Strategic triangle, Bermuda Triangle and 1,2,3 theory are the basic toolbox for a good Touristologist .

To end this season I propose to you to sharp up a little bit our basic toolbox with some real data related to “Sidorme” a quite new brand of hotels in Spain (far away from the place I’m writing this post)  Do you want to try? Make yourself at home!

“Sidorme” is the brainchild of Fernando Rivas. It’s a low cost chain of hotel but Mr. Rivas prefers to describe it as Quality Low cost.  As you can see if you visit its website they cross Spain from coast to coast.

We have been dealing with  Bermuda Triangle and 1,2,3 theory in this OUR blog, and I’m sure that you remember quite well Strategic Triangle but just to be sure I provided a short summary of it, because... maybe I haven’t had the privilege of being your teacher (as long you think that Touristology is a science and that a Touristologist deserves at least the same respect that any graduates... you are welcome and you can consider me your fellow Touristologist!) or maybe you were my student and you had the habit to throw away all your notes at the end of each subject (believe me I have students that do just so!!!) and after a few years struggling in the jungle you regret that (Don’t worry life not always give a second opportunity but I always do!  I have to... because I’m so good as my Touristologist are!!!)

Anyway, here you have a visual representation of the Strategic Triangle:

 

Can you apply the Decrease Relationship and Differentiation ideas for “Sidorme”? To provide some data let’s supposed that www.tunehotels.com pretends to set up operations here in Spain.

In order to practice Decrease Relationship please visit this page of the “Tune Hotels” site  or if you prefer this youtube address.

Pay special attention to the sentences that they highlight like “ If I’m not using it, I’m not paying for it. SIMPLE” or “Tune Hotels.com is a SMART CHOICE” Smart Choice? Where did I listen to this sentence before? Well, never mind! Or does it mind?

In order to practice Differentiation you must be sure to choose a quality and pass the test of the following triumvirate:

1) Be the first: Are we the first to offer this quality?

2) TRUE add value: Is this quality important for the customer?

3) Difficult to copy: Is it difficult to copy?

When you finish with a quality you can try another one!

Try to relate the result of the test with the fast expansion of “Sidorme” in Spain. I mean, do you believe that a fast expansion it was mandatory or optional?

What about how to increase the relationship? Did you see this sentence “Tune Hotels.com Financially Incentives people to think about their energy consumption” Do you believe that Tune Hotels.com is using at least one of the four ideas present in the graphical vision of the Strategy Triangle?

Executives from “Sidorme” (some of them former students of mine and today fellow Touristologist!!!) explain in several articles a little bit of financial information:

Average Investment of each hotel: 4M €

Average rooms: 77-98€

Average price: 36€

Not Travel Agency. Rewards Programs instead!

Can you use Bermuda Triangle to confirm these figures?
 

The same founder father made the following statement ‘In Spain there are 3M self-employed working and travelling from Monday to Friday. This is our segment” said Mr. Rivas.

Can you use 1,2,3 theory based upon this sentence?

 

With this data you can practice BUT if you are a really Touristologist you would prefer to do your own research and to find and verify your own information. Do you see? You were reading this post and at the same time you were looking for more information, making your own conclusions, thinking about the possibility to create something similar or absolutely different. Do you see? You have become a Touristologist! WELCOME ABOARD... And HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Remember... "Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there's love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong". - Ella Fitzgerald

Do you need to do a viability study? Here my proposal:1,2, 3 theory for marketing AND Bermuda triangle for the financial area.

Sometimes I have to do a viability study, as you know a complete one has to deal with financial and marketing concepts.

For marketing in tourism I think nothing can defeat 1,2,3 theory both for initial positioning and for subsequent  growing strategies.

What about the financial area? Will I recover the investment? When? Will I get a decent profit? How much?  Will I have enough liquidity? All of these questions worth a lot of study and a great amount of excel sheets, but sometimes I need to provide a fast answer or I need a good beginning for the process or I need to decide which project is the best to focus on. Then Bermuda triangle is a good choice!

Most of my students hate and are afraid of anything related with numbers. My first subject as a teacher in Touristology was Financial Mathematics. So, I know firsthand the necessity to explain difficult concepts in a simple way. Have I succeeded it? You can tell me!

Nowadays, at least in my country, this topic or not exist or is given in a way that doesn’t provide a framework related to our field. 
Nevertheless, I strongly believe that knowing the investment to create a tourism company, the average revenue, the percentage of the most usual cost, the average profit... is something that we, as a Touristologists, must master.

For that reason I proudly introduce... THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE. Its name stands for the famous triangle in Bermudas where ships, carriers... have disappeared. The same happens with a business without balance between investment, revenues and profits... it will disappear!

It’s a financial-geometrical figure which represents the necessary investment to create a company, the revenues when the business is a cruise’s speed and the usual profit without taxes. Cruise’s speed? I mean, usually companies need a few years to get his full potential. It can be four years or sometimes a single day. Anyway we choose this amount.

 

All these numbers represents an average of the range that you can find in a real scenario. They are only a start point to become the hard work BUT they are a good beginning!

The investment is base in my experience; feel free to bring new examples to backup OR NOT this numbers. When we are talking about hotels of 3-4 starts in a centric area an alternative way to assess the investment is to multiply 120,000 by the number of rooms. Of course, this is less true for hotels with a lot of space for conventions, bar, restaurant, etc.

For instance, we can see if Sol Melia (the biggest chain of hotels in Spain) can fit in this Bermuda Triangle. In order to get some numbers you can go to here.

I summarise for you the key information for 2010:

Number of hotels 350; Company’s revenues: 1.3billion (for non English people remember that one billion equals to 1,000 M!!!); Profit: 50.1M Can you do the math? Does it fit? You must remember that 2010 was a tough year!

I Love Touristology even when mathematics and programming skills are required!!!

As you can see Bermuda Triangle is a fast way to know if a project can have future or if it’s worth to go deeper.  What do you think? Can you provide more examples?  Let’s build up the bedrock for the best science ever... TOURISTOLOGY!!!!

Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Touristology

Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk with a bunch of future Touristologists about one of to me most interesting topics “Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Touristology” I see gloaming eyes, desire to compete, hunger for success … I Also see eternal moaning heat-sitters, I-already- know- that-even- though- I- don’t- have- a- clue- about- what- you- are- talking- about   BUT I have trained my mind to focus on the first and make invisible the others and it works! It’s very easy the only thing that you have to do is pretending that ALL CAN BECOME WINNERS and your conviction, you inability to get demoralized become an emotional epidemic unable to resist!

As you know human beings are logical emotional and gregarious. If enough people are motivated ALL are motivated. More about that  here .

I love entrepreneurship. To be your own boss, to take your own decisions, to get the rewards and to train your mind to resist the punishment, because at the end of the day as Kipling said

“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:”…

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Touristologist!

Well, maybe it wasn’t exactly in this way but you know that I have my own bias!!!

One of the most interesting ideas that I conveyed to them was that to become an entrepreneur is not an easy task. It’s the kind of activity that you have to do only if you are sure about its potential success. How do you know that? I’m glad you ask it!

Let’s see if I can provide a little framework (I love frameworks but you already know that!!!) in order to be sure that our baby enterprise is in the good track… An easy test to know if your business plan will be a success or… something that will provide the opportunity to began again more intelligently (Do you see as elegantly I skip the word failure!?!?!).

1) Internationalization:  You’re a Touristologist right? So, clearly your market is the whole world. In the same way that you can send your tourists to any place in the world and soon even further. Read  here for more information By the way don’t miss the opinion of Rick Tumlinson of the Space Frontier Foundation, “I hate the word tourist, and I always will .... 'Tourist' is somebody in a flowered shirt with three cameras around his neck.” Rick as entrepreneur you must be a start-rocket but as a Touristologist you are just a stone-rock!

I don’t say that to have as a customer Inhabitants or tourist already there is a bad decision. I just say that in order to be sure that you are competitive enough you have to play in the big league of international tourism.

2) Do you control your chain of value? Or at least other doesn’t control it? In order to remain competitive you have to control the chain value not only your business or tourist destination. That is, control over meeting places for international tourists (social networks, universities, mass media ...) outgoing travel agencies, transport companies, incoming  travel agencies,  providers of tourism services, or not related to tourism but clearly related to the their motivation for travel.. As a Touristologist you don’t have an enterprise or a tourism destination, you have several chain of values linking you to different segments.

3)  Finally, last but definitely not least, to create and use the Internet and associated technologies (Mobility, Data-mining, Geo-positioning, Web services ...) to manage the value chain as a system (point 2) in an international level (point 1).

I don’t want to create a tourism enterprise depending on subventions or always afraid of and international competitor creating something similar for a lower price.

I want to create a company endurable or at least something that provide the knowledge, the ability and contacts to create the next one. As Albert Einstein said “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”

The Da vinci code: Just a book or a Touristologist doing his job!

Normal people just see a book… I see a good Touristologist! But this is just me… or not!?!?

Surely, most of you are familiar with this book (or at least you have watched the movie!!!). Anyway I’m almost sure that after reading this post you will enjoy watching it again, but this time with Touristology glasses on!

1) A little bit of history:

 Let’s summarize the gist of the book. It stands that Jesus and Maria Magdalena get into intimacy and as a result we get a royal dynasty (the Merovigian). It’s supposed the catholic church wasn’t happy with that and for that reason it was necessary to create a brotherhood to protect this dynasty. This brotherhood called “The Prior of Sion” has as members very famous people: Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, Leonardo Da Vinci… just to name a few. The last one was Pierre Plantard.

Let’s go back to modern time… In 1891 a priest (Bérenger Saunière ) claimed to have found a treasure in his church belonging to the last Merovigian. Based upon this discovery Gerard de Sede wrote a seminal book “The accursed treasure of Rennes-Le Cháteau” which was followed by other books and finally “The Da vinci Code” by Dan Brown.

Let’s see a visual representation:

2) The scenario: 

For a Touristologist is always important to have a geographical vision. Where is Rennes-le Cháteau? It is in the south of France near Carcassonne.

What does it look like? See the picture below where I circled the Magdalena’s tower.. Does it ring a bell to you? As you can see it’s quite isolate.

 3) Does the book affect the tourism sector? Sure, Tourist guide has appeared following the book, mass travel agencies and specialized ones created routes related to the book and so on.

4) Just a book or a Touristologist doing his job!?!

It was the book the origin of all this OR a Touristologist acting as a magnet to bring tourists? Now it becomes interesting!!! In 1946 Noel Corbu purchased the former estate of the Abbey Berenger Sauniere, the former priest of Rennes-le-Chateau between 1885-1909, and during Easter 1955 he opened a restaurant in the Villa Bethania, later also turned into a Hotel. The hotel itself faced some difficulties due to its fairly isolated location.

He began to explain to newspapers some ghost stories and the occupancy went up… I’m sure, in that moment, He smelt blood and saw the opportunity to do something bigger. To do so, He needed a team…

In 1960 Pierre Plantard went to the hotel. He was always creating secret societies. In 1956 he creates a secret society with a bizarre name “Priory of Sion”. Does it ring a bell to you?

At the same time, the writer Gérard de Sède (uhmm… I’m almost sure this is not the first time this name appears in this post!!!) was also in the hotel… Does it ring a bell to you?

In the hotel also was Philippe de Chérisey a surrealist artist. As a matter of fact he was a follower of Alfred Jarry, the founder of the Surrealist College de Pataphysique which believes that it’s possible to create a parallel reality stronger than real reality! Philippe created a drawing representing the genealogy of Jesus up to present time. They hid this drawing in a public library inside a folder with the name “secret code” An excellent option if you want to keep people away!!!!

So, to me it’s crystal clear!!! A Touristologist, a team, a promotion tool (the book) and a final result: No vacancy and plenty of hotels and restaurants in the area!

I know the usual question from the brightest mind on the class/seminar/training/conference… Must we write a book about Jesus in order to have customers?

When it happens, I start to pray silently “Schumpeter, Carnegie (Dale) and Maslow give me strength, wisdom and PATIENT!!!!!” I repeat this three times and then, calmly, I always reply:

 “It’s an option, but the important thing is to see the forest not the trees. You have to do something in order to transform your business from a commodity to something special, something unique”

What do you think? Are you with me that the most important sector in a country (OUR SECTOR) needs the best minds? Are you with me that Touristology is at least as complicated as any other grade? Are you with me that people only able to mark down the price, unable to look for international markets; unable to search, find and bring tourist from around the world are not Touristologists? 

Back to the Da Vinci Code!  Are we talking about a Super 2, a Super 3 or My own 1,2,3  (more about that here )

Are you willing to practice some growing strategies using the other options (Super 2, Super 3 or my own 1,2,3? It’s up to YOU!!!!

Few advices for entrepreneurs. Do you want to play?

I love to teach, to build frameworks for my students and for myself, but overall I love when my students become Touristologists and began to earn a living in tourism either as employee or as an entrepreneur.  For the last one, I want to write down few advices from the trenches!!!

1) Delegate? YES, but you have to take care of your business model (1,2,3 theory, remember?) and be sure that everybody else is following it. You can’t underestimate people tendency to do things in the way they are used to.

2) Be patient and persistent. Things worth to do always take more time and money than you think.

3) Never is too late to light the entrepreneurial flame!

I think the following is an excellent case in point…

Turismusica.com  .  Enrique Sacristán the founder father of turismusica is now 73 years old (“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.” Mark Twain). He saw the opportunity to create a travel agency that nowadays shows a revenues of 2,3 million Euros, not bad for a specialized travel agency.

He is very fond of opera and he likes going to opera houses around the world to enjoy a good performance. As he has this passion he understands people with the same feeling. Furthermore he has contacts with the most famous opera houses. So, he saw the opportunity to create a link between this segment and this offer.

A clear business model?  YES,  following 1,2,3 theory. What else? The number one is a segment with specific needs. Number 2 the offer that you have to customize in order to satisfy this needs and the number 3 the chain of value in order to add value and get the trust of the customer.

It seems easy, but believe me it’s complicated you have to wait, to prepare yourself and then had the courage to act! It’s like this Puccini’s aria from Madame Butterfly. It seems easy but it’s extremely difficult and it’s also an homage to HOPE…

Tutto questo avverrà, / All this will happen,

te lo prometto / I promise

Tienti la tua paura  /  Forget your fear

Io con sicura fede lo aspetto. / With secure faith I hope and wait!"

Sometimes the ship (Couple, Friends, Enterprise, Project…) comes and others not BUT ...I'll just fight! To win or lose is God’s decision!!

By the way... Do you think it is possible to use segmentation, international route and viral marketing  in Layers in this case in point?

Do you want to try? It’s up to you!!!

Segmentation, International Routes and Viral Marketing in Layers

One day somebody will realize that specialized tourism is the bright future of the tourism sector, chiefly, because…
1) Over it you can build mass tourism as we discover in other post
2) Allows you to get more control over your chain of value.
3) Brings tourist out of season and to different places….
But overall and this is, definitely, my favorite… BRINGS MORE OPPORTUNITIES, HIGHER PAYING JOBS AND ENTREPENURIAL OPPORTUNITIES TO MY TOURISTOLOGISTS!!!
That day people will use and understand the power of “Segmentation, International Routes and Viral Marketing in Layers”, a Recipe for Success.
First, let’s begin with a good segmentation. As you know the most important variable of segmentation in tourism is travel’s motivation. Usually, you can summarize it using generic and specialized motivations. You can go deeper in the process with a new classification:
I like this activity/service (martial arts, climbing, wine, write, to have international contacts, learn English…).
I wannabe or PRO-AM. I’m thinking in the possibility of become a professional or this is my hobby.
I’m a professional. I’m already earning a leaving with this activity/service.
All this segments are related with the same activity/service BUT the necessities that they have couldn’t be more different, however you can put all together in a trip and get interesting synergies. For instance a great master in Kung Jung Mu Sul (and ancient martial art from Korea) needs students but also people who wish to become a master. Students need a master but also a role model to get inspiration…
Then you can add others variables of segmentation related with the travel or the things that they can get through a travel. Let me clarify a little bit this point.
As you know, we strongly believe that Touristology is a science. In the same way that Nutritionist can create specific diets for sports, for intellectual effort, for special illness… In the same way that a Doctor in medicine can teach you how to breathe in order to take care of you voice, or a Yogi do the same in order to get energy (Pranayama)… A Touristologist can use a travel as an excuse to get what is really important to you. We can get a visual representation with a matrix similar to this:

For instance, let’s take grandparents which nowadays expend more and more hours with their grandchildren. Do they need something special when they travel? Of course, special care, activities, etc. Can they get what is important to them through a travel? Definitely! Maybe they don’t want to travel BUT they are worried for the education of their grandchildren and through a travel are easier to learn about history, geography… languages!!! Maybe they don’t want to travel BUT they want to improve the relationships with their grandchildren OR they are interested in getting international contacts and share motivations, problems, solutions… all these kinds of things are easier to get through a travel thanks to:
1) Perspective change in travel. You get and international vision, different ways to feel/live the same situation. You also get and external vision, because you are far away from your usual environment.
2) Natural tendency to crowd together during a travel. Which it is perfect to improve relationships, to create or enforce a team, to start up the foundations of a community…
3)Community’s power. When you’re surrounded with people and a Touristologist is available to lead and to create positive mental states useful for the entire community you can benefit from our gregarious nature. Is it easier to keep your weight at bay when your friends do the same, isn't it?
Second, let’s add and international route. To make more attractive the travel, to add more contacts, perspectives…you can learn about international routes advantages here.
Third, you have the segment properly segmented, you get them in an international route now it’s the moment to create layers and use viral marketing. If you properly apply 1,2, 3 theory (1= segment with specific needs; 2 customized offer; 3 chain of value to add value and get the trust) you will create a powerful nucleus able to expand in several layers of profit.
Few ideas: A new layer for people willing to…
1) Investigate (Marketing Research): A chain of hotels (or any other kind of enterprise) specialized in this segment.
2) Promote something inside a focus group: Specialize writer, magazines, materials, universities…
3) Learn the secrets of our success: To make a study case for a University or other destination/enterprise willing to create something similar.
Once built the layers over the nucleus you can apply viral marketing: During a specialized travel is easier to bring out the power of viral marketing in a social network. As you already know in order to make an idea viral you need the right people (with more contacts, with more influence) and to have them surrounded by like-minded people. In the close environment of a specialized travel you already have this group of like-minded people and it is very easy to find the influencers. But only if you are a good… TOURISTOLOGIST!!!

Great vision Mr. Magoo!!!

Sometimes appear in the news realities that really puzzle me. This is the fiction story of an airport who nobody wants, reconverted in tour operator shuttle base camp and finally sold to some private investors.

The other day I was listening to the news. They were talking about an airport. When they finished I took out all the superficial and this was the final result:

First - Building an airport nobody asked for it. When the airport is in the red they suddenly are looking for a business plan.

Second - The business plan? The usual thought... tourism at rescue!!! Mass or specialised? Are you kidding? Mass of course! Let’s top up our mountains with a lot of tourist!

