one. I had to stop making excuses and believing that it was others people fault. It has been a long process…not ended yet (I guess it won’t ever end!!!).
Do you know when I realized that I was on truck to become a full-stack web developer? It happened, and still happens, every time that I read an article, a post on a blog, a chapter in a book, a speech at a conference, a meeting with others that, like me, felt in love with web-engineering…and somebody (sometimes a genius, sometimes not…) recommend a specific “boilerplate code” and its integration in a specific full-stack (client and server side) environment. A long time ago, I followed carefully all the instructions then, one day, I began to listen to a voice inside me… - Jordi, get other people’s ideas BUT the ““boilerplate code” and its integration in a specific full-stack (client and server side) environment” are, definitely, your call.
Once you experience the power, the confidence, the independence of expressing your own ideas in your own code, there is not return. You know that you will do whatever it takes to have this felling again.
When you experience love… sex becomes secondary.
When you experience spirituality… religion becomes secondary.
When you connect with a human being… her/his culture, religion, gender, political ideas become secondary.
When you began to give your classes, seminars, in-company training sessions or start-up meetings in order to redefine their (OUR?) business model, speaking in a new language… reading, listening, writing it, become secondary.
When you are a thinker of the Business Model for Tourism enterprises or Destinations (from the beginning to the end of the trip, of course!) and the executor (alone or with a team) of the technological scheme… to be the one with just ideas becomes secondary!
I could go on, but I think I've made my point!
My advice, Touristologists?
Stop making excuses! Listen to your heart! If the message is clear and you are giving excuse after excuse, blaming others, in order to avoid taking responsibility…If you are feeling unhappiness because of that… you are protecting your cocoon (the comfort zone, some people call it!). Break the cocoon! Become a Touristologists!
It will be hard (I guarantee this) but worth it (I, also, guarantee this!!!) BUT, above all else… Do you want to know the most important reason? Nothing is worse than dying as a bug when your destiny is to become a beautiful… Touristologists!!!!
You have all the summer ahead! Redeem the time!!!! Make the most of IT!!!

Copyologists versus Touristologists…battling for a science! Part 1

Once upon a time, it was a small country aiming to become a leader in the Tourism field…- We will do things differently around here. We have the opportunity to bring prosperity and wealth creation thanks to the tourism sector - was saying with conviction the man who seemed to be the leader of an impassioned debate.
A Touristologist happens to pass by and hearing the words Tourism and seeing excitement on the faces…  He/She can help and asks to join the conversation.
We want to create a successful resort. The main attraction will be casinos BUT we will offer more than that… shopping experiences, family attractions, big music concerts, congresses.. you name it! At the end of the day, this is working in Macao. So, it is a tested business model. We can’t fail!

Just to put an example, Touristologist -  Said one of the most famous Copyologist around the world -Hard Rock Cafe offered a concert performed by Bruce Springsteen… they get more than 80,000 tourists.
I thought that the days of assessing the success of a Tourism activity based on the number of tourists was dismissed long time ago - say the Touristologist…
Don’t worry, everything will be fine! We get investors, we get companies that bring us the tourists… we will become leaders in Tourism!
What? Others will bring you the tourists? Well, enough is enough -Said the Touristologist…
I don’t doubt that this is a good business model, BUT the problem is that it is THEIR business model. So, as the creators are intelligent and profit orientated people… It doesn’t matter that you get a lot of tourists, neither that you get a lot of revenues… At the end of the day, the creators of the business model will…
1)  keep most of the profit
2) keep the trust of the tourist and the power to decide if they send the tourists here or there
3) have bargaining power to ask for less taxes, special laws, etc
4) and last but, definitely, not least… As you duplicate an existing business model you are buying numbers to become a commodity!
Maybe one day, a first class tourism destination with plenty of people studying Touristology will come up with a better idea!
Better? I mean… original!!! Not just copying business model, but OUR business model, the one which promotes our culture, the one which will create wealth for our small and medium size enterprises (SME), the one which will create quality jobs (not temporary, with real possibilities of promotion, with good salaries…)
The other day, while I was jogging, I was listening to my favorite podcast news related to technology, Tourism, Science… They talked about how nowadays scientists are doing experiments with mice. They apply laser in order to activate stem cells and to grow teeth. They said that it’s a faraway better methodology than just cover the cavity.
Is it related to Touristology, Jordi! Of course it is. As a matter of fact it’s an excellent metaphor (I’m the king of metaphors, remember?) Do you want to be leader in Tourism? Activate your people, your SME, look yourself for the tourist, bring them to here… In other words, activate stem tourism cells!!!
Do you want to become the Copyologists of the year? Copy other people business model, use their tourists, let them bring their tourists here. In other words, just cover the cavity. Not find a real solution BUT a pretend one!
Are we Touristologists or just simple Copyologists?
Are we willing to bring OUR tourists and NOT just waiting for others to bring THEIRS?
Are we the best minds working in the best sector ever? Time to prove it!

