As a human system that is so embedded in and dependent upon human society and economies, tourism will be profoundly impacted by the scope and depth of the re-think for three reasons:

1. the key human actors in the system are shifting their values due their own personal development and in response to an even deeper shift in our understanding of how the world works . We live at a time in history when an entire worldview is being replaced.
2. The industrial operating model that has enabled the growth and diffusion of tourism is now producing diminishing net returns to most participants. The way business is conducted is being re-shaped.
3. External pressures including global population increase, climate change, resource scarcity, and geo-political and economic shifts in power between regions and countries, will require the tourism economy to pay for services that hitherto have been free or relatively cheap. Increased costs combined with demand volatility will further undermine the resilience of enterprises whose customers have become accustomed to demand more for less and who have not been required to pay the true cost of travel.

I believe that the mass global tourism industry, which is based on a worldview best described as rational, scientific materialism, is in radical decline (despite appearances to the contrary) and needs to be replaced by an alternative.

The industrial model on which tourism is based is collapsing. As it matures, it produces diminishing net, unit returns to all participants, and relies on volume growth to compensate for yield declines.  As visitor volume increases, so do the costs associated with resource depletion, pollution and wealth concentration.

Survival and prosperity depend not just on becoming green but waking up to a whole new way of doing business that can, in part, be summarized as follows:

It’s premature to specify what the emerging model will look like and how it will work but we can speculate.  In my paper titled, Can Tourism Change Its Operating Model: The Necessity and Inevitability, obtainable on request from theconscioushost@gmail.com . I explore its features in more detail. All we can do here is outline some key characteristics:

1. In the old model, the starting point is the Product, an object that is assembled, packaged, produced and priced according to the rules of manufacturing. In the new model, the starting point is a Place that is recognized as qualitatively unique and therefore scarce. While products become commodities and lose value as they become more alike, “Places” that are celebrated for their unique geography, history and culture, gain value and are acknowledged as the primary motivator of travel.
2. In the old model, guest and hosts act in an adversarial role, playing an “I win-you lose” game in which each party tries to win at the cost of the other. In the new model, that puts relationship building ahead of transactions, guest and host co-create experiences of meaning, benefit and value to both parties.
3. In the old model, Hosts are producers who focus on the attributes of their product in order to persuade a target market to purchase. In the new model, hosts orchestrate unique experiences of places that are perceived of value and as transformative by guests.  Guest are attracted to a host for his or her personal, subjective qualities  – what they value; their sense of purpose; contribution to community; their integrity and authenticity over and above the physical artefacts and amenities
4. In the old model, Producers PUSHED their products in front of potential buyers through various promotional techniques and, when that failed, they dropped their prices. The cost cutting methods deployed to maintain profit margins (standardisation, homogenisation and automation) further devalued the experience and guest satisfaction while suggesting that cheap travel was a right. In the new model, producers focus on protecting, rejuvenating and expressing the elements of a place that make it unique, attractive and worth paying for. Hosts who can communicate a strong signal about their values and their appreciation of the uniqueness of their place and corporate culture, PULL towards them customers whose values are aligned with theirs.
5. In the old model, producers assumed that their first priority was to maximise profit for their shareholders. In the new model, producers understand that profit is an outcome that occurs when the enterprise has a higher purpose and when it works to generate net benefit for all its stakeholders (guests, employees, suppliers, and the host community). In the old model, tourism entrepreneurs were followers – applying models and values developed in manufacturing. In the new model. They will be active change agents in their communities and on the forefront of innovation.

This post is s summary of the content presented on the Conscious Travel web site and, more specifically of a discussion paper titled Can Tourism Change Its Operating Model: The Necessity and Inevitability obtainable upon request from theconscioushost@gmail.com. Further relevant references includes:

Rocky Year Ahead for Tourism – by Owen Hembry, NZ Herald 23Jan, 2012

UK Travel Firms must Radically Change Business Models to Survive 2012 – ETN Global Travel Industry News, 28 Dec 2011

The author welcomes all comments and contributions to the concept!

Business gurus are climbing over each other to be the first or the loudest to refute Milton Friedman’s assertion that the purpose of business is exclusively to make a profit.

So let me add my prediction to the thousands that will litter the digitized airwaves over the next few months:

2012 will be the year the profit cart will be moved back behind the purpose horse and capitalism, as we knew it, will experience a profound makeover. 

The current prophets of this emerging vision vary from seasoned corporate veterans such as Bill Gates, Tex Gunning of Unilever, John Mackey of Whole Foods (founder of the Conscious Capital Institute) and Joe Stengel (former CEO of  Proctor & Gamble & author of Grow) to perennial entrepreneurs like Richard Branson (author of Screw Business as Usual); upstart academics like Umair Haque (author of Betterness and the New Capitalist Manifesto)  and consultants/thinkers such as Fred Kofman, (Conscious Capitalism); Richard Barrett (The New Leadership Paradigm) and Steve Denning (Radical Management)

The names they have independently applied to describe this emergent form of capitalism also vary from Capitalism 2.0; Conscious Capitalism; Good Capitalism; Creative Capitalism, New Capitalism, Caring Capitalism and, thanks to Sir Richard, Capitalism 24092.

Despite the diversity of the pundits’ pedigree and their use of nomenclature, the message is the same and has three elements:

• doing good is good for business and business is the only global institution whose people can make things better for all of us; and

• conducting business as usual will only produce more of the same problems that challenge humanity today.

• The enterprises that differentiate themselves by “making a difference” will enjoy higher brand equity and profitability than those focused primarily on profit.

