DestiCorp 2.0

A Tale of Two Men and Two Canadas

Indirectly and directly Lester B Pearson, Prime Minister of Canada (1963-1968) saved many American lives and put this country on the international map. During the depths of the Vietnam war, it was customary for some American backpackers to sew the new Canadian Maple`flag (which Pearson introduced) on their backpacks to avoid being recognized as Americans.  Pearson also introduced universal health care, student loans, the Canada Pension Plan and helped raise Canada's status as a country and sustain its reputation as a peace keeper concerned about the developing world. 

How things change. Now many countries in the Commonwealth wish Canada to leave and the green backpackers are likely removing the maple leaf from their packs. Our international reputation and appeal as a country is in quick descent as evidenced in the Guardian article here and a few concerned citizens have assumed responsibility for presenting Canada's  brand to the world - see previous post on Reputation.

Increasingly Canada' s pristine image of wilderness stretching inifinitely into the horizon is being tarnished by scarred images of black, bitumen encrusted deserts. as described by John Vidal in this four minute video here: 

 

 

  

While Harper's policies were in alignment with the Bush administration - the world is literally and metaphorically a lumberyard to be exploited - the new US administration are expressing a different view (even if they are constrained by a conflicted Congress) and even China is shifting its position..

But this is not just a tale of two men but two countries. While Harper and the national government are dragging their feet on issues like climate change, Canadian leaders at the community level (across provinces, in cities and on First Nations lands) are actively stewarding the land and acting responsibly. While men in suits prevaricate in cities, hoards of caring individuals with varying levels of political status are showing they care about the land and are protecting Canada's vast forests as best they can as described in another article here. There are plenty of reasons to be both proud and stand on guard for Canada.

  

Canada's boreal forest - all 1.3 billion acres of it - stores the equivalent of 27 years' worth of current global greenhouse emissions, soaking up 22% of the total carbon stored on the earth's land surface. If that dries out, the release of greenhouse gases would be catastrophic. 

So given that we Canadians may have lost any right to tell the world what to do and how to behave (and appear to have little appetite to do that anyway), we can focus on conserving the precious green resources that provide the scenic backdrop to every tourist photo, provide succour to many of our iconic critters (beaver, moose and bear), soak up our carbon and provide the clean air we breathe. This is no longer a philanthropic action on the part of the tourism community but vital to its long term survival and credibility. Regardless of whether you believe climate change is occurring or even caused by human activity, simple housekeeping logic suggests that failure to take care of the food in the larder avoids hunger or sickness.

Escaping the Commoditization Trap - intro

In a resource constrained world, tourism, like all sectors, will have to deliver an honest return on the use of precious resources i.e., pay the true and total cost of its operations. 

 In the long run, cheap travel cheapens everything. The supplier sees his already thin margins evaporate and has to slash costs, standardize, homogenize and automate. Travelers’ experiences deteriorate and the host community ends up picking the tab – to cover increased costs of handling waste, congestion, economic and social dislocation (see earlier post on the new Death in Venice). 

Cheap travel is neither good business (prone to boom and bust and dependent on volume growth) nor sustainable.

If a destination is talking about being sustainable, it has to escape the commoditization trap. Here are three ways out of this nightmare – to start: 

1. stage experiences unique to a place and time; 

2. engage and enable customers to personalise their own experiences in meaningful ways; and 

3. enable the customer to have a transformative experience – ie, experience an inner change of perspective, being or value. 

The rest of this essay describes these three antidotes in more detail - read on here to learn about how places as far apart as Lapland, Canada, and Nevada are using experiences to avoid the gravitational pull of "commoditization" through experience design and innovation. Readers - please add more case studies to this discussion. A sustainable tourism depends on your efforts!

PhocusWright Innovation Adds Value to an already highly valuable event

Just back from Phocuswright's three day conference - worth every penny! Congratulations Philip and all the Phocuswright team not just for attracting a brilliant cross section of the travel & technology community; creating an incredibly rich program; superb organization but also for a really USEFUL innovation.

