Why do we need Touristology?

Listening to the news, reading articles, talking with … in the last years something appears over and over. It seems the “Zeitgeist” of our time! 

Plenty of people talking about Tourism without neither the knowledge nor real management experience in our beloved sector. Doing criticism to Tourism. Talking about new definitions of Tourism just to show their lack of knowledge of it. Presenting problems without proposing a solution. Talking about the necessity to choose between Tourism and other sectors, showing their lack of vision of Tourism as a great generator of powerful synergies with other sectors (culture, commerce, any industry with desire to export…). For that reason, we need Touristology and Touristologists!!!

Touristology is the science that study and provide a framework aimed to show how to travel can improve /transform the professional and personal life of Tourists, while take care of culture and create richness and employment for Tourists Destinations.

Can Tourists go to a Tourism Destination/Enterprise just for relax? Of course! 

But…

1) It is our Touristology’s duty to show to them how a trip can improve their personal and/or professional life.

2) It is our Touristology’s duty to be sure that Tourism Destinations get the more convenient Tourists in order to take care of their culture and heritage and get profitable and sustainable enterprises.

Everybody has the right to travel, of course! But also, Tourism Destinations and Enterprises have the right to protect their profitability, protect their singularity now and for future generations and be sure, their inhabitants enjoy the benefits of having Tourists from around the world.

In order to seduce Tourists, improve their professional and/or personal life and, at the same time , improve the profitability and sustainability of a Tourism Destination /Enterprise, we have to pay attention to an important rule in Touristology…

First specialized, then generic.

Yes, you can be successful focusing on Generic (or mass) Tourism where the most important thing for the Tourists is the price and where economies of scale is the driver for profitability. But usually, big intermediaries will control de chain of value and, as they need as many Tourists as possible, they will send thousands of Tourists at the same time and place. Some people define this as OverTourism. We prefer to define it as #LackOfTouristology. 

- Then, you can apply specialization! Some experts will say.

But, you offer a crowed space of Tourists brought here for big intermediaries that charge big commissions getting almost all the benefits and none of the negative consequences (carrying capacity, unhappy locals, low salaries, low profits…)

What about the other way around! 

First focus on Specialized Tourism where the most important thing for the Tourists is the potential transformation of their personal and/or professional life!!! And where Community building is the driver for profitability. 

- Then, you can try to seduce some generic Tourists! Touristology’s voice is telling to us!

I love Touristology’s games! What about you?

We can represent this idea with this picture based on Robert Frost’s poem…

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

- But Jordi! Why can travelling improve/transform personal and professional life of the Tourists?

- Let’s review some travel's benefits

Before, during and after a trip you can change your perspectives. You can visualize and experiment with locals and other Tourists different ways to feel/live the same situation. You can get an international vision. You can see your reality from other point of view, because you are far away from your usual environment.

Before, during and after a trip you benefit of the natural tendency of human beings to crow together in unknow places, which it is perfect to improve relationships, to create or enforce a team, to start up the foundations of a community… Then, you can use the power of this community in the Platform Economy that we are living nowadays. This community can create groups and to them you can offer customize products and services from any Enterprise and/or any Tourism Destination around the world interested in seducing an international community of specialized Tourists and locals. You can also create, communicate and commercialize international routes for your community. You can also help them to earn a living travelling the world and becoming the most intelligent sensor. IoT? Internet of Tourists!!!

Do you see? Travel can transform/improve personal and professional lives! 

Lives of the Tourists

Lives of enterprises (related or not to Tourism) in the Tourism destination

Lives of the members of Specialized Communities enjoying Hybrid Experiences in any place in the world!

I love my job! I’m a Touristologist builder! Michelangelo has his Sistine Chapel Ceiling; Leonardo has his Giaconda. I have my Touristologists!

Can you feel my energy? It’s the most powerful force of the Universe. It’s the force of a dream burning inside… Touristology’s dream!!!

Hybrid Experiences in Tourism!

The other day, I shared with you this tweet about the world of opportunities for #Touristologists related to The Metaverse idea 

As you know, we like to review the evolution of BOTH the Technology and Business Model (always two hands, remember?) of anything that can have a direct effect on our beloved sector. The evolution of games from consoles to smartphones and then, to Spatial Computing (also called The Metaverse) is easy to connect with the idea of Hybrid Experiences in Tourism. 

Developing Hybrid Experiences, mixing People in the Tourism Destination (Tourists, Locals) AND People (members of their community, co-workers, relatives…)  in the country of origin or any place around the globe, that want to share the experience in different devices or inside a game.