Like many good yet revolutionary concepts, those underpinning Conscious Capitalism are not as young as the current spate of authors might have you believe. It’s important to recognize that these authors stand on the shoulders of giants whose names are not as familiar to contemporary audiences but whose thinking created the compost for the current flowering. My source of inspiration in the 1980s were Willis Harman, founder of the World Business Academy and John Renesch who first coined the phrase “conscious capitalism” in 1990 as Editor-in-Chief of New Leaders Press.  Sadly Willis passed away in 1997 unable to witness the revolution taking place now but one of his last interviews shows the clarity and prescience of this thinking. John Renesh is fortunately still very creative and his latest book, The Great Growing Up,  should be included in this anthology.

This is the reason why we’ve brought this debate to tourism through an initiative called Conscious Travel. We’re inviting members of one of the world’s most pervasive industries to stop, re-think and re-make how and why they do tourism. We’re asking them to “wake up” to the unexamined assumptions that have guided their behaviour;  to “grow up” and take more responsibility for all the stakeholders affected by their activities and to “step up” and join the pioneers listed above listed above.

Conscious Travel is a movement, a community and an e-learning platform designed to stimulate and nourish the capacity of tourism entrepreneurs to flourish in new market circumstances. For more information, review www.conscioustourism.wordpress.com or contact founder, Anna Pollock at theconscioushost@gmail.com

2012 is the fourth year for Responsible Tourism Week and we expect the conversations to take a great leap forward thanks to inspired participation and Planeta.com’s 12th year of online conferencing.

Join us! Responsible tourism is free and with Responsible Tourism Week, there’s no jet lag! It’s a great opportunity to learn about new initiatives and it’s an even better venue for networking — collaborating with old friends and colleagues and making new contacts.

Simply put, this online unconference is an excellent way to broaden and deepen our dialogue about sustainable practice and tourism. Responsible Tourism Week encourages participants to articulate their core values and the way they put noble ideas into practice. We spotlight living, breathing examples of responsible tourism. Here is an opportunity to introduce new events, tours and research projects as well as an avenue to summarize the outcomes from recent events. Yes, it’s a high-tech, but we also promote lo-fi media, including the foamboard and social events including carrotmobs, green drinks and photo safaris.

One of the key objectives of Responsible Tourism Week is to create incentives for continuity. We would really like to hear summaries from recent tourism conferences and previews of upcoming events that touch upon the core values of responsible tourism. Another key objective is to strengthen relationships with existing contacts and make new friends!

You can start the preparations now by documenting the stories you’d like to share and by registering on the social media channels you’d like to master in 2012. Share examples of responsible tourism that you have personally experienced. Be generous. Talk about other people’s work that you respect.

We will highlight the most interesting tweets on Twitter, photos on Flickr, videos on YouTube and recommended blogs and wikis. Keep an eye on this blog for further updates!  Your comments, questions, retweets and likes are most appreciated.

Kind regards, Ron Mader

Tourism is system of three elements: Places, Guests and Hosts.  As such, it’s all about PEOPLE. If people change their values and their perception of how the world works, then everything else changes.

There are multiple forces shaking up the tourism system:

1. The key human actors in the system are shifting not only their values but their core understanding of how the world works
2. The industrial model on which tourism is based is collapsing. As it matures, it produces diminishing net returns to all participants, and relies on volume growth to compensate for yield declines.  As visitor volume increases, so do the costs associated with resource depletion, pollution and wealth concentration.
3. External pressures will require the tourism economy to pay significantly more for services that hitherto have been free or relatively cheap. These cost increases will occur when reduced incomes and higher demand volatility are already compromising the resilience and profitability of existing businesses.

Survival and prosperity depend not just on becoming green but waking up to a whole new way of doing business that can, in part, be summarized as follows:

Practitioners of the new, ecological model start with a higher sense of Purpose. They know that profit follows purpose – a commitment to use the business to make the world a better place. Instead of discounting their primary asset – the Place – they focus on protecting, expressing and celebrating its unique Personality to sustain and increase its value to guests.  The passion of all hosts (employees, suppliers, residents), combines with a clear sense of Purpose to PULL in (attract) the kind of guest who will most value what the provider has to offer.

Unless tourism enterprises embrace the new model they will continue to see their profit margins shrink; their resilience to external shocks weaken; and their viability diminish. Tourism entrepreneurs and their communities need to assume responsibility for changing and cannot assume that traditional institutions or agencies can supply fixes.

Conscious Travel is building an e-learning platform and on and offline communities designed to stimulate and nourish the capacity of tourism entrepreneurs – the 99% – to flourish in new market circumstances.

The goal is to build an environmentally sustainable, socially just and spiritually fulfilling form of tourism that generates real net benefits to all stakeholders in the tourism system: guests, employees, investors, suppliers and the host community.

If like me, you’re a Twitter addict, you’ll probably not have missed the amazing moments that guests started to tweet live from the event when Air New Zealand gifted each and every one of them a return ticket to Wellington! For those of you that haven’t seen it, check the Air New Zealand video out here:

For more information about the campaign, check out the WellingtonNZ page.

Watching this video reminded my of other cool tourism case study videos I’ve seen recently. Here are a few that I think can provide some ideas & inspiration- enjoy!

If you know of any others be sure to post them here in the comments!

Typically, tourists have been travelling around FIT, with many in campervans, deciding on where to stay and what to do when they arrive in each town.  Our pre-RWC poll showed a skew towards poor forward bookings – however is this actually what has happened so far?