The decision to make online participation available for those who couldn't make the trek to Orlando was brave - so many traditionalists think that online meetings will diminish or cannibalize markets. 132 people participated this way from all parts of the world. I believe it just increased exposure and increased the appetite for the real thing. The very fact that it was a sell out in very difficult economic times further attests to the value associated with attendance. 

Live streaming the event was expensive but was of HUGE benefit to the participants. All major sessions were available in real time during the conference and will be available for review for the next 60 days. There was so much content to absorb and this innovation allows everyone the chance to review a second time and, more importantly, REFLECT on what was said; see linkages and connections that would not have been immediately apparent at the time; and share this knowledge with peers. Knowing that the live presentations are now "in the cloud" relieved the anxiety associated with many events when you want to chat with a colleague but also don't want to miss hearing the speaker...

Through use of event specific hashtags, real time commentary was enabled and can be aggregated to get a birds eye view of the content. Here's one participants experience before and during....

It'll take me a few weeks to complete that process of review and reflection and I will share what I think are the strategic implications over the days ahead. In the meantime, the travel bloggers at TNOOZ will be able to provide a faster review of specific technologies and useful insights on how to implement..

Finally, just to show I had a great time, here's a picture of me, Patrick Payne, CEO of QuickMobile, who created a brilliant i-phone application for the event; and Leslie Anne Palamar of Building Tourism Excellence who's organizing Canada's next e-connect event in Montreal in January. 

Picture courtesy and copyright of Phocuswright - see their stream on Flickr.

Reputation, Reputation, Reputation

It was the Monty Python crew that encouraged us to “always look on the bright side of life” and, in keeping with that thought, a clever group of people have created an alternative marketing campaign for Canada. Calling themselves “nature ambassadors”, they have created the Canadian Tourism Federation and launched a campaign to attract people to a warmer Canada.

Their low cost but effective video is worth a view:

Canadian Tourism Federation Welcome Video from Canadian Tourism Federation on Vimeo.

While I am sure my former colleagues at the CTC might be horrified, I say "well done!" It’s another effective wake up call that should speak to the tourism community on a number of levels.

Their campaign confirms the following points that I make in my presentations:

a. the DMO does not control the brand as much as it might think;

b. using today’s cheaply available tools, anyone and everyone can be a destination marketer and have influence; and 

c. Reputation matters more than marketing.

Right now Canada’s international reputation as a responsible, caring member of the tourism community is in rapid decline.  Leaders like Lester Pearson are probably turning in their graves.  In this post on the blog of The Icarus Foundation, we show Canada slipping to bottom of the carbon reduction league tables within the G8; over on the Agents of Change blog, there’s an excellent interview by pollster Allan Gregg with Sir Nicholas Stern. After spending 20 minutes providing a highly lucid description of the core issues, Stern concludes with a diplomatic but firm assessment of the perils facing Canada if this country’s political leaders do not shift their position.

Any country that dares to claim it is green and clean or sustainable is now vulnerable to exposure by consumers, NGOs and enforcement agencies determined to “get to the truth”. Declaring yourself sustainable – simply because you want to be – is a sure fire recipe for marketing suicide.

The 100% Pure brand, which has worked so effectively for New Zealand, now requires that the country live up to its claims. Apparent failure to do so, leads to some pretty negative publicity. See the Guardian exposure article here.

In a globally connected world, marketing is no longer about spinning a message and pushing it through channels but about being perceived as attractive. The best way to do that is to be attractive to the groups you wish to attract. Tourism has always been developed by a fringe group of early adopters – the adventurers/travelers who discover what’s new, exotic, hot and worth travelling to see. This same group – who wield enormous influence – are now telling us what to avoid.

In an analogue world of stuff, the maxim Location, Location, Location applied. In a digitized, connected and transparent world, that maxim has been replaced with Reputation, Reputation, Reputation.

Destinations – if you really want to succeed, show you care!

Down Memory Lane - and so proudly

"It’s a small and connected world". How easily those words fall from our mouths. It takes a day like Friday November 12th to bring that truth home. 