Once Upon a Time somebody thought …It is so easy to become a Touristologist!

Once upon a Time, there was a medium-size village dreaming about employment and wealth creation through tourism. They had neighboring villages dealing with generic tourism and they were concerned about threats to their culture and way of life… 

In a restaurant, in the middle of this city, a group of entrepreneurs, established enterprises and public sector were having an impassioned debate about these issues.

“We have to offer sea products, scuba diving activities, sightseeing activities, culture, gastronomy…All this sounds attractive to a tourist, doesn’t it?”

A Touristologist happens to pass by and hearing the words Tourism and seeing excitement on the faces…  He/She can help and asks to join the conversation.

Are you thinking about International and specialized Tourism, of course? - Asked the Touristologist with joy…

Of course, the international tourism that we already have! They are around us, so the only thing that we have to do is to provide something interesting and specialized to them - replied the crew as a single voice.

Ah… sorry - said the Touristologist beginning to yawn- I thought that you really want to be Touristologists.

Wait a moment! What do you mean by that? A tourist is a tourist, right?

No - reply the Touristologists thinking that someday people will take OUR science seriously!

I’m already selling my service to tourist, so I get experience, contacts…

Yes- reply the Touristologist- and you can be very proud of it! But, if you want to create, communicate and commercialize tourism services to international and specialized tourists you will need…

The Touristologist took a napkin and began to write what seem to be timeless rules….

1) To create a meta-enterprise (a kind of travel agency if you want to put a specific name!) able to deal with all the Touristology’s tasks : Finding segments with specific needs around the world, creating customized packages (both with tourism services and motivational ones) for them in order to meet their necessities, building and managing the related chains of value…

Do you think that we can do that? - asked one of them

Are you able to carry out an operation? No, because you are not a surgeon…

Are you able to build a building? No, because you are not an architect…

Are you able to create the next Internet killer-app? No, because you are not a programmer…

Why do you think you can do all the tasks a Touristologists do without the training, the experience, the contacts…?

2) To build the specialized and international chain of value.

Ah… we can use Specialized Touroperators! I have contacts with them - Said one of the attendants with excitement!

A specialized Tour-operator is another good example of oxymoron - replied the Touristologist - As it is a solo entrepreneur or a low price orientated customer that you try to catch using flash sales websites, thinking that after the first visit they will return paying the usual price!

You can still dream about somebody (you can call it tour-operators, the biggest search engine /Social Networking Site or the new group buying and flash sales site….) that brings the tourists to you ... But, the fact of the matter is that they are USUALLY focused on generic tourism and ALWAYS focus on gaining the trust of the customer, willing to transform your product /service into a commodity and keeping  the leadership of the chain of value.

3) To define the technological scheme able to make the previous chains of value work as a single entity, a complex system, indeed… Able to provide support for the tourist from the beginning to the end of the trip!

After write the three rules the Touristologists handed it out  to them, smiled and followed her/his path whistling his/her favorite song…

Touristologist!!! What if we need more advice?

Don’t worry, there are plenty of Touristologists around the world, they’re spreading like a plague into the tourism sector, changing the way we enjoy, manage and define Tourism…

Just find the right one!

Web 3.0 is already here!!!

The other day, I shared this post with my fellow Touristologists:

Why did I Touristologistly say yes???

Because when I read “Businesses can learn what customers like (… they can see what their customers are doing inside the apps they create) and based on that information, they can supply customized offers that are meaningful to a particular customer instead of spraying customers with spam offers that will have little meaning and will likely be ignored.” I thought to myself… this shows a future that is already a present!!!

A few days after this tweet I had to write another one... Microsoft bought Capptain, another company playing the real-time web game. Curious about Capptain? Let’s see a video…

Those examples are so Web 3.0 that I can’t stand it!

Web 3.0? As you know, I believe that there is only one web. All the functionalities that we package as web 2.0 (Ubiquitous of internet, YOU as the start and syndication) or web 3.0 (Integration and Synchronization) were possible to do/enjoy from the beginning of WWW. So, Web 1.0, 2.0, 3.0… (you name it!) are not an evolution of the web BUT an evolution of our use and understanding of it!

Anyway, we can say that the most important features of web 3.0 are Integration and Synchronization…

When I said Integration I mean, integration of all the members of the chain of value and all departments inside these members.

With Synchronization I mean … “No matter which member of the chain of value the tourist talks with before, all the members of the chain of value will know about that conversation and deals (of course, in a customized way and  with total privacy for the customer), making easier service customization, service recovery, happier customers and prosperous business”

In a nutshell… INTEGRATION + SYNCHRONIZATION = Real-Time web!

You can read about Real-Time web from a Touristologist point of view here and here. It is, so easy for a Touristologist to give examples of its utilization in Real-Tourism scenarios, that when I ask my attendees to do so in a class, in-company training or start-up business model redefinition I have to stop them… they create examples faster that I can breathe!!!!

Ready for the first? The customer is looking for a hotel; we know, thanks to the CRM (Customer Relationship Management), that their favorite up-selling feature is the room with the best available view and a late check-out. We also know that He/She is a big fan of… this writer-singer-actress-sportsmen… you name it! That happens to make a public appearance near our hotel. This information appears right away in the mobile application. Spam? No way… Useful information! Great personalization… Good for the customer and good for the business. A win-win solution!

What about a second example? Every year, a bunch of Touristologists is travelling the world both for fun and for international experience. Some of them like to combine both experiences, they travel and when they run out of money OR when they find a nice/prosperous/interesting job they take it, and then they resume the trip. I have to confess… I love this Touristologists!!! When they return they are better professionals and better human beings… Not a surprise, at all, to me…this is the kind of improvement that Tourism provides! 

What if…. when using a mobile app (or native app, you know the difference, right?) looking to book a room, they get a proposal for a job interview in a nearby hotel? Do you think it will be interesting for them? Do you think it can be interesting for any human resource department? Welcome to Web 3.0’s job /talent hunting!!!

Will it be, so difficult to add a little bit of gamification to the process explained above? Of course, not!!!

To finish…Do you want to know another reason why I wrote this tweet? Because, nowadays most of the companies are built with silos / modules, (both departments, and software) that don’t talk to each other, so, as the article say, there are two kind of companies able to afford this kind of integration; big companies with big budgets OR new start ups built up from scratch with its own technology (we can see this interesting video about how uber was able to do that) YES! but only if they have human beings mastering both the business model and the technological scheme. 

Do you know somebody with these characteristics my fellow Touristologists? Put yourself in front of a mirror! Are you willing to do what it takes? If the answer is… YES….

I will be here spreading the news, selling you as the best professionals on earth and developing with you our own pirate ship to seal Touristology’s seas!!!

Don’t use hammers for specialized tourism!!!! Neither for the Technological Scheme… PART 2

Life and Entrepreneurship 5

The other day we talked about this Maslow’s idea “If the only tool you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail!”
As usual, I try to explore any idea applied to Touristology with two hands, one related to the Business Model, the other with the Technological Scheme.  In the post from the other day, we had this timeless scenario… We have the opportunity to create from scratch a tourism enterprise focused on specialized tourism. We know that the most critical action is to select the right team.
We talked about the Business Model hand and some mistakes that I swear to never repeat again.

Let’s go now to explore the possible implications of this great sentence from Maslow in the Technological scheme hand. Shall, We?
Can something similar happen? Or it is assumed that experts in computers, programming, systems administration… have all the same set of abilities and attitudes? Of course not! If you want to create something new, you will need a team of developers able to create the best tool suited for the job!!! If you are not aware you can end up with people to whom….everything looks like a nail.
When you are looking for this developer /programmer, be sure that you are able to distinguish them from a system administrator OR the  I-want-to-be-the-project-Manager- because- my- times- of- coding- were- away- long- time- ago OR the To-Make?-Never!-Always-better-to-buy.
I will share with you some red flags that help me to detect these characters. Remember, you want to create the new, new thing, you need a creator an artist, neither someone able to fix the pipes, nor someone able to ask others what you already know how to ask… You would need someone able to make things running through these pipes!
Red Flag number 1:  Good programmers always carry their computer with them. He/She is an artist which uses programs to express themselves. So, their motto is “NOT without my computer!!!” Some of them just carry a tablet, but only because they have everything they need in the cloud (Do you know about codenvy?). My computer is not a tool I use in my profession…  It is the medium through I express my art!

Red Flag number 2: Good programmers create an environment to develop and stick with it until they don’t have other options and have to upgrade or change it. They don’t like to install, repair… they want to create something!!! Are they good at maintenance? Usually they are, but only for survival Instinct! It is not their goal! If you talk with them and they are talking a lot about how they install the last version and always use the latest one… just remember, there is a great chance that in the middle of the process He/She will ask for upgrades without a good reason… the reason is that She/He gets bored of programming and finds more fun in upgrading or trying the new cloud service (GAE, OpenShift, AWS… you name it!)
Red Flag number 3:  They want you to use the best PMS (Property Management System), Channel Manager, CRM… The best? The one that they already know how to use, of course!
Maslow helps me!!!! As they only know a hammer   (this PMS / CRM/Channel Manager…) all the business model and technological schemes seems a nail (generic tourism selling the usual thing!!!!).
Don’t get me wrong, I love system administrators, project managers and technological architects and they are very valuable to any enterprise and project BUT if you want to create the new, new thing… you need a creator, and artist… a programmer!
Good luck in your search Touristologists!!! Sometimes it seems impossible but in the end passion and perseverance always win…
I have a confession to make. I ALREADY FOUND THEM!
They were always close to me, but I was unable to see them! Now, it is official I will become a Web-Engineers builder too!!!

Don’t use hammers for specialized tourism!!!! Nor for the Business Model… PART 1

Life and Entrepreneurship 4

Sometimes, I have the opportunity to begin a company from scratch, either by myself or for somebody that hire me as a consultant. It’s always a great adventure… BUT with all blessings came greater responsibilities and possibilities of pitfalls… one of the biggest threats it is related to setting up the right team for the endeavor that we have ahead. Here is what I have learnt after a few scars in my professional life!

“If the only tool you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail!” It’s a famous sentence from, arguably, the father of modern psychology, Abraham Maslow. As you know, He was the first psychologist bold enough to say… Psychology is both for making ill people normal AND normal people extraordinary. No wonder Chip Conley build up his success in JDV hotels based on Maslow. He even wrote a book about how to apply Maslow’s ideas in modern organizations.

This metaphor of the hammer (I love metaphors, remember?) Reminds me some of my older mistakes trying to create an enterprise for specialized tourism and hiring people trained only in generic tourism… To them….everything looks like a nail!

What on earth do you mean with everything looks like a nail, Jordi???

Take it easy Touristologists, I will try to explain in this post what I mean related to the Business Model and in the following one what I mean related to the technological scheme. Always two hands, remember???

When you are looking for a team to create a specialized tourism enterprise, take into consideration that they have to detect several specialized segments, then create new product and the consequent servuction in order to satisfy the specific necessities of each segment, then  they have to use /build/manage the chain of value members. 
Don’t make the mistake of hiring somebody that only knows how to use a hammer…

You would say… let’s find new segments in different countries of origin, let’s personalized our service and find complementary services to offer to them. Then find meeting places or better still, create your own or integrate the meeting place into your project (as Chip Conley did when He created a hotel for musicians and involved  the Rollling Stone magazine as investors!!!. You can read more about that, here…), then find specialized outgoing travel agencies (as snow.com did when they want to attract people focus on skiing, more about that here) , then let’s define the servuction process from the beginning to the end of the trip…

You need a Touristologists to do all that, otherwise… they will use their hammer…

BAM!!! There are only two segments Jordi… Business and Leisure! BAM!!!