We will visualize a practical example in Solana ecosystem, but first let’s review the evolution of both Technology and Business Model of Blockchain.

Polkadot and Solana are good examples of this evolution.
One of the reasons that makes Polkadot a member of the 3rd generation of Blockchain, is the interoperability between different apps running in different Blockchains (it could be Ethereum or another parachain in Polkadot or…). I mean, that these apps can talk each other. This feature is very important from Touristology’s point of view because will help to provide opportunities and solutions from the beginning to the end of the trip, making possible the integration and synchronization of all the members of the chain of value.

By the way, if you like to get your hands dirty on code using Linus Torvalds motto “Talk is cheap. Show me the code.” You can read AND practice how to set up a local Polkadot node here.
Solana is also a member of the 3rd generation of Blockchain moving from POW and POS to POH that makes the transactions in their blockchain faster (amazingly fast, indeed!)
You can enjoy this tweet (and the video) from a Touristologists really focus on web technologies!!!
Inside Solana, we can see the development of two interesting projects that can help to visualize Hybrid Experiences in Tourism:
1) Star Atlas: A video game, metaverse orientated, offering financial incentives using Blockchain technology.
2) Maps.Me: A mobile app with 140 million users using digital maps to make travel easier and now, offering an interesting loyalty program able to collect points and get and use rewards using Blockchain technology.
Can you imagine a new project mixing the features of these two applications, where Gamers / Tourists can earn money helping Tourism destinations and enterprises to gain profit? Of course, all in a Trustable way using Blockchain. You can learn more about this idea here.

Can you imagine the potential increase in sustainability and profitability for a Tourism Destination or Enterprises?
Can you visualize the synergies between Tourism and plenty of other sectors in the Tourism destination and around the world?
If you find these ideas interesting, you can always talk to any Touristologists. They are the best minds in the best sector ever!
 

 

AI improving Touristology’s tools

As you know, in this OUR blog, we love to share news about new technologies and Tourism. In 2021 we, usually, talk about these three technologies mixed in heaven:
1) Blockchain providing Trustfulness
2) Augmented / Virtual Reality providing Ubiquity (Yes, I know that today is Spatial Computing, Metaverse …) BUT… Ubiquity is our homage to Mark Weiser
3) Artificial Intelligence providing Scalability
Artificial Intelligence can add scalability to plenty of the tools that Touristologists use in his/her working environment: Property Management Systems, Customer Relationships Management, Loyalty Programs…
We saw some ideas about the evolution of Property Management Systems (PMS) in this post. As Touristologists, we clearly see the evolution of PMS from just managing the Property to also manage the chain of value CVMS! If you want to provide services before, during and after a trip, it’s compulsory to make all departments and members of the chain of value work as a single organization. In order to do that you will need software to help you to manage not only your property but also the whole chain of value!

Let’s see a drawing of this PMS’ evolution. Blue boxes are features already implemented in modern PMS. Red ones are proposals from Touristology’s point of view!

Alan Kay said to Steve Jobs “People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.” It seems that Jobs followed his advice! You can paraphrase Alan Kay saying: People (Travel Enterprises /Destinations) who are really serious about profitability and sustainability have to build their own communities in their own platforms and manage all the trip!
Let’s enjoy some videos where we can see the power of AI  providing #Scalability. Customizing #Servuction in Real-Time. Customization based on the mood of the #Tourists and/or what who He/She is travelling with and/or His/Her location/proximity. 

In the PMS build by Modihost

 

Do you see? AI is able to deduce the mood and what who the Tourists is travelling with. This fact awakes two important concerns:
1) Loose of the privacy: Remember customization without privacy is a nightmare!
2) ¿Are human emotions universal? You can read more about this in the excellent article
Well, you can limit these concerns if you apply Edge Computing: FROM silly client / Intelligent server TO Intelligent client / Intelligent server. Mobile phones, IoT.. can do much of the things interesting for the user in the same device. Faster, with less battery use, working even without Internet connection AND above all else... with more PRIVACY!...If your Tourists apply AI in their own device, using their own data…even creating their own models!

Of course, you can also use AI in the cloud…

 

Where you can also apply Transfer Learning in order to customize the model used by detecting images or text to deduce emotions, but, as we always say in OUR classes… Control it is an important topic in your personal and professional life!
As always, if you have any doubt.. You can always ask to any #Touristologists!!! They are the present and the future of our beloved sector!
 
 

Yield Management, dynamic pricing and NFT!

