Download - Thriving Through Uncertainty - the role of indigenous community in building a better tourism
Thriving Beyond UncertaintyThe role of the indigenous community in building a better tourism
Presented at
The International Tourism Aboriginal Tourism Conference
Anna Pollock, Founder, Conscious Travel April, 2014
My Purpose Today
My personal challengeWhy better?How might we make the shift from more
to better?Why should indigenous communities
take the lead?
Nature offers the perfect metaphor
Remember: without caterpillars there would be no butterflies!
This Has Happened BeforeExcept for
SOME MAJOR DIFFERENCES!
Source: HUMANITY 4.0 by Michelle Holliday, Slideshare
Connections
Source: https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=469716398919
Connections: Airline routes
Source: www.lx97.com
Why Us – Why Tourism?
• Tourism is the biggest connecting agent on the planet
• Tourism connects hearts and minds
• Equally important as digital connectivity and social media
• Enables new ways of seeing
• Results in Transformation not just Transactions
You never change things by fighting existing reality
To change something, build a new model that
makes the existing model
obsolete.14
Buckminster Fuller
The Old Promise
The Present Reality• No straight lines in
nature• In nature, nothing
grows indefinitely• Reality = volatility• The current model
produces diminishing returns for the majority
• Wealth is increasingly concentrated
• Growth = congestion• = Lower consumer
satisfaction• Turned experiences
into commodities
So What Does Better Look Like?• Higher net benefit to the entire community,
sustained over time
• Higher margins for the host sustained over time
• Higher ROI for investors
• Happy, engaged employees enjoying sustained livelihoods
• Healthy environment & cultures
• Happy guests who rave, refer and return
When you want to build a ship, you don’t start
collecting wood, cutting planks and distributing work, but waken in the
heart of people, a longing for the
great and endless sea.
Antoine St Expury 18
How Do We Build a Better Model?
And change the way we “see”
"The tree which moves some to tears of joy is, in the eyes of others, only a green thing which stands
in the way,Some see Nature all
ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see
Nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination,
Nature is Imagination itself.
As a man is, so he sees."William Blake
Change the way we see
Identity – Who am I?
Why am I here? Values, beliefs, Assumptions,
Personalityexperience
FiltersWhat do I see?
How do I respond?
ActionWhat do I do?
How do I behave
To do better tourism, you can’t avoid the metaphysics!!
Even Deloitte & Touche Agrees!
So, how Do YOU Perceive This Floating Sphere?
Real Estate?
Spaceship Earth ?
Living Organism?
Our Mother?
The Journey
Old Seeing
Old StoryOld
Times
New SeeingNew StoryNew Times
The Old Story• Universe is like a dead
machine, • parts we can label, analyse,
link, put into boxes• Because they are separate• Universe is hostile, stuff is
scarce• Must Compete• Money, gains to be hoarded• Replaced the sacred,
mysterious with “Nothing but”
25
The New (?) Story• Universe is alive • It’s a dynamic, self
organising system• Interconnected• System is greater than sum
of parts• Relationships • Collaboration & cooperation• Universe is intelligent &
creates abundance
26
The Old Tourism Practice
27
Tourism is not an IndustryIt’s an Ecosystem
28
What might a better tourism look like?
29
PURPOSE
PURPOSE
What’s the Point?
30
Profit followsPassionatePursuit of Purpose!
PURPOSE
31
Look to NatureNature doesn’t grow, she
thrivesWhat does thriving look like?
• Vigor, vitality, aliveness
• Diverse, co-existing, interdependent forms
• No waste• Convergent – whole
personality• Order, complexity
emerge• Resilient and
adaptable
PURPOSE
NATURE’S VALUES
• Respect • Reciprocity• Kinship• Reverence• Empathy• Love
32
33
When we recognize the virtues, the talent, the beauty of Mother Earth, something is
born in us, some kind of connection—love is born. We want to be connected. That is the meaning of love, to be at one.... You would
do anything for the benefit of the Earth, and the Earth will do anything for your well-
being.
The real purpose of tourism
To have them fall in love again with life
To move our guests from numbness to aliveness
from indifference to empathy
34
To have our guests experience wonder
can “read the love letters sent by the wind and the rain, the snow and the
moon”
Our Purpose – to help our guests fall in love with life and Mother Earth and so
that they too
35
PEOPLE
PURPOSE
THE ENCOUNTER!
• Guest meets Host
• Involves all senses
• Affects the whole person – body, mind, heart and soul
• Engaged, passionate hosts creating happy, transformed guests
• Authentic to the place
• FIRST HOST
PEOPLE
36
• Both parties must flourish and thrive
• Flourishing is more than a transaction – it occurs when:
• Happy, fulfilled guests• Refer others• Return• Rave
• Happy fulfilled hosts enthusiastically encourage & enable their guest to explore more, stay longer, value more and care more
Great Encounters!
37
The Encounter is CRITICAL!What factors influence choice of hotel?
38
PURPOSE
Places are NOT commodities
• Each has its own unique essence or spirit
• Unique mix of geography, history, people
• Can’t be outsourced
• Places are COMMUNITIES
• Celebrate Revere
PEOPLE
PLACE
PLACE
39
40
Place Shapes Personal Identity
You cannot know who you are until you know where you are Wendell Berry
41
We are being called to become indigenous once again—to become living and contributing expressions of a particular place.
Bill Reed
Send your guests home with a desire to become “indigenous”
Maybe start at home with your fellow residents
PURPOSE
• SLOW down
• Focus on the small things
• LOCAL
• Experience don’t do
• Learn to observe
• Learn to BE in nature – listening, feeling
PEOPLE
PLACE
PACEPROXIMIT
Y
PACEPROXIMIT
Y
42
PURPOSE
• Conservation• Stewardship• Regeneration• Protect and
revitalise cultures
• Respect residents
• Nurture Conscious travelers
PEOPLE
PLACE
PROTECTIONPACE
PROXIMITY
PROTECTION
• Attracting the right visitor
• Support not sell• All business is
social• Need for Digital
Literacy• It’s the
ENCOUNTER remember?
• Rave, Refer, Return
PEOPLE
PLACE
PROTECTION PACEPROXIMIT
Y
PULL
PULL
44
PURPOSE
All Business is Social
45
PURPOSE
• We manage what we measure
• Measure what matters!
• Not volume but net benefit – community health & well-being
• Customer delight ----
• R3 NPS• Smaller footprint• Sense of welcome
& enthusiasm from hosts
PEOPLE
PLACE
PROTECTIONPACE
PROXIMITY
PERFORMANCE PULL
PERFORMANCE
46
PURPOSE
PEOPLE
PLACE
PROTECTIONPACE
PROXIMITY
PERFORMANCEPULL
Integrated, Holistic Model
47
Conscious Travel
• A concept• A collaborative learning tool for hosts• 12 Step Transformation Program• To enable hosts to become change
agents in their communities• A Network of Conscious Travel
Destinations48
Summary“Business As Usual” won’t workWe need a new tourism for new timesIndigenous people will be on the frontlineThe “imaginal cells” must partner, join up
regardless of who you areIndigenous values can help create a better, higher
value, more resilient tourismLet’s work together
49
Imagine......a network of host communities each
exploring how to deliver net benefits from tourism,a good living for people,
and transformative experiences for guests
each in their own way?
50
In the same way that cells combine to form different organs of the body, so will the collective output of these cells combine to create a new organic, ecological form of
tourism -
one that is environmentally sustainable, socially just and
spiritually fulfilling
www.conscious.travelwww.slideshare.net/AnnaP 51