BAM!!! Specialized service? Of course, Jordi… Good mattress, good food and beverage and a nice meeting place! BAM!!!

BAM!!! Do I take care of my distribution channels? Of course, Jordi… the biggest Touroperator, the powerful OTA , the biggest Search Engine  and the most famous social networking site… BAM!!!

What is the biggest difference between a Touristologists and someone else? Well, this is an easy one… Touristologists are able to develop great careers both in generic and specialized tourism… the rest well… I think that they don’t even see any difference… a tourist is a tourist right?

Forget about Dr. Frankenstein’s segmentation, Touristologists!

I go to a seminar, an in-company training or start-up meeting in order to define (or redefine!) their (OUR???) business model. I introduce to them the usual generic versus specialized tourism scenarios...

You can follow Gauss’ bell and choose the segments with more potential customers (Leisure and Business), but remember this segments are strongly focused on low price, so the one who achieve economy of scale will win...

Or you can follow Long tail theory and focus on small segments with specific necessities, then customize your service and build/create and manage their chain of value…

This approach can be profitable but, there are two important things to remember however!

1) The world is the market! So, even though you have a small number of potential customers of this segment near to you (your hotel, restaurant, tourism destination…) you can get a fair number if you think about a global market (50 from Holland, 150 from USA, 100 from Korea…). Apart from that, if you are able to attract international tourism… then your place will be the place to go to get international contacts, different perspectives…. Good location? We decide what a good location is, remember?

2) You have to build up the chain of value.

This chain of value  begins with meeting places. I mean, specialized Social Networking Sites, Magazines, TV programs, Clubs, Universities …

Do you remember all the study cases that I explain to you about using RFID, a community and a mobile app to attract people who love skiing OR the successful story of Wyndham with Business Women, OR  Chip Conley and JDVhotels with a hotel for musicians…?

But Jordi - Asks the usual attendant who feels something like “ I see that this is important to you BUT, I don’t see why it is important to me!”- I was thinking about segments that don’t have this kind of meeting places. I want to create a boutique hotel life-style orientated!

I see -I reply feeling Touristology’s voice talking through myself…. This is an example of Dr. Frankenstein’s segmentation… you describe segments that are the fruit of a laboratory experiment….

Let me guess, are you thinking about…

Millennials OR Hipsters OR DINKY (Dual Income, No Kids Yet) OR BOBOS (“bourgeois bohemians”) OR…

They are all, good examples of Dr. Frankenstein’s segmentation. Segments created in a laboratory. Segments without life, unable to develop, to growth, to mix together… They are segments if we are thinking as a Sociologist does BUT, we are Touristologists. We need people that will love to meet each other in order to create groups, we need people who meet in specialized places (Social Networking Sites, Magazines, TV programs, Clubs, Universities…) We need people that define themselves as…, feel proud of being a…, and like to find others like them…In this way, we can transform a Hotel a Restaurant a Tourism destination into a magnet for this community! No community… no profitable specialized tourism, Touristologists!

Do you, seriously, think that Millennials, Hipsters , DINKY, BOBOS, … you name it! Identified themselves as… are proud of go to a place that treat them as…Do you think that they can be users of MeetUp, that they will create a group using this group creator website? What? You don’t know about MeetUp… time to solve this…

I don’t say that you can’t study reality/societies with this Dr. Frankenstein’s segmentation BUT we are NOT Sociologists! We are Touristologists! Our aim is to transform any Hotel, Restaurant or Tourism destination into a magnet. To achieve this we need to create and manage a chain of value which begins with MEETING PLACES. No specialized meeting places… no specialized segment.

We 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!

My advice? Forget about Dr. Frankenstein’s segmentation! Focus on real specialized tourism, the ones with a Chain of Value! Do you remember the examples that we studied here related to architects, or this other one related to Game Developers?

Make up your mind Touristologist! You can mix the two approaches, both generic and specialized BUT, remember if , at the end of the day, price is the most important driver… then is not specialized! If you want to, at least partially, focus on specialized tourism, then be sure to forget about Dr. Frankenstein’s segmentation and find real examples of specialized tourism, then if you want to share them with your fellow Touristologists, it will be my honor and privilege to use this OUR blog, to share OUR examples of Touristology’s segmentation!!!