33. Even though the “NICE” times are over *NICE = Non-inflationary period of constant expansion
34. So, are we at a punctuation point in history? Is this being asked of us?
35. “ We are at that point of time when a four-hundred-year-old age is rattling in its deathbed and another is struggling to be born – with a shifting of culture, science, society and institutions enormously greater and swifter than the world has ever experienced…..”
36. …… .Ahead lies the possibility of regeneration of individuality, liberty, community and ethics such as the world has ever known , and a harmony with nature, with one another, and with the divine intelligence such as the world has always dreamed. .
49. We Need Three to Support Our Current Population & Current Lifestyles We haven’t had to pay for our life support services
50.
51. CONNECTIVITY & COMMUNITY From separateness to interconnectivity and interdependence Future value is in the relationships between people Law of networks
52. Tourism is NOT an industry but a Community of Connecting Agents
So I crave your indulgence This is not your normal tourism presentation with masses of statistics and disjointed trends. My goal is to get you to see tourism differently – to change your mindset; to get those creative juices going. I am followed on this podium by many experts whose detailed operational knowledge in marekting and management surpasses mine. My task to create context. Here’s my roadmap for today.
Before we look forward to how values might be changing – and they most certainly are…. Let’s remind ourselves of where we’ve come from I’ll keep this quick – but want to suggest that tourism is coming home to its roots. In fact this whole speech is more about about homecoming than leaving….
Tourism – the holiday business –actually has its roots in spirituality. Holiday comes from holy days – a time for Rest, reflection, renewal. People in the middle ages had far more time for holidays than we do today…. Vacation is from a latin word meaning to empty. Pilgrimage was one of the earliest forms of tourism – here’s Chaucer off the Canterbury where a thriving souvenir market existed and millions still travel for religious purposes today.
This very expensive Canaletto was one of the first destination brochures – commissioned in part to persuade wealthy young men like Lord Byron with time on their hands and a penchant for dressing up to take Grand Tour and trample over the antiquities of Italy, Greece and other parts of the Mediterranean.
While Byron was busy touring the ruins of ancient civilisations that had crashed and crumbled, back home the seeds of an industrial revolution were being sown and it wasn’t long before his home country was littered with Dark Satanic mills and a whole new class of working people emerged – initially too poor to move but soon the desire and the means for escape was born and we saw the emergence of the seaside resort where the most daring thing women did was show some ankle.
You could argue the history of tourism is about he amount of flesh willing to be exposed Along with r & r came this notion of escape and exclusivity. This would be ideal if it were secluded and empty. But this is still reality for many and might be reality for more…….
Cos what those women were likely dreaming about was romance – another core value and a value that many countries in the South Pacific have successfully appealed to.
And if romance didn’t last, if you get bored with each other, you can always shop…… or ski in the desert. In the same way that mountaineers climb everest because it’s there, Arabs ski in the desert because they can. My point here is that the acquisition of stuff or collection of memorabilia has always been associated with travel and shopping is an important activity for some people. Shopping malls like Mall of America and now the many that litter Dubai are key attractioins for some – but certainly not for everybody
The more things become the same and there are no surprises, the more we yearn for the unexpected. We are nostaligic for the days of genuine explorers who never knew what was around the corner only in our case there is always a hidden guide/operator orchestrating those “unique” moments of discovery….
From explorers to adventurers. – when Simon Fraser negotiated the rapids of interior Canada; that was advebture. When Byron took his household off to Europe it was The Grand Toour. Now when overweight Europeans sit on underweight bests of burden it’s call “soft adventure” But for those with a personal death wish you can now pay to jump of tall buildings, bridges and fjords ….in your quest for adventrure.
According to a survey sponsored by MSNBC and Conde Nast Traveller, 55 percent of the participants in the survey said they were interested in volunteering on their vacation.
Or, does what we measure indicate what we really value?
Extrinsic value has nothing to do with cost of production or scarcity or how important it is to life… Then of course there’s the mantra – we only value what we pay for…
Four actors in any tourism community Each has their own values Successful tourism at the destination occurs when these are roughly in alignment BUT it’s rare that the community thinks about them Suppliers vary enormously in values – for some tourism is the means to a quick buck; for others it’s a lifestyle; for others it’s a passion or cause. We’ve identified that guests are seeking a range of benefits and therefore value experiences differently. Investors are crucial and it’s too easy to suggest that they only value and high ROI. A growing number are looking at a broader range of values But the group whose values matter most is the host community – the visitor has far more contact with residents than employees or investors How much tourism is really shaped by community values – how often do residents get involved in the decisions as to the type, scale and pace of tourism development.
The men and women that sailed east against the prevailing westerlies know how to read the invisible ocean and air currents. They knew how to see the invisible. They didn’t follow the herd – or the easy path –
Why did the titanic sink? The captain, owners passengers perceived it as unsinkable. 2`design flaw….that had escaped attention and some powerful assumptions that the vessel was unsinkable. The design flaws were always there but had not been seen.
Yes but! There is a future for a healthy sustainable tourism sector in the South Pacific but not if you ignore the deeper, qualitative changes occurring in source markets. There are as many threats as opportunities Your planning and targeting will need to be more precise. You’ll need to make some very conscious careful choices You need to throw out old models and think afresh. Every time I see this graph I think of the Titanic – its full of unexamined assumptions that may or may not be accurate Growth is good Growth can occur year on year without checks and balances Growth is achievable The systems on which this growth depends won’t fail There’s no uncertainty in the system.
Will this recession end ? Will we, can we return to business as usual? I am one of many hundreds of thousands of people who think we ate at not just a puctuation point but a an evolutonary trigger point. Now I am going to share a quotation from an eminent thinker…
Heavy stuff… the author went on to say……..
Powerful, visionary words – written around 1999. Sounds like the words of a futurist, or consultant, student of change… You’d be surprised to know that they are the thoughts of a banker – yes really! But no ordinary banker A banker who was also a farmer A banker who went on to form one of the the most powerful financial institutions on the planet He was able to do this because he constantly examined his assumptions and was able to intuit a new collaborative way of working in business that matched the way the universe works..
There are no stratight lines in nature
Nothing in nature grows indefinitely hamster
hamster
There are no stratight lines in nature
I was at university the year that mankind took that great step and stood on the moon As geography students we we’d already studied the early pictures from space. Our world was no longer quite as mysterious ano vernight it had edges. It’s taken over 50 years for the implications of that observation to press home. But pressing home it is ….. And to give you a sense of how our deepest beliefs are changing I’d like you to watch this clip.
I was at university the year that mankind took that great step and stood on the moon As geography students we we’d already studied the early pictures from space. Our world was no longer quite as mysterious ano vernight it had edges. It’s taken over 50 years for the implications of that observation to press home. But pressing home it is ….. And to give you a sense of how our deepest beliefs are changing I’d like you to watch this clip.
The capacity to flourish How can you reduce the ecological footprint