We’d love to have your vote on the poll below in regard to your September bookings received whether you are an activity or accommodation business. We will conduct a poll again at the end of the RWC in late October to get another overview.

The Rugby World Cup Is Not Showing Widespread Benefits

At this stage the RWC has not increased bookings for most of the travel organizations, if anything they are finding that people are avoiding booking a holiday to New Zealand over Sep/Oct because of the perception of highly priced accommodation and no availability.

Effectively only the RWC Official Travel Agents (OTAs) are benefiting from bookings  and only accommodation in key RWC locations are booked out for specific big match dates. For the rest of the tourism industry the normal travel patterns for spring look to have been displaced by rugby supporters, leaving a potentially patchy couple of months for most tourism operators around NZ and even Air New Zealand has indicated their bookings for this period are not more than usual.

If there’s still time to boost bookings then I suggest hotels and other tourism businesses bring their pricing into more sensible levels to give New Zealand a better image and attract a full range of visitors over this period. We are not yet fully booked!

Forward Bookings Slow

Forward bookings in general are weak. A combination of factors including uncertainty after the Christchurch earthquake, exchange rate fluctuations (weak USD and GBP, high AUD) and ongoing global recession recovery seems to be putting people off booking to this part of the world in any hurry, instead they are opting to leave it as late as possible to decide, giving the industry a poor indication of what the next season will be like.

On a positive note, it does seem that the luxury high end market is reasonably strong however, there are still people out there with large budgets for luxury holidays and so this market is remaining steady.

The Rise of the Cruising Market

The Cruise Ship industry are aggressively targeting the middle travel market with competitive packages that are successfully winning business off the group tour and FIT markets. This changes the dynamics of tourism experiences for visitors to NZ and has considerable effect on accommodation and some tourism activity operators. On the whole it’s not a positive trend economically as they simply don’t see as much of New Zealand and don’t spend as much – only regular cruise ship ports benefit but the benefits don’t run much beyond what people can do in a day visit within walking distance of the ship.

Were you at TRENZ this year? Did you make any other observations to add to this article – your input would be appreciated.

When the time is right perhaps Christchurch & Canterbury Tourism or Tourism New Zealand should think about following a similar strategy, what do you think?

With 3 initial different TV commercials it’s clear that the brand is being moved away from the generic to the specific which Tourism New Zealand is hoping will spark action with travellers to increase tourism numbers.

I think this is a good move to both ride off the power of the 100% Pure brand but also offer a range of activities that people love about New Zealand.

What do you think?

Our decision to head for Dunedin was made through the offer of support from long standing family friends who had emigrated here in the early 00’s. Although it must be admitted that Erin, my partner, also found it slightly comforting to read of Dunedin’s strong Scottish roots – this being her first move away from Scotland.

It wasn’t long after arriving that I took up my position at St Clair Beach Resort, a new property not only offering a great opportunity to me but also to the city of Dunedin. The city’s most noted premium property – Corstophine House had closed just a few weeks before the hotel’s opening. In so many ways St Clair Beach Resort was the right product at the right time for Dunedin. The resort has been popular amongst visitors to the city, also to local’s too, with over 5% of hotel residents coming on a ‘staycation’ from within the Dunedin city boundary! We are often told by these guests that the resort has helped them to see Dunedin as a place people want to go, not just need to go.

Hence my prompt for writing this blog post. I believe, for Dunedin, 2011 could be a great year – the year the city becomes a place that the rest of New Zealand will realise as a top destination, not only to international tourists – but to domestic travellers too.

The central protagonist in this tale of success will be the opening of New Zealand’s first roofed stadium. Where is that stadium? Not Auckland, with its population of 1.3 million; not Wellington, New Zealand’s capital and not even Christchurch, the South Island’s largest city. Dunedin.  The Forsyth Barr Stadium will host rugby and other sporting fixtures as well as cater for conferences, music acts and other major events. Finally a sizeable venue, putting Dunedin in the running for major national and international conferences. It has recently been announced that Sir Elton John will be the first major act to perform at the stadium in late 2011, a performer that will undoubtedly draw the crowds.

September and October will of course be a big months for all of New Zealand, particularly those cities directly involved in the Rugby World Cup. Of which Dunedin is one, hosting three games, six teams and a multitude of peripheral events. The third-biggest sporting event in the world, the Rugby World Cup certainly draws world-wide attention everywhere it goes. In its entirety the tournament has an estimated television audience of more than four billion people with an estimated 85,000 international visitors choosing to travel to New Zealand during this time. As well as the additional income widely spread throughout the local economy it is also a great opportunity to market the city across the globe both through publicity and in creating thousands of ambassadors from those who choose to come to Dunedin.

Coupled with the rapid growth of Dunedin’s cruise industry, renovations to the Dunedin Town Hall conference centre, restoration of the Chief Post Office into a quality hotel, various operator led product development projects, a shiny new ‘Dunedin’ brand as well as expansion to two of the city’s existing hotels I’m sure you will see my reasoning for the title of this blog post.

Here’s to a happy new year!

Responsible Tourism Week is a fun mash-up exploring down to earth applications of noble concepts including responsible tourism, the local travel movement and ecotourism with practical and inexpensive Web 2.0 technologies. Take a peak at what was accomplished this year via the Planeta Wiki and on Slideshare.

Planeta are seeking partners and financial sponsors. Simply put, this online unconference is an excellent way to broaden and deepen dialogue about sustainable practice and tourism. The event encourages participants to articulate their core values and the way they put noble ideas into practice. It’s an opportunity to introduce new events, tours and research projects as well as an opportunity to summarize recent events. Yes, it’s a high-tech, but also promotes the foamboard . For those who can keep track of a hashtag, it’s a new window to the world!

How to participate? You can start now by documenting the stories you’d like to share. In particular they highlight photos on Flickr, tweets on Twitter, videos on YouTube and recommended blogs and wikis. This year they will start to feature tours using Gowalla and Foursquare. Check out the toolbox!

The talking points for RT 2011will be updated on the wiki. Of special interest in 2011 will be the role of responsible tourism in forests and cities. Join in!

Will money be left on the table with World Cup accommodation next year? There’s a decent storm brewing over room rates in September/October 2011 with many fearing over-inflated room rates will dent New Zealand’s reputation and will make tourists feel as though they have had their wallets emptied at gunpoint.

Some of this talk is fair but most of it is overly black and white. You can’t speak of September/October 2011 as though it is one homogenous set of dates with the same level of supply and demand; there is a huge variety of likely occupancy levels even from one day to the next in the same city.  A game day means town will be full and prices are likely to be high but the following days might see a “normal” or even below average occupancy as fans and teams leave town for the next venue.

Should an accommodation business faced with those dynamics be forced to keep game day rates low just to artificially uphold New Zealand’s reputation, or should they be allowed to let demand determine their rooms rates to a fair degree?

Recent controversy over a Christchurch hotel charging $2,400 for a single room night has put a spotlight on the issue, but instances like this are likely to be few and far between, at least to that extreme.

What is it about the World Cup that gets NZ so worked up over price? Hotel rooms in Auckland on the nights of the recent U2 concert were going at well over $1000 but nobody seemed to mind. Even Wellington on Bon Jovi night last week saw people paying in excess of $500 for a room. Those guests probably didn’t want to pay that much, but hey, town is full and so prices are high. It’s a reality that in most situations people find acceptable.

But not the World Cup. Is it because rugby is so dear to our hearts as a nation? Is it an almost socialist sense of fairness that everyone should have access to low-price accommodation during the World Cup because it is our ‘national game’?

Whatever the case it is clear the industry has a clear division between those who want to make a bit more money per night and keep themselves as full as they can over a long period (ie not just game days) and those who want to ensure they squeeze every last dollar out of every available room.

Just last week we had a Travelbug booking cancelled by the motellier that hadn’t realised the rates he was selling for in September next year. Rather than take the hit, he emailed the UK traveller that he couldn’t sell his room for such a “ridiculously low” rate. But the motellier just down the road was willing to re-accommodate the same guest at an only slightly higher rate than he was selling at this year because he doesn’t see the point in ratcheting rates too high on non-game days.

So how will it wash up next year? No toothpaste on offer, toothpaste at $10 or toothpaste at $50? Only time will tell but if you believe the hype then the world is watching….

Any tourism organization that needs to get their product or services in front of a national or international audience at minimum cost without having to set up a real live trade show in one geographic location, should be looking at virtual events. With the huge increase in at-home-agents, online travel agents, travel aggregators etc. it is incredibly challenging for a national, regional or local tourism organization to get their tourism businesses in front of a geographically dispersed travel trade community.

I know you’ll be saying that ‘consumers buy direct,’ and yes that trend will continue to increase but working with the travel trade remains a significant part of the marketing mix for a substantial number of tourism suppliers. The question is how do you train the trade when it is impossible to get them all together in one place and you don’t have the budgets, or the resources, to make that happen?

Here is the answer. I think it was serendipity this morning when I opened my emails to find an invite to ‘Virtual Event User Experience’ sponsored by On24.com. ON24 is the global leader in webcasting and virtual events. This is a great opportunity for NTO’s, RTO’s and CVB’s to learn more about Virtual Trade Shows. The ‘Virtual Event’ will take place on Tuesday December 14, 8.00a – 2:00p (PST), 1600 – 2200 (GMT). Because this is a US run event the time frame may not suit everyone especially my readers in the South Pacific.

However, if this is something you have not considered or might even be remotely considering I recommend you drag your self out of bed and watch. If you are interested in what the costs are of running a Virtual Event, how to gain accessibility to a targeted global audience and, what the opportunities are to recoup or cover costs without charging every one a fortune to be involved, then you need to attend this event. All you need is a computer and a hot cup of coffee. There is no need to get out of those PJ’s.

About on24.com

More on ‘Virtual Event User Experience’

Registration Page

For the first time ever, TRENZ will be located in New Zealand’s strongest visitor region, showcasing the Southern Lakes. It will take place at the Queenstown Events Centre, 22-25 May 2011.

The new location is sure to be a powerful incentive for international travel and tourism buyers and media to make the time to travel to New Zealand for TRENZ 2011, Tourism Industry Association New Zealand (TIA) Chief Executive Tim Cossar says.

TIA manages TRENZ, which brings together selected New Zealand tourism operators (Exhibitors) with invited international travel and tourism buyers, and media. The event directly helps to grow New Zealand’s $9.5 billion international tourism industry. In 2011, the theme is “Book New Zealand”.

Southern Lakes chairman Dave Hawkey says hosting TRENZ 2011 is a significant opportunity for the region and its tourism operators.

“Hosting TRENZ 2011 will showcase the Southern Lakes region to influential tourism industry leaders and media, and provide a host of Buyers and Exhibitors the opportunity to experience this diverse and spectacular part of New Zealand. The three regions of Lake Wanaka, Queenstown and Fiordland combine to offer some of the most memorable landscapes and experiences New Zealand has to offer. This is the first time TRENZ has been held here in the Southern Lakes and we look forward to working with TIA in presenting another successful TRENZ to the world.”

The new location is bringing a host of other new features to New Zealand’s largest international tourism trade event.

TRENZ has traditionally been held in Auckland, Christchurch or Rotorua as these were the only centres with infrastructure to host such a big event which involves more than 1200 people. Moving to Queenstown offers fantastic new opportunities, Mr Cossar says.

“We want Buyers, Media and the New Zealand Exhibitors to experience the best of the Southern Lakes region. We’ve allocated a half day for delegates to get out and experience some of the region’s iconic tourism attractions for themselves. Strong famil programmes will help Buyers and Media get a real sense of the experiences available in the Southern Lakes,” Mr Cossar says.

“We’re also changing the format of some of the traditional TRENZ networking functions to allow delegates more time to enjoy some of the great things the region has to offer. This will provide more opportunities for New Zealand tourism operators to invite our international delegates out for drinks or dinner, extending their opportunities for doing business during the event.”

While the Queenstown Events Centre is the largest capacity venue in Queenstown, it does not have the same floor space as traditional TRENZ venues so Exhibitor booth sizes will be limited. Attendance fees for Exhibitors have been adjusted to reflect this.

Delegates will have the opportunity to schedule 51 fifteen minute business meetings during the three core days of TRENZ 2011. Unlike previous years, the event will begin on a Sunday and finish on a Wednesday. This will enhance the potential for international delegates to visit other areas of New Zealand before and after TRENZ.

“We have really tried to make some changes for TRENZ 2011. It will certainly be different to what delegates have experienced in the past,” Mr Cossar says.

Exhibitor applications for TRENZ 2011 will open on Thursday 25 November.

TRENZ is supported by Tourism New Zealand, Air New Zealand, Qantas, host region Southern Lakes and other industry partners.

2011 New Zealand Inbound Tourism Conference

The 2011 New Zealand Inbound Tourism Conference will be held 15-17 August 2011 at the Sebel Trinity Wharf in Tauranga. Recognised as New Zealand’s largest annual tourism conference, it attracts up to 250 tourism leaders from New Zealand and overseas.

Delegates include tour operators who collectively handle most of New Zealand’s packaged and group holiday visitor arrivals, making the conference a valuable opportunity to showcase the host region to the tourism industry.

Bay of Plenty won the right to host the 2011 New Zealand Inbound Tourism Conference from strong competition at the 2010 conference in Marlborough in August. The conference is organised by ITOC and Chief Executive Paul Yeo says he is working closely with Tourism Bay of Plenty to put together an exciting programme for delegates.

“I know many are looking forward to exploring the region both before and after the conference, and I’m confident it will give the region a significant boost to their international tourism marketing.”

The main plenary conference sessions will be hosted at the Sebel Trinity Wharf hotel. Venues for the Welcome Function and gala awards event, at which the ITOC Operator of the Year award is presented, will be announced next month.

While the conference remains the major annual event for ITOC members, who comprise inbound tour operators as well as national and regional product suppliers, it is also open to non-members from the wider tourism industry.

Based on feedback from the previous conference there will be an added focus on providing additional business to business marketing opportunities for ITOC delegate members. A highlight of the conference is the Market Updates provided by Tourism New Zealand who have once again committed to being involved.

The event will also celebrate ITOC’s 40^th anniversary.

Registrations for the conference will open in mid-2011 but accommodation bookings are available at a number of participating hotels in both Tauranga and Mount Maunganui. Visit www.itoc.org.nz for booking details, a preliminary programme and general information on the conference.

New Zealand Inbound Tourism Symposium

Registrations open today for ITOC’s annual New Zealand Inbound Tourism Symposium, to be held at the Rendezvous Hotel, Auckland, at 3pm on 8 December 2010. It will be followed by a social networking event at the Voyager National Maritime Museum.

“This event has been held each December in Auckland for many years and under several guises. This year we have given it a new name, the New Zealand Inbound Tourism Symposium, to give it a clearer definition and business focus,” Mr Yeo says.

The Symposium will include a number of guest speakers and panel discussions on the state of the tourism industry.

Full details and registration information are available at www.itoc.org.nz Non-ITOC members are also welcome to attend.

Have you noticed that’s it’s less than a year to our Rugby World Cup in New Zealand? What have you done to get involved or make the most if it for your tourism business? If you’re not sure how, see this article or contact your local RTO.

View this video to help you get in the spirit…

All did not start well, with some candidates seeming to struggle even coming to grips with delivering a pre-prepared two minute introduction; with a radio microphone seeming to throw some right of kilter! After a slow and somewhat cringe-worthy start, most seemed to be settling in and starting to sound what you’d expect from someone who would consider standing for mayor.

A couple of questions in, the gentleman sitting next to me questioned whether in seeking to reduce council expenditure it was their role to be dealing with services out with ‘core services.’ Fair question you may be thinking, but the gentleman’s one and only example of areas that lay out with core services was tourism. It was at this point that I had to strongly withhold the temptation to open my mouth. Instead I waited and firmly followed up with a question based around the benefits of tourism to the city, how far Dunedin has come under the current council and whether any of the candidates would endorse further investment. Taking you back to my opening lines, the response has since left me in a slight state of shock.

Firstly, the complete lack of knowledge from many of those standing on our industry (a large employer and one of the only growing industries in Dunedin) simply dumbstruck me. Surely if you were running for Mayor, you would do your homework? For many of the candidates the stance was clear – we shouldn’t be worried about the tourists because if the infrastructure is good in our city then people would come anyway. I wish an opportunity would have been made for a follow up question, I would have loved to have stood up and suggested that perhaps with our panel of candidates being such experts on tourism they should take up positions advising other regional councils or even central government. If we seem to be ‘wasting’ so much money on tourists – then think how money could be saved across New Zealand if this’ unneeded’ expenditure of tourism was cut?

I apologise for my sarcasm and please don’t get me wrong, I am not naive, I understand that these people are looking for votes and tourism is certainly not an area that is going to win over a lot here in Dunedin. You would, however, like to think that the people standing for a position that has so much responsibility would put in a bit of research and at least try and keep one of the city’s key sectors onside.

After an economically challenging winter, many say harder than any they have seen before, business has seemed to be starting to flower, with many experiencing their local residents venturing out after a long hibernation.

This has all now been shadowed by the uncertainty following the recent quakes throughout Canterbury and Christchurch. My hearts goes out to those affected by the quakes throughout the region, of whom a few I have met. Here in Dunedin many felt the very tail of the quake in the form of a sway, liking being at sea – I speak from second hand information however, I slept through.

It is great to see from news reports and through speaking to industry colleagues in the affected regions that most tourism related businesses are back operating, with a real push to try to reduce further economic impact on these businesses by promoting to the world that Christchurch is still open for business. From the couple of hoteliers I have spoken to it seems that so far there has been a drastic downturn in tourists to the city following the quake, which has partly been counterbalanced through the influx of construction and aid workers to the region.

Although not physically affected by the earthquake, many of the operators in the rest of the South Island are rightly concerned as to the lasting affects on tourism for the summer ahead, perhaps more so following the hard winter. Christchurch is internationally considered the gateway to the South Island, with most international arrivals to this region arriving through Christchurch International Airport. Unlike many worldwide tourist destinations, with the distance to New Zealand from the worlds largest areas of regularly travelling population (Europe, America and Asia) – New Zealand tends to see multi-regional trips when people visit.

The hope from many is that the message is firm:

The South Island of New Zealand is still ‘open’ and very much looking to welcome our international visitors this summer.

I have spent the last 2 years living on the central plateau, where the natural wonders of NZ are in abundance. I was lucky enough to experience a lot of what was on offer. Magnificent mountains, largest fresh water lake in the southern hemisphere, fly fishing & tramping. It was here that I came across Pianika & Luke, from www.raftingnewzealand.com

Here you have the best of Tourism NZ, this entrepreneurial couple have successfully created an adventure company with growing sales in additional cafe & guided tours.

Business Tip – Pianika Boddington

Here is some advice from Pianika, three tips for people starting out in business.

• Get a good Financial Advisor – To help with your budget, so you have a good idea on what your target income is and to thoroughly analyse your expenditure.
• Research your business/market. Know it inside out.
• Systems – put In place systems for every aspect of your business.

Pianikas tribal affiliations: Ngati Maniapoto/Ngati Porou and Te Arawa

For those of us lucky enough to get the chance to escape the New Zealand winter by heading to the sun, surf and serenity of the many South Pacific island destinations, the mere act of being there is heaven on earth. Our pale bodies getting some much needed Vitamin D, those Pina Coladas that just beg to be ordered (because you can) and the reading of that now-famous Steig Larsson trilogy (again, because you can) being all par for the course.

I had yet to visit Samoa however many of my friends had, so I figured it was time to get over there and get a feel for it first hand. Despite the relaxation and much needed time out, I was also there to scope Samoa out from a work perspective as well – somewhere that I could potentially send clients both on their way to, and coming from, their Kiwi Does It New Zealand itinerary. When planning these top-end trips, I am often asked for stopover recommendations, especially with those honeymoon folk desperately wanting some down time…

We looked into accommodation at the top end (our target market) and found Sinalei on the southern coast of Upolu and Le Lagoto on the island of Savaii. Both of these resorts are in the luxury category with Sinalei having just reopened after being completely wiped out by Mother Nature and her tsunami in 2009.

Having trawled the net and decided on Samoa, the introduction emails were sent, the flights were booked and the commitment made – and then the countdown was on.

The experience came around quickly and finished with the same speed and so it was that we returned from the beautiful islands of Samoa after only a mere 5 days of bliss. It was without doubt a stunning destination to visit. Yes, I did get burnt and yes, I did order a Pina Colada however I have already read the trilogy so I opted for something slightly more obscure – Paul Tordays ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’ (and I highly recommend it).

Without harping on about it, the damage post tsunami was not hugely visible where we went. However, the graves in the front yards of nearly every home were testament to the depth of tragedy that was. The smiles were still given freely, the waving was clearly still a custom and the timeframe upon which we worked was clearly still relaxed. As far as I was concerned, it was a great experience.

However (and I will just remind you quickly) the purpose of my visit was to get a feel for the place from my clients’ perspective. Is it somewhere with the level of accommodation and service required for my clientele and do the prices reflect this?

To be honest, I think there would need to be some serious expectation-setting in order for their experience to be a smooth one. There are a couple of reasons I say this and I will start with the most obvious…

As a rule, my travellers would be arriving from either the continental US or on the back end of the super-lodge experience around New Zealand – their expectations will be pretty high. As a result, pricing is a sensitive issue. It’s one of those realities that everyone is conscious of no matter where you work or what you do for a crust. Money is arguably needed for almost everything and we all like to get more ‘bang’ for our buck, especially post GFM (that’s like, Global Financial Melt-down for you cyber-virgins).

With regards to Samoa, the need to get heads on pillows has understandably been the first and foremost priority however with that comes the visitor expectation. To be honest, at around USD500 per night, the Beachside Fales (albethem brand new) were not up to scratch. They lacked basic amenities such as any hint of a mini-bar, TV or sound system and, while I am most definitely not one to stay in the room watching TV, my clients may be. The photos from the old website have been used and as amazing as it looked, gone was the outdoor shower, there was no beachside hammock in sight and the rooms are now a completely different setup. Come on people, update the website – it’s only fair.

Secondly, service. Despite loving the culture and resonating with it on a personal level, I felt that the relaxed nature (or lack of training?) of the Samoan people ultimately hindered necessities at these resorts such as service and upkeep. Our showerhead hit nothing but the wall it was attached to, the roof of our bathroom was a mildew-grey (the rest was white, the compendium stated a mini-bar service was available however when asked it wasn’t, and there was clearly no communication around our check out, as we were charged full rates when I had been dealing with management for over 6 weeks. Blank stares and simple answers were common though, but all with that Samoan smile so its hard to get worked up over anything.

I really can understand it on a certain level and I have no doubt that it is a double-edged sword. On the one hand you have staff that are local villagers and walk down the beach to work – how cool is that? On the other, you have a luxury resort offering a luxury product, at luxury prices, with below luxury attention to detail. Again, the small things become large when you are charged through the nose for them.

One of the key issues that most operators face is the expectation of their travelling clientele and the managing of them. I feel the most pivotal factor in this process is knowledge of the product you are selling. By knowing, I don’t just mean of the website (which may or may not be current), the brochure or the location of the country. I guess the word ‘knowing’ could be replaced with ‘experiencing’ – and it has to be first hand.

Despite our initial contact with the resort being somewhat disorganised, there were just those little things that were missing – for want of a better word, the ‘polish.’ For those frequent top-end travellers among us you will know what I mean…

In order to marry together what I experienced personally with what I expect for my clients, perhaps some in-depth training angled towards the luxury end of the market would be a good start. There is obviously some training that goes on but perhaps more experienced people could get in there and call the shots. That way, the locals would know what to polish, the clients would be charged the right amount and they would recommend it to all and sundry.

Please don’t get me wrong Samoa, I still think you are beautiful. I feel like I have been hard on you, but I had my agent hat on. Take that off and replace it with my traveller hat and I loved you. I loved your lush, fruit-scented native forests. I loved your white-toothed, cheeky grins from children and adults alike. I loved your completely ‘pimped out’ public buses with flames down the sides that were overflowing and I loved your water – oh the crystal clear, brimming-with-electric-coloured-fish water you have…

Samoa, I’ll come back to you and this time I’ll have my surfboard.

With the future looking bright for their outbound travel market to continually grow it makes sense for New Zealand tourism organisations to develop strategies to target the China travel market to compliment efforts already in progress by the likes of Tourism New Zealand, Air New Zealand and the Shanghai World Expo.

So what are the key ways to do this?  It really depends on the resources and size of your organisation.  At present over 71% of travellers from China come as part of a pre-arranged group tour (source: Tourism New Zealand) rather than as FIT so forming relationships with key inbound tour operators and group tours is a logical first step.  The FIT market however is growing so an online strategy is also important, and The Economist has identified social media as another key way.

Here are some further links to articles of interest regarding the Chinese tourism market and China Online Travel

China Travel Trends

Ruder Finn Asia China Travel and Tourism Market Newsletter

Role of Social Networking in Chinese Online Travel Market

Tourism New Zealand – Changes Set to Benefit Chinese Group Tour Market

Tourism New Zealand – ADS Programme (China Monitoring Unit)

Tourism New Zealand – Crossing the Digital Divide in China

TNOOZ: Most Popular Travel Websites In Hong Kong June 2010

Nielsen China Outbound Travel Monitor 2009 (have to purchase the full report)

If you have any tips or success stories about dealing with the Chinese market let us know.

So should we in fact combine resources with Australian tourism from time to time for particular campaigns and in some markets?  Interested to see how you vote, feel free to comment too.

The Aussies at least think it might be a good idea to “invade” our country and our 100% Pure brand as you can see in the video below…

1) Get to know your product. This means doing the legwork, and getting out there.

Or you can cheat and go to TRENZ, but you’re never going to know for sure if the brochures they’re showing you are simply putting their product in the best light, or if they’re for real.

If you’ve visited a product provider, and can report from first hand experience that their “Garden Suite” actually looks over someone else’s garden, whereas their “Lake View Suites” do get views of the lake, but across someone else’s roof, you’re in a better position to be able to manage a client’s expectations.

2) Get to know your suppliers. Again, it’s the small things that count, and a smiling face upon guest arrival is most probably worth more the comfortableness of the bed in terms of visitor enjoyment, because that smile will set the tone for their entire time with that provider. How do you know your supplier’s going to welcome your client with a smile? You’ve got to get out there and meet them.

3) Get to know your client. This is key -  a comprehensive brief from them about their likes and dislikes, preferences and tastes, is non-negotiable. Get on the phone to them, at least twice, preferably a whole lot more times. Arranging for them to do a challenging 7-hour Tongariro Crossing when they’re built like a retired gridiron linebacker and usually only manage half hour walks around the local pond, is NOT going to score you points on their feedback form.

