DestiCorp 2.0

Sustainability: A Matter of Perception

 

I have "lifted" this fascinating story from GreenTeam Australia's excellent blog, because it is speaks so clearly to the power of perception - a theme that runs through so much of my thinking and speaking.  

The story takes place in Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later: the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes: A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes: The musician played continuously.  Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.  The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour: He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell had sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities. Suppose, for a minute, that this was a story about a place and not a famous musician: 

• what determines beauty and value?
• why travel if have we lost the childlike wonder that would enable us to appreciate the everyday?
• how come the same experience can generate just $32 to the provider in one context and thousands in another?
• how can we possibly live in harmony with nature, if we see it merely as vibrations to be measured and not something sacred to be revered? 

If I had to design a sustainable tourism curriculum from scratch - on a blank piece of paper - I would not start with climate change and carbon emissions; or even how ecological footprints vary and are calculated; or the ROI on alternative energy etc etc. No, I think I would start with the poetry of Wordsworth, Thoreau or Walt Whitman, or to be more contemporary, Drew Dillinger; or the cosmology of Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme. I would  leave my students alone in an old growth forest long enough that the blinkers fell from their eyes and they could begin to see what lay hidden from those determined to do doing over being; I would encourage them to become tortoises rather than hares and ask them to devise rituals that honoured the passing of the seasons.....

Until we are prepared to slow down, stop and drink in the magical tones of Joshua Bell's violin when the music emerges unexpectedly  from the pavement of an underpass on a drizzly November day, we will continue to gallop towards sustainability and it will recede further to the horizon. Until we have switched our perception of earth as lumberyard or ever giving ATM machine to earth as our sacred home that nurtures us; until we have mastered Wonder 101 and can articulate how a place pulses to its own unique beat; until we can feel "her", the rest is pointless... 

In short, what's happening in our world is a collective, planetary change of stories; a change of worldview, that now sees our universe as a complex living system not a sterile, dead machine. The good news is that shift in perception is ocurring all around us (see Paul Hawken speak); and it's time for the tourism community to wake up and do the same. Fortunately, early pioneers of this new worldview are able to use modern technology to spread this message and hasten the big shift. Here's a teaser from a new documentary currently in the making by Mary Evelyn Tucker and Brian Swimme that explains what's really happening

Out of fairness to any readers and followers, this change of story will form the focus of my work and writing from now. Those who want insightful commentary on the way technology is changing the way places are marketed and sold are encouraged to follow the brilliant analysts and observers listed in the blog roll (see right side bar). For my part, I plan to focus on showing how a community such as tourism can adapt to the shift and start to imagine what a new tourism might look like if sufficient participants made the shift too.

On Homecoming and Wayfinding - re-thinking sustainable tourism

It’s rare that I have to turn down the chance to speak because of a date conflict. But on Feb 18^th, I couldn’t be in two places at once. I had to forgo the chance to speak at  TEDX in Whistler because of a previous commitment to speak at the TIDES Conference in Samoa, a mere 15,000 miles away.

I’d never been to the South Pacific before and it turned out to be one place that exceeded even my expectations – my imagination stimulated at a young age by the Rogers and Hammerstein musical of the same name!

Despite having made a living from this phenomenon called “tourism” (as researcher, planner, marketer, educator, strategist and visionary-futurist), I have always experienced a love-hate relationship with it. I have seen mass tourism bring both pleasure and benefit to many, but also change landscapes, carelessly consume precious resources, and destroy cultures ironically in areas that, hitherto,  had lived in a sustainable manner for thousands of years

My personal wake up call occurred concurrently with my 40^th birthday, some twenty years ago, when I attended PATA’s Annual Conference in Bali at the shiny new, purpose-built tourism complex/ghetto at Nusa Dua.  What I experienced there sickened me to the core and I nearly quit working in tourism for good. In a mere 16 years, much of the Bali I had encountered and fallen in love with in 1972 had disappeared. I had been so privileged to experience a sustainable, cohesive, vibrant culture having first stepped on its bounteous shores when there was no electricity on the island (the Balinese enjoyed complete food security, producing enough on the island to meet their needs), when life continued as it had done for thousands of years, when generous acts of hospitality were extended for no thought of gain, when there was no begging, when every act (including the renting of a motorbike) was considered sacred; and where communities met under Banyen trees to the warm light of candles and Tilley lamps and relived the myths and legends through shadow puppet plays and complex dance and story telling. My experience there was profoundly transformative and started a spiritual journey that has lasted a lifetime.