Dynamic pricing has always been an interesting topic in one of our favorites techniques, Touristologists! I am talking about Yield Management, of course!
We can define Yield Management as a set of Strategies and Tactics aiming to achieve two objectives
1) To seduce Tourists to make a reservation “today” that we have a low occupancy.
2) To seduce Tourists to make a reservation when we have a low “booking pace”

As you remember, the motto of Yield Management commands us to offer: The right service, to the right customer, at the right time, through the right channel.. for the right price AND PROFIT (WE, Touristologistly, add in OUR classes)!!!
The right price? Usually, you customize the price based on the demand, the actions of your "compset" (your competitors in Yield Management’s lingo!), the occupancy level... BUT you also can customize the price based on the desires of the customer and the rights that He/She has.
How do you know his/her desires? How do you know if He/She has the rights?
You need to have access to this information in Real-Time. Welcome to stream processing!

You need to be able to get this information for every customer in Real-Time. Welcome to AI providing Scalability.
You need to TRUST this information. Welcome to Blockchain!
In order to achieve this, you can use the flavor of the month...NFT.
We talked about NFT here.
We explained that NFT allows to customize a token (digital money) based on the desires of “this” person (Tourist) and his/her rights.
Let’s put some examples, shall we?
You have a price for a room (or seat in your airline company or restaurant or...) based on forecasted occupancy, size, situation....
Let’s customize it base on the desires and rights of the Tourist.
Example 1: If a Businessmen is at your Hotel and you know that He is missing his son, you can seduce him to stay longer including in the price access to a cinema where are playing the favorite movie of the son or a concert or the presentation of a book in a library near to the Hotel or...the new, new Game combining AR & VR that Tourists can play in the city of the Hotel and other people (members of the same community, relatives, coworkers...) in anyplace around the globe.
What about to play a little bit of Pro-Am and “Help Them to Help You” allowing the son to try to create a GROUP in YOUR platform which will make possible to customize a service. For instance, a short meeting with the Director, the actor/actress, the writer of the movie... the designers of the game, the developers, the product managers, the experts in Artificial Intelligence...This meeting could be part of a seminar of one University. How do you know if the son has the knowledge to participate in it? How do you know the knowledge and experience of the teachers giving the seminar? Blockchain!
Example 2: If one Tourists books the room and ALSO want to have a job interview in order to work in this Hotel OR in any member of the chain of value (OTA, CRS, SnS, Airline company...). You can customize what is included in the price for THIS Tourists paying with THIS NFT!
You can offer specific Up-selling: Healthy food and Beverage in order to be in the best mood and energy for the job interview.
You can offer specific Cross-selling: A course in a near University to improve/get some skills related to the job...)
What about the rights? Thanks to Blockchain we know that He/She has “this” studies and professional experience.
By the way, both examples fit into the definition of OPACITY (Make the price difficult to compare adding IMPORTANT things for THIS Tourist into the price.) 

Not only that, in both examples we can also add another feature of NFT. The possibility of sharing the ownership of an asset. It could be a percentage of the revenues of OUR Tourism enterprise! So, every time that the Tourists makes a reservation or seduce somebody to appear in OUR enterprise, automatically gets a percentage of profits in tokens format.
All trustable, all fast, all in real-time!
I’m sure, that you can provide more examples, future of Touristology! Remember, we only can be sure that we understand any theory if we can provide original examples!
Feel free to add them in the comments below. At the end of the day, this is OUR blog. The blog of the ones who fell in love with the Science of Travel... Touristology!
-    But...Jordi!
Seminars to be a Game developer?
Job interviews to work in my Hotel OR any other member of the chain of value?
I just want to sell rooms!!!
-    Forget about your rooms!
Focus on seduce YOUR Tourists! Listen to your inner Touristology’s voice!
Let’s clarify this once and for all… Your business is NOT selling rooms or F&B… Your business is to satisfy your customer, providing what they need, when they need it, in the way they need it!
Focus on creating synergies between our beloved sector and any sector of your Tourism Destination. Focus on become a Touristologists!!!

I love mixing together Touristology and new Technologies! I love to build the best minds in the best sector ever!!!
 

With effort everything is possible!!!

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!!!

IoT? Internet of TOURISTS!!!

Tourists as sensors in movement!!! 

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! 

Is it possible to transform Tourists in sensors? Yes! You can build digital twins of the Tourists (or Tourists shadows) like Tesla or Apple are doing with their products

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! 

Do you prefer to read?  

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!

I love mixing together Tourism and Web-Engineering! 

I love helping to build the best minds in the best sector ever! 

Touristologists changing the way the world enjoys, manage and define Tourism!!!

From seducing Intermediaries to becoming one!

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!!!