4) Which brings me to the penultimate point – feedback. Always ask your client for comprehensive feedback about your services, your suppliers’ services, and about their travel experience as a whole. This is invaluable in helping you to get better at what you do -  if you can forward that feedback on to your suppliers, any provider worth their salt will appreciate constructive commentary.

5) CHARGE FOR YOUR SERVICES. This could spawn another article in itself, and I’d welcome feedback from anyone and everyone on this. We’ve wasted so much time writing itineraries for people, never to hear from them again, that we gave up. Now, we spend 15-20 minutes doing an overview itinerary, which gives them an outline of where we’d recommend they visit (geographic place names), what they should be getting up to whilst there (activities), and how much time at each place. We also offer them to chance to request references from past clients.

If they like the overall timeline, route map, and pace, then before we go ANY FURTHER, we take up an front “good faith” deposit by credit card. This shows us they mean business – if we then go ahead and spend another 2 hours writing a fully fleshed out itinerary including accommodation and activity operator recommendations, the chances are they’ll book through us. If you DON’T charge them an upfront fee, then there’s every chance they’ll simply take your itinerary and book it all directly themselves. If they do this after paying your “good faith” deposit, then at least you’ll have made a couple of dollars for your 2 hours work.

If anyone would like a recommendation for a superb itinerary creation software product, get in touch.

Some local councils own and manage i-SITEs, operate visitor websites, have tourism development employees and promote and manage events or festivals that attract visitors.

The rationale being that prosperous tourism and hospitality businesses pay rates and therefore provide ongoing revenue for councils with the potential for further development.  Win-win right?

However with ever increasing costs and debt levels borne by councils, there is currently debate over whether Local Government should stick to their “core services”, meaning infrastructure of services like water, sewerage, roading etc.

TIANZ beleives that ‘tourism is core activity for local govt“, so we’re interested to hear what you think – from both rate payers and those with vested interest in the tourism industry.

What activities related to tourism do you think local government should be involved with?

Should each council have the ability to determine their policy according to their regions needs rather than being guided by legislation? Let us know what you think.

Take Our Poll on this subject below, or you you have more detailed thoughts, add a comment at the bottom of the post.

Impossible you say (and you’re not without reason), especially considering we are talking the travel industry. I mean, the words ‘global travel’ and ‘environmentally friendly’ = irony, surely. Some would even say to the point of being like rain on your wedding day, or that free ride once you’ve already paid.

In this day and age, travel and the mere act of boarding a plane is frowned upon to a large degree and quite understandably too – there are not too many things out there that top the carbon emissions incurred from air travel and the associated anti-green images that go with it.

However, as a result the travel industry has had to pull its socks up along with the rest of the world’s industries (bar BP clearly) and despite intention and whether it’s because you care or simply just want to jump on the sustainable bandwagon to look good, bettering our operations and being conscious of the old ‘footprint’ is surely a good thing.

To be honest, it’s been quite the mental barrier getting this whole ‘green initiative’ up and running, to the point where as of the end of May and after our successful audit, Kiwi Does It Ltd is carboNZero!!! A very proud feeling indeed with that 90′s little framed certificate to go with!

Yep, here at Kiwi Does It our office and operations are green friendly (and we’re working on our itineraries too) which means we do actually care. And it’s not just that token care where you pay some money and get a certificate – it’s that care where you have to measure your emissions (and we learnt all about these as we went), put a plan in place to manage them, and then where possible, mitigate and offset them. Did we hear you say ‘that’s great’? Thanks, we think so too.

Did I also hear you ask ‘but what does it all mean?’

Well, it means that from here in on we will be looking at all our emissions sources (like power, gas, vehicle usage, printing costs, travel costs etc) and making sure they are reduced where possible, excluded where we can and offset if they are a must (like flights needed to create the itineraries). As the years go on, Landcare Research and the carboNZero rope gets tightened to the point where we have to be really into it to maintain our stamp. Tough eh?

But… the point behind it all is guilt-free travel for both our travelers and ourselves (which means we can have that extra bar of chocolate if we want).

Now it’s up to us to help encourage those operators and events people we use for our itineraries to think about their options for sustainability and keeping the travel industry the amazing place of work that it is…
Choice.

This post was originally published by Rob Grieve on the Kiwi Does it blog.

What is it?

Using a mobile device with GPS, it’s a way to explore a city and find people, places and things to do.  The users “check-in” to their current locations and can earn rewards in doing so.   
It’s got much more of a “game” approach to it than other social media tools where users can “unlock badges and discover new things” for rewards, but the interesting bit is that these things are in the real world so businesses can use it to influence behaviour and actions, turning Foursquare users into paying customers.

Is It Useful for Tourism Businesses and Destination Marketing?

You bet ya it is, well eventually anyway – once more people start to understand it, and provided it’s content continues to grow throughout New Zealand then it could become quite a powerful tool for travellers to decide what do to and where to go while visiting, plus you can incentivise your regular customers.

Here is a link to find out how businesses can use Foursquare to reward their customers with special offers and incentives.  You can either “claim your venue” as the business owner if someone has already added your business on Foursquare, or you can add your venue yourself.  Once you have claimed it you can monitor the stats, add special offers and award prizes etc.

This article “VisitPA uses Foursquare to it’s Full Potential” on the Project Wander blog is perhaps the first example of a Destination Marketing Organisation getting onboard with Foursquare to market it.

The limiting factor right now in New Zealand is the quality and lack of mobile internet access nationwide so it’s use is mainly in the cities….that may take some time to fix, but if your coverage is good then give it a go for your tourism business or organisation.  Would be great to hear about any businesses using it already.