On Friday I was in Kelowna speaking to the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association (TOTA) – a beautiful part of British Columbia where I started the Canadian portion of my tourism career in the mid 1970s. On the very same day, some 4 hours earlier, two young men had proudly carried the Olympic torch through their tiny community – Hopedale, in northern Labrador – several thousands of miles to the east and sitting on the very edge of Canada. 

Hopedale is a  community that had been home for me as a 17-year old in 1967 (yes, really!) when I spent a year as a young English woman, volunteering as teacher of Grades 3 and 4. Hopedale is where I experienced true, selfless hospitality for the first time. 

So when I look at the official photo of Boas Mitsuk and Tyler Edmonds,  I have to wonder whose parents raised these young men and whether they were in my class – some 43 years ago!  

Hopedale Labrador was my first exposure to Canada – a country that I moved to seven years later when I met a Canadian in New Zealand (as you do!). 

Here's a photo stream with just a few images of my time in Hopedale - while it is likely that most of the elders may have passed on, many of the "children"  depicted here are now leaders in their community. With the help of people at the  Gros Morne Institite for Sustainable Tourism,  Destination Labrador, and Stepping Stones, they are delivering highly authentic experiences to new visitors. Sadly I had lost contact with my former friends and students in Hopedale  - so November 12th marks the beginning of a journey back to a place that  treated me as a daughter and that shaped me as a person. 

On the same day (the 14th day of the Olympic Torch relay), the Olympic torch was carried  to L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site of Canada, where a much earlier encounter between Vikings (now Norwegians) and the indigenous peoples likely took place. So it’s not surprising that my work has, more recently, enabled me to get to know and serve the lovely people of Norway through working with BIT Reiseliv and the Lilliehammer Kinnskapspark.

So in one day, three threads connected and re-freshed aspects of myself and my experience: Labrador, Norway and British Columbia. 

Life is very rich indeed…..

Venetians to Mourn Death of their City

On November 14th, the remaining residents of venice will throw a red casket into the waters surrounding their city to mourn a new version of its death - not from the plague (the one caused by microbes), nor from the threat of rising tides and sinking foundations; but from another invasion - tourists! See Newsweek article and short video. 

According to Newsweek, the "indigenous" population of this ancient city has dwindled below 60,000 and is projected to disappear completely if trends continue - driven out by high property prices, congestion and diminishing services. Even the tourism sector is suffering from their own success as the high prices associated with Venice have encouraged visitors to switch from overnight stays to day trips.

Organizers of the symbolic funeral are hoping it will represent a tipping point, a bottoming out of a sad decline that will lead to a rejuvenation of their city. A tourist destination is not the scenery or the architecture but a living, breathing community - they can become as extinct as polar bears and, in this case, their demise, is our responsibility.  

We can only hope another renaissance is possible - especially given all the talk going on at the WTM this week about "responsible travel", "the rights of travelers", and a vision that anticipates some 9 billion international travelers all potentially wanting cheap access to the world's treasures (see previous post). This sad event on November 14th reminds it's time to let go of the illusion that we can have it all. 

postscript November 16th: Al Jazeera's video report on the event - mentioning that DNA tests were taken of Venetians to record their profile - in case they become extinct. 

WTM Celebrates 30 years - video designed to encourage reflection

Thank you Dimitrios Buhalis for posting this video on Facebook. It's an 8 minute overview of the growth, evolution and potential future of what has to be the world's most global and pervasive economic and social phenomenon.Designed to inspire the 5000 exhibitors at the World Travel Market and the hundreds of thousands of visitors, who walk the trade hall floors,  to think reflectively about the future, it provides plenty of food for thought! It will be discussed at the Tourism 2030 event at WTM on 12th Nov - see here

Will Whitehorn, whose company Virgin Galactic aspires to move people carbon free, outside the earth's atmosphere, urged hotels to "become much more efficient through the use of solar, wind, waste and water power in order to live with the risk of expensive oil while dealing with a public that demands better, cheaper ecotourism".

While there were several heartening references to the need for responsibility, there appeared to be an implicit assumption that "industry" must also cater to what the public wants i.e. more, better, cheaper ecotourism...The Secretary General of the UNWTO, Taleb Rifai confirmed this by saying that "travel has become a human right, like the right to breath, the right to speak and the right to think" almost implying that any attempt to curb this appetite would be an infringement of those rights. 

Mr Rifai concludes with a bold and "optimistic" vision - "very soon, there will not be a single human being on ths universe who will not cross an international border as a tourist or as a businessman. This tremendous power of people moving all over the world is what is going to shape our industry and impact the world". 

You betcha... 9 billion people crossing an international border at least once a year equals a 10-fold increase in tourist arrivals...just as well they'll be flying in space. Now what kind of fuel will be used to defy the gravity sufficiently to lift off 9 billion souls eager to keep exploring? 

I'd like to think travel was a right but I think  its secondary to and dependent on the right to clean water, sufficient food to grow healthy bones, and a roof over one's head. So if Mr. Rifai's vision were to be realised, we've got much responsible work to do. 

Having spent my entire life serving this phenomenon we call tourism, I happen to really care about the future of the many dedicated and bright people engaged in it. But there won't be a future unless much higher standards of self-honesty and realism are applied. It's time to focus energy on creating a vision of a better , less harmful tourism and jettison ideas that we can continue with "business as usual." International tourism is a privilege NOT a right. It can bring benefits but incurs huge environmental and social cost - just ask the Venetians. Responsible tourism or Sustainable tourism will never fly unless both sides of the equation are recognized from the outset and we stop applying a woolly-headed, polyannnish, false optimism and got deadly serious about transformation.

This DMO Gets It!

If survival is all about getting the new paradigm - attracting not promoting; peer2peer invitations; and a focus on the personal, then Stratford, Ontario is doing fine. Thanks to Todd Lucier's post on What makes a Successful DMO?, I discovered how this town is getting it right. Three key points emerged for me: 

• Focus - Cathys Rehburg from the Stratford Tourism Alliance talks about the essence of the experience focusing on character, culture and cuisine.
• People - just look at the Stratford site - it oozes welcome because it's clearly about people inviting people. 

3. Todd's observation -  "At the core, a shared community vision about the values in a community are at the heart of any shared marketing project.....By bringing together traditional and non-traditional partners in tourism, and getting the word out with a variety of online media, the entire community benefits."

This DMO "get's it", don't you think? Thanks Todd for drawing our attention to this. 

Will DMOs* survive the next decade?

I was recently asked to write a paper on the likely changing role of DMOs. Having spent my entire career working with this institution in various parts of the globe, and intending to do so going forward, I’ve a keen interest in an accurate answer. 

This afternoon, two blog posts from very reputable sources caught my attention: 

Douglas Quimby from Phocuswright wrote a post titled Destinations: The Online Marketing Disconnect, justifiably bemoaning the fact that DMOs seem so unwilling to move significant chunks of their marketing budgets into the online space. I don’t know Douglas personally, but hope to meet up with him at the PhocusWright Conference in Florida mid November. I imagine him to be a bright, talented Gen X or Yer who ”gets it” i.e finds it impossible to imagine how destinations couldn’t see the obvious benefits of playing aggressively in the online space. 

The commentators to his post are each highly credentialed to speak and deplored the lack of appropriate measuring tools, lack of expertise and education. I suggested that the real problem is “culture” and to see why, please follow the thread…here.  As further evidence of the challenge, I’d  also recommend you read the last blog post from Vicky at Highland Business Research:  It Shouldn’t be This Difficult.   In this post, I can hear the frustrated anguish of someone who is incredibly talented and productive appear to hit a wall or be pushing a boulder up hill. I’m hoping it was her last blog post because she is sunning herself on a beach and has not given up the DMO community for good. 

The second very different post was from a DMO executive – one of the leading lights in social media (and, don’t get me wrong, there are many very talented people in DMOs pushing the edge of the envelope- see my blog roll as a starter. Troy from Denver was writing for the new e-marketing and travel site called, Toonz.com that should be bookmarked quickly by anyone in travel marketing. His post was called How The Industry Will Save the World – so you can see why it got my attention!!

Troy has a brilliant reputation for applying social media to marketing destinations.  So this was quite a step away from his normal territory. Having identified that climate change is an important issue, he appears to be applying travel marketers’ normal and contagious enthusiasm and proposes:  

The time has arrived to lend our voice to the congregation and become a part of the solution.  The travel industry…utilizing technology…can help lead the way.

Well I really hope so. And I welcome Troy and his highly talented e-marketing peers to join the conversation – quickly. But I doubt that the travel industry will save the world – if it’s at all fortunate, it might just save itself. But only if the DMOs recognize and own up to the fact that they are a major part of the problem. The transport cost of most international tourists constitute the bulk of carbon emissions. No one currently takes responsibility for that.  Tourism has to change if it is to make a positive contribution to a very different economy that is emerging from the melting rubble of the old. 

Take my word for it. There are no quick fixes. The current leadership of the tourism “industry” has first to shift its perception and see tourism as the analogue extension of the IT community – both simply connect people and places. They need to work together and fast to find a way of enabling the act of travel to coexist with the act of communication. Both have to find a way of delivering value without living beyond the physical means of the environment to support it. 

In summary – there are two major forces threatening and re-shaping DMOs: 

1. The need to deploy technology effectively or get out of the way; and 

2. The need to ensure destinations can live within the physical limits set by the host environment. 

DMOs could play a positive role in each endeavour but it will mean seeing things differently (a mindset shift); doing things differently ( a culture shift) and doing different things – a role change. Nothing serious – but certainly NOT “business as usual!!!”

To quote Troy – let the conversation continue but PLEASE may it soon lead to action. A good place to start is to join and support The Icarus Foundation, formed some 3 years ago to encourage the tourism industry to become more climate friendly. 

But  now we've started a conversation: what do think DMOs have to do to survive the next decade?

* DMO is the acronym used to describe Destination Marketing Organizations (responsible for attracting visitors to a place).

Might Tweeting Be Bad For Our Health and Happiness?

What Would You Write on This Pack as a Health Warning? 

I confess that, even though I speak on the subject of "social media", I remain to be convinced about its efficacy as a way for building and sustaining real, authentic and meaningful relationships between companies and their customers. 

Yes,  I've an open mind and understand that we're in a transitionary period in which the conversational tools emerging on the backbone of the Net are also evolving and it's an exciting place to watch. 

And yes, I recognize that I might just be heading towards the Trough of Disillusionment a phase identified by Gartner as part of the Innovation Cycle when there's a negative backlash towards technologies and trends that have been overhyped. 

1. The invasion of personal space by corporate interests.   Even the creators of many of these tools, whose original objective was to encourage interaction and build community, now lament their becoming just another set of distribution tools. For more….

2. The dilution of language and meaning – a "friend" would expect a degree of personal response that few brands can yet provide. The friendship is one way – signing on as a friend or follower is a declaration of interest by the buyer not the seller although the data associated with the buyer’s declaration of friendships is where the real money lies.  For more …

3. An obsession with numbers – and of quantity over quality of conversation. I understand the theory behind “return on influence” and like the fact that perfectly ordinary consumers can rise to positions of influence thanks to their hard work, diligence and integrity but when I see the amount of precious time some individuals are spending on increasing their ratings and keeping up with the buzz rather than really thrinking and reflecting, I am doubtful of the efficacy. For more…

4. The loss of perspective - failing to hear the song for the twits a.k.a failing to see the wood for the trees. The real promise of social media is its potential to democratize everything . In destinations, it means that everyone can become an intermediary and potentially do the work in a more personal way than the “official” marketing agency. That means new roles and responsibilities – real transformation but I have yet to see much evidence of this; and neither does Phocuswright….For more…..