So it was with some trepidation that I set off for Samoa and it was with huge delight that I discovered a place committed to “being itself” while being under enormous pressure to welcome investment and change and attract visitors back to this beautiful island.  I was speaking at a conference designed to attract investment in a tourism “industry” that accounts for some 35% of GDP;  that is the primary source of export revenue; and that had recently been knocked back by the force of a devastating Tsunami.

As it is only for Samoans to determine their future and chose the kind of economy they can grow and sustain, I felt the best thing I could do was instill confidence that Samoans could, with wise choices, sustain their deeply held values and attract a kind of visitor who would align with those values and respect their unique culture and setting. I had been given a great title – Investing in Future Values – that enabled me to show how industrial tourism was based on a set of assumptions that are now being challenged and discarded; and that there is a growing market for authentic experiences of diverse cultures and a desire by visitors to find meaning as well as accrue souvenirs from their travel. I went so far as to suggest that, for many,  a trip to Samoa (which means sacred center) might be likened to that of a prodigal son’s homecoming. 

The essence of my message, is that the industrial model is, just that, a model of reality based on a set of assumptions that are only now being examined and rejected. Within so-called developed societies, there is growing evidence within every aspect of human endeavour that a new paradigm is emerging and western societies have much to learn from those indigenous cultures our industrial system has so often threatened with destruction.  Western society is literally “coming home” and back into a balance with the biosphere that is considered vital by societies we have falsely labeled as less developed. 

Anna Pollock Investing In Future Values

View more presentations from Anna Pollock.

While preparing for this talk, I became captivated and intrigued by the story of Polynesia’s development and their skill in long-distance navigation, a process known as The Art of Wayfinding.  Thousands of years ago, brave navigators and sailors of large canoes, set off into the eastern sunrise to find new lands, sailing vast distances against the prevailing winds with no navigational instruments through a process of dead reckoning. Navigators spent years learning how to read the sky, stars, currents, clouds and behaviour of marine life to determine their position and direction. This “Wayfinding” is not just a skill but a metaphor, a paradigm or mindset that enables a people to navigate their world. One of the most recent and accessible descriptions of the marvels of Polynesian culture takes the form of a chapter of a new book by Wade Davis, called The Wayfinders. Based on the Massey Lectures delivered in Canada last year. Davis describes how the holistic science and art of wayfinding is based on dead reckoning. 

“You only know where you are by knowing precisely where you have been and how you got to where you are. One’s position at any one time is determined solely on the basis of distance and direction travelled since leaving the last known point. You don’t look up at the stars and know where you are, you need to know where you have come from by memorizing from where you have sailed.” And, just as importantly, you need to see your destination clearly in your mind, if you ever wish to find it in an ocean as vast as the Pacific.

In the spirit of wayfinding, let me look back to where I started this post – reminiscing about a place that existed before industrial values triumphed over indigenous ones; and dreaming about a new place where a different kind of tourism activity could occur.  I also mentioned TEDX in Whistler, recent host to the world – is it coincidence or synchrony that the keynote speaker, standing on the podium I was also intended to occupy, was none other than Wade Davis who proposed brilliantly that sustainable tourism should be about visiting and learning from the indigenous peoples of the world! 

If there ever was a time when we need to find our way, to develop a new way of doing tourism, it is now. Such change can only happen when we open up our minds to new and different models of reality – when we change our mindsets, our worldviews, our paradigm. For many this will be a homecoming; for others it will represent a discovery of a new land, but, regardless of which, it is time to shift now and seek new navigators for the journey ahead. Wade’s TEDX presentation is a really good place to start:

Click this link to see Wade's TedX presentation: