Aboriginal Tourism: Your Time Has Come

Anna Pollock, Founder, Conscious Travelannapollock@me.com

2013 National Aboriginal Tourism

Opportunities Conference

Osoyoos

www.slideshare.net/AnnaP www.conscious.travel

Transformation

Hopedale, Labrador, 1967

Transformation

Lady Skidoo Champion, 1967!

Transformation

Bali, pre-electricity & tourism, 1973

Message

1.Your time has come but don’t hesitate, as we haven’t much time

2.Tourism needs your perspective and values

3.Humanity needs your worldview4.There IS a market that values what you

stand for5.The path to that market is not that well

worn – you have to create it.

Accelerated Consumption

Climate Change

Energy & Fuel

Material Resource Scarcity

Food scarcity

Water Scarcity

Ecosystem Decline

Disparate Prosperity

Government Debt

Lack of Global Governance

Political Instability

Pandemics

THE PERFECT STORM

Breakdown or Breakthrough?

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Business is Getting the Message

“ population growth, exploitation of natural resources, climate change and other factors are putting the world on a development trajectory that is not sustainable…if we fail to alter our patterns of production and consumption, things will begin to go badly wrong”

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Costs and Risk to Increase

“ The resources on which businesses rely will become more difficult to access and more costly. There will be an increasing strain on infrastructure and natural systems as patterns of economic growth and wealth change. Physical assets and supply chains will be affected by the unpredictable results of a warming world”

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Opportunities Also

“ the bold, the visionary and the innovative recognise that what is good for people and the planet will also be good for the long-term bottom line and shareholder value…

• competitive advantage can be carved out of emerging risk.”

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• To keep below 2 degrees Celsius we’ll now have to reduce carbon emissions by 5.1% per year.

• Between 2000 and 2011 we’ve achieved reductions of just 0.8% per year.

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•Concur with UN Secretary General that current growth model is a form of “suicide pact”

•Promoting concept of Zeronauts working on Zero Impact; Zero Waste sector by sector

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Tourism: the state we’re in

What the Graph Doesn’t Show

• Volatility• Net revenues• Net benefits• Spending per capita• DIMINISHING

RETURNS• Value retention in

the host community• Productivity (yield

per employee)• Who benefits?• Where does the

income stick?

90% + of demand factors outside of the

control of anyone in tourism

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Can we handle another 400 million tourists in just 8 years?

The Island Where Tourist Garbage is Stored in the MaldivesSource: Daily Mail

The Queue to Climb EverestSource: Guardian

• see: Can Tourism Change its Operating Model?

How will we handle congestion?

How will we handle waste?

How will we handle emissions?

How will we manage our thirst for water and land?

How will avoid residents’ backlash?

Protest Sign Erected by Young BalineseSource: ABC They Paved Paradise

Source: China Daily

How will we protect vulnerable people and cultures?

Are we at our own “bifurcation point”?

Industrial Tourism Grew Up In the Age of the Automobile & Mass Everything

It borrowed its operating model from manufacturing

WHY are we in the state we’re in?

Based on Assembly Lines, Specialisation & Hierarchies

Focus: efficiency & productivity - producing more for less

Standardisation, Order, Planning

Economies of Scale - consolidation, more & bigger is better, growth

Economies of Scale - consolidation, more & bigger is better, growth

Economies of Scale - consolidation, vertical integration

It worked…..but as we grew bigger……

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Connectivity HumanValuesBiophysical Realities

Three Big Change Drivers

“I” AM the Author

Journalist Film maker Reviewer Marketer

Intermediary LEADER

Connectivity shifted the balance of power

do you have wifi?

Potentially connected to everyone, all the time, from anywhere

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Biophysical Realities

Economic Disparity – Erosion of the Middle Class

Values Are Shifting

The NEW Consumer

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New Consumers still want MORE, but they are defining that differently.

Now they seek more meaning, more deeply felt connections, more substance,

more control and a greater sense of purpose.

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The Conscious Consumer Report, 2009, BBMG

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•66% of consumers would prefer to buy

products from companies that give

back to society

•62% would prefer to work for such

companies

•59% would prefer to invest in such

companies

•46% would be willing to pay extra for

products and services from these companies

DOING GOOD IS GOOD FOR BUSINESS: 2012

Consumers Ahead of Marketers

How do these change drivers interact?

?

awareness

concern

curiosity

questioning

Panic or paralysis?

more concern!

Panic + Innovation Vertigo

What’s this leading to?

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“We have to continually be

jumping off cliffs and

developing our wings on the way down.”

Kurt Vonnegut

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• Connectivity + Content

• = Transparency

• = Competition (downward pressure on prices)

• = Need for innovation

• = Need for Talent

• = Importance of Reputation

• = Need for Authenticity

Companies are Valued Differently Now

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The Humanisation of Business

You cannot control your brand

Your brand emerges as the outer expression of your values

and beliefs

What CEO’s Most Focus On

Engagement, Empowerment & Capacity….

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Purpose Must Precede Profit

Purpose + Passion = Performance & Profit

Source: Richard Barrett – The Values Centre

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Impact on BusinessRE-THINKING CAPITALISM

•Whole Foods

•Southwest Airlines

•Zappos

•The Container Store

•Google

•Amazon

•Joie de Vivre

CONSCIOUS CAPITALISTS

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when our values and beliefs changeso does everything else

what does this look like in tourism?

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Tourism Through an Industrial Lens

Guests are segments to be targeted and the prize is share of wallet

Both parties (consumer and provider) attempt to win at the cost of the other. Adversarial

Guests seek to get the best or cheapest deal; producers try to maintain their marginRugged independence + materialism creates a mindset of exploitation - animals, landscapes, plants are resources, then products that can be used to produce profitThe Industry is fragmented - each provider looks after his piece of the guest experience and larger agencies are divided into functional silos.

Disconnect from nature - it’s the economy, stupid! Lack of appreciation of limits or consequences.

The tourism industry resists paying for the ecosystem services it has enjoyed for free in the past

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surely there has to be a better way?

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Tourism is a Human System Embedded in a

Biological-Physical System

Welcome Signs of Change

something new is emerging

?

Here’s the Old Operating Model

Could This Be a Better One?

© Anna Pollock, Conscious Travel

Plenty

NEW MODEL NEW MODEL Plent

y

enough, sufficiency

implicit a sense of limits

Better rather than bigger

implies that multiple

stakeholders benefit

Fair, equitable

“wellth” and happiness vs

wealth

Help those behind you on

the trail….

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Plenty

People

NEW MODELNEW MODEL

People

encounters

relationships

trust

transactions only occur if trust is

present

BODY, MIND, HEART & SOUL

Individual

KinshipReciprocity

RespectLove

Empathy

Plenty

People

PLACE

NEW MODELNEW MODEL

PLACE

each place is unique

unique places sustain value

Personality of Place

Living Presence - essence, spirit,

soulIndigenous

people understand

placesare sacredReverence

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Plenty

People

Place

Purpose

NEW MODEL NEW MODEL PURPOSE

what’s the DEEPER purpose of tourism & the business?

why should employees bring

their whole selves to work?

people seeking meaningconscious travellers

seeking to be changed

Higher purpose ignites Passion

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Plenty

People

Pull

Place

Purpose

NEW MODELNEW MODELPull

challenge is to attract

power shifted to guest

to be magnetic you have to be clear

about who you are and send out strong signalsyou need to

master social technologies and media in order to

sustain relationships and

build trust

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Plenty

People

Pull

Protection

Place

Purpose

NEW MODEL NEW MODEL Protection

Hosts must become proactive

champions & custodians

Compliance and CSR programs not

enough“Licence to

Operate” will depend on minimal (preferable zero)

footprint

Stewardship

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Plenty

People

Pull

Protection

Place

Purpose

Pace

NEW MODELNEW MODEL Pace

help guests learn the art of living

rediscover what it means to be a

human being not a human doing

learn to savour & satiate the senses

increase length of stay and spend

Plenty

People

Pull

Protection

Place

Purpose

Pace

NEW MODEL NEW MODEL

•Encounters & relationships before transactions

•PLACES before products

•PURPOSE & PASSION drive Profit

•PROTECTION = zero impact & rejuvenation

•PULL as in attract & support not Push

PACE as in SLOW & SAVOUR

Conscious Travel Integrates

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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?

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

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

We travel, initially, to lose ourselves;

we travel next, to find ourselves.

We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more than our newspapers will

accommodate....

And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again---to slow time down and

get taken in, and fall in love once more

Pico Ayer

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