1. Flourishing in an Age of Disruption
TEFI 9: The Disruptive Power of Caring
Anna Pollock, Founder, Conscious Travel

2. …leading, forward-thinking network that inspires,
informs and supports tourism educators, students and
other communities of interest to passionately and
courageously transform the world for the better…
Tourism Education Futures Initiative

3. Previous TEFI Presentations
Conscious.Travel

4. Current Perspective

5. We stand at the tipping point of a new future.
The choices you and I make will impact the future
of life for thousands of years.
Rather than that being a burden, it gives us the
opportunity to live the most meaningful lives any
generation of human kind has ever lived.
Based on two Fundamental Beliefs - 1

6. Tourism can be a force for good in this world
but only if
We shift our focus from getting bigger & bigger to
Generating greater net benefit to all stakeholders
and
that will take a fundamental shift in consciousness
Based on two Fundamental Beliefs - 2

7. Focus Today
1. The necessity for and inevitability of deep
change
2. The need to address Root Causes
3. Seeing patterns and changing stories
4. Getting from here to there
5. My dream

8. 1. Why Change?

10. 4 - 4.5% CAGR
1.2 billion international trips
in 2013
What will doubling tourism
in 17 years look and feel
like?
What kind of leadership will
be needed to manage that
growth and impact?
International Tourism Arrivals

11. The Island Where Tourist Garbage is Stored in the Maldives
Source: Daily Mail
The Queue to Climb Everest
Source: 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 Balinese
Source: ABC They Paved Paradise
How will we protect vulnerable people and
cultures?
Can we really handle another 600 million in
just 12 more years?

12. Assessing tourism’s global impact 1990-2010
Stefan Gossling and Paul Peters
Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 2015
Vol23, No 5, 639-659

13. Business as Usual IS unsustainable
10 mega forces
All connected
“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

14. Systemic breakdowns are
breakdowns that occur in an
entire system, as opposed to
breakdowns in individual parts
and components.
Challenges are systemic, structural &
interconnected

15. Impact of Systemic Risk
Systemic risks are endemic everywhere – in
supply chains, pandemics, infrastructure,
ecology, and climate change, economics and
politics.
Unless we are better able to address these
concerns, they will lead to greater
protectionism, xenophobia, nationalism, and,
inevitably, deglobalization, rising conflict and
slower growth.

17. 2. Root Causes

18. If the Future were an iceberg, what should you pay attention
to?

19. TRENDS
• HIV/Aids
• Ebola Virus
• Ozone Layer
• Immigration
• Flooding
• Decline in visitors
• Congestion
• CSR initiatives
• Philanthropy
• China
outbound
• Millennials
• The Sharing
Economy
• Athletic Events
& Challenges
• Social Good
• Luxury
PROBLEMS

20. TRENDS
DRIVERS
Change Drivers
• Climate Change
• Wealth disparity
• Resource scarcity
• Global connectivity
• Transparency
• Democratization of
everything
• Changing Values
• All sorts of technology
These are all “WICKED
problems”

22. Hypothesis
The global spread of mass
tourism based on the
industrial-production model
is a wicked problem

23. TRENDS
DRIVERS
DEEPER
TECTONIC
FORCES
Tectonic Forces
• Affect the entire
human species
• Expressed as universal
dynamics/patterns
• Involve deep
questioning
• How do we respond?

24. The world we have created is a
product of our thinking; it
cannot be changed without
changing our thinking.
No problem can be solved
with the same consciousness
that created it.
We must learn to see the
world anew.

25. Need to change our minds, our mindsets

26. That means …
Behaving
Being
Seeing
Action
Values
Perception

27. That means …
Behaving
Being
Seeing
Action
Values
PerceptionWaking up
Growing up
Stepping up

28. The shift has begun

29. How do YOU spot a tectonic
shift?
Look for simple, universal

30. THE DOMINANT
PATTERN

32. Waking Up to the Real Nature of Change
The Promise The Reality
Dr. Butler’s
TALC model
Sigmoid Curve

33. No surprise!

34. 3. In between two stories

35. This is where we are as a species
Decaying Old System
Emerging New System
Disruptive Questions:
Who am I?
How do I see my world?
How do I relate to other life forms?
Why am I here?

36. Signs of Distress
Dying OLD “INDUSTRY”
• Utterly dependent on MORE
• Exclusive, benefitting the few
• Gross revenues
• Tourist – wallet, $
• Financial Transaction
• Hierarchical, “top down”
leadership
• Silo’d, separate
• Disempowering communities

37. Signs of Distress
Dying OLD “INDUSTRY”
• More
• Exclusive, benefitting the few
• Gross revenues
• Tourist – wallet, $
• Financial Transaction
• Hierarchical, “top down”
leadership
• Silo’d, separate
• Disempowering

38. “It’s all a question of story. We are in trouble now
because we do not have a good story. We’re in
between stories. The old story, the account of how
we fit into it, is no longer effective. Yet we have not
learned the new story” Thomas Berry
The Nature of the New Story

39. What’s the New Story that’s
Emerging?
One that:
• Shows we are part of nature and not
separate from it.
• Properly situates humans in the world
– neither above it by virtue of our
superior intellect, nor dwarfed by the
universe into cosmic insignificance.
• That we are equal partners with all
that exists, co-creators with trees and
galaxies and microbes in a materially
and spiritually evolving universe
Source: Richard Schiffman

40. HOW DO YOU SEE PLANET EARTH?
OLD
Floating real
estate to be:
• Exploited
• Developed
• Fixed
• Scarce
• Worth
competing for
NEW
Living organism
Community of
self-organising
elements to be:
• Revered
• Life Support
• Teacher
• Mother
• Capacity for
abundance
• Collaborative

41. The tree which moves some to tears of
joy is, in the eyes of others, only a
green thing which stands in the way,
Some see Nature all ridicule and
deformity, and some scarce see Nature
at all.
But to the eyes of the man of
imagination, Nature is Imagination
itself.
As a man is, so he sees
William Blake
Change the way we see & relate to
Nature

42. What’s an Economy For?
You don’t start with the corporation and ask how to redesign
it.
You start with life, with human life of the planet and ask…
How do we generate the conditions for life’s flourishing?
Marjorie Kelly
The only valid purpose of an economy is to serve life. To
align the human economy with this purpose, we must learn
to live as nature lives, organises as nature organises, and
learn as nature learns, guided by a reality-based, life
centred, intellectually sound economics. David Korten

43. So what is life?
• Life is a system that regenerates itself from within
• It is in a constant state of becoming, evolving
• Life emerges from the relationships of its parts
• Life is matter that chooses

44. Systemic Change

45. The Visitor Economy is a living system
embedded in a larger living system
• With Hosts (human beings)
• Encountering and serving
• Guests (other human beings)
• In a community of other human beings
and life forms
• That takes place in a unique space
• Embedded in a larger ecosystem

46. Humanity in transition!

47. 4. How do we cross over?

48. 4. How do we cross over?

49. How do you change a system?
Source: Donella Meadows

50. 5 curve leaping moves!
1. Practice a new way of SEEING & BEING together
2. Change Your PURPOSE from Volume Growth to Flourishing
3. Grow Profit