Make a deal with big tour operators! For instance, from England and Russia. Let them keep 70% of margin and, under no circumstances, try to focus on create travel agencies run by local Touristologists in order to create employee for young people and services which add value!

Third - When the airport gives profits sell it to a private investor. This is the last twist! It seems that they are doing us a favour!!!

Let’s reckoning...

1) Bad tourism model.

2) Most of the revenues for foreign enterprises

3) Socialise losses and privatised profits

Who creates this kind of game?  What I don’t understand is the reason these kinds of things are financed with public money.

You know we are lucky to live in one of the countries leader in tourism knowledge where these kinds of stories are not possible. Otherwise we could end up as a sort of Marx’s Crowded Cabin!!!!

How to become a shark in tourism’s waters

We live in a world that is ending, that means crisis, which also means opportunities. On one hand big companies and families with big fortunes have more and more power, but on the other hand small enterprises and individuals with the right knowledge and tools can work together and compete with the big sharks.
I love big sharks (especially when they are my customers!!!) but overall I like a good fight.
I would like to introduce the framework that makes possible for small enterprises to compete with big ones.

1) Forget about individuals! You need a team. You need to find people with the same culture (vision of reality) that you have, assign them task, responsibilities and authority and also provide variables of control and communication tools and protocols. Your employees? Of course, but you have to do the same with pro-am (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Leadbeater) and your own customers (servuction remember?)

2) And you need this kind of employees because you will have this kind of organization… Forget your enterprise, focus on your chain of value!

3) Forget about your PMS / CRS or website! Take care of a portal related with this chain of value. Use the three principles of web-engineering:
     A) Give static and dynamic pages with access to your database thanks to Portlet / Servlet/ JSP (Java world) ASP / ASPX (Microsoft) or PHP/… (Open source).
     B) Get and send (SYNDICATION) the three C’s (content, commerce and community) to others databases thanks to webservices.
     C) Get information NOT format and then adapt the information to your platform (mobile, interactive television, laptop…) and design. With these team, chain of value and technology you can compete and you can win. Of course, to set up all this you will need…. A GOOD TOURISTOLOGIST!!!!

Please, follow this link if you want to see a graphical representation of this topic.

Two alien species willing to dominate our attitude

Which will be your side? Don’t be in the middle. Act now! If not you who? If not now when?

On one side you have the aliens which seem characters taken out from "A Confederacy of Dunces"

 

They are easy to recognize:

1) They never smile; at most they force a grimace.

2) They are very fond of dead fish handshake and yawning like an elephant seal.

3) When you make an agreement with them they never keep their word. Always do something different or nothing at all and, of course, without previous warning and with a set of excuses ready to make clear that it wasn’t their fault.

4) Whatever you say to them they already know…. As a matter of fact they are experts in the art of knowing how to pretend to know.

But… don’t be mistaken! Be aware they’re dangerous.

They haven’t no merci, no feelings, no souls…

They’re enthusiasm killing machines!!!

STOP!!!

On the other side you have the aliens which seem taken out from the lyrics’ of My Way

 Think about people living for their ideas. The ones able to visualize something new and create it.

Always with their spirit up, always smiling, no matter tiredness, personal problems or bad circumstances because they know…

“Circumstances - what are circumstances? I make circumstances.” Napoleon Bonaparte

“To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.” Bruce Lee

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” Steve Jobs

Nothing is lost yet you can unbalance the invasion!!!

Just remember…To be a Touristologist is not something you say or something that somebody has given to you. It’s something you have to earn!!!!

The blind men and an elephant

Once upon a time… there were two different hotels but for a lack of Touristology they were in the red. From far away came experts, wizards and consultants, but the poor hotels remained in bankruptcy.

One hotel was at the top of a small mountain it was isolated but near of everything. Some customers complaint about the lack of any warning about having to drive half an hour from the city centre. Its name was “California”.

The other hotel called “Watchthesee” was in the city’s centre and in order to commercialize both of them relied on two travel agencies “Expense” and “Reservation”

One day a young touristologist came by to the city, which once was the home of the Olympic Games, and just asked a simple set of questions:

Don’t you see that they are different kind of hotels? Don’t you see that you have to customize the way you create, communicate and commercialize tourism products? Don’t you see that in order to be successful you have to apply 1,2,3 theory?

1,2,3 theory? What is that a child’s song? - Replied one of the experts that up to then didn’t have any proof of his expertise.

Not – calmly replied the young touristologist- it’s just the bedrock of modern Touristology.

If you have and isolated hotel you must look for people which can benefit from this and then make the most of long tail theory. Let’s put this as an example:

The segment of a romantic couple or occasionally lovers which can use these websites as number 3. Do you know zcuza or iwant2meetyou (don't miss the video!!!)?  For this segment you can add a ride with a nice car so in this way a weak point becomes a strong one.

The Honeymoon segment using theknot  as a middleman.

The small and medium size enterprises willing to organize a product presentation or a creativity seminar. You can use redherring  to communicate your services...

For all these segments isolation can be a boon instead of a bane. In all this segments long tail is more interesting than traditional channels. Of course, that you have to discover this segments, customize your offer and make new deals, both commercial and technological with new intermediaries but… for that reason you need a TOURISTOLOGIST able to see the tourism sector as a system, able to manage the demand, the offer and the chain of value, one who see all the system and not just one of the parts.

Then the Touristologist explains the ancient story of the blind men and an elephant, he left this drawing and went to the next adventure hoping the new touristologists would go along.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant

The TWO Golden Rules of Touristology

Everything has a beginning. You must fall in love with your profession. You are a Touristologist because you are a global expert of segments willing to travel or getting what a travel can bring to them. It was an honor and a privilege to play intellectual tennis with you.

Not long time ago I introduced a study case about a tourist destination (Taiwan to be precise), in one of my sessions and one of my students (nowadays one of the best Touristologist in Touristology’s land!)  said “This tourist destination s***s!” and followed with “I don’t know anything about this destination” This was the beginning of the two golden rules of Touristology. The bedrock of the best practices in this new science.

Golden Rule number 1:

In order to make consultancy / sell a tourism destination (hotel, tourism packages…) you MUST

…fall in love with the tourist destination /Tourism Enterprise

Otherwise, it’s impossible to find something unique /competitive, attractive for a segment.

Other destination can have better…. Whatever BUT this destination/enterprise is so special!

Golden Rule number 2:

In order to make consultancy / sell a tourism destination (hotel, tourism packages…) you MUST

…know the destination BUT ALSO the segments in a global world.

If you don’t know…

First: Learn…. MORE! Second: You are a touristologist NOT an expert in one destination. Your job is to know the world tendencies in travel, know different segments, know where they meet and what provoke them to travel. Then you listen to people in the destination / hotel / travel agency and create the magic of linking Demand with Supply trough a chain of value!

Even though myself for time to time I have to review these golden rules of Touristology. It is what I call bifocal Touristology.

You have to deal with the day by day activities BUT you also have to look for new opportunities. Nowadays you only have local tourism? That’s perfect BUT don’t lose the track of international tourism.

You are tired and you see your destination or enterprise as a boring place… Umm it’s very difficult that you communicate and commercialize this place properly. Time to fall in love AGAIN with your destination. It’s just a matter of will!!!!

In order to become a Touristologist it isn’t enough with a degree or a business card. It’s a matter of brain, heart and guts!

How do I know if you will be one follower of these rules? Easy, when you were at my classes I play tennis or Basque pelota with you? I mean, I try to define a concept in Touristology Do you just take notes or you try to improve it? When I put an example Do you bring another (Usually better than mine!!!) or you just copy my example to put it in the final test?

Thank you very much to play intellectual tennis with me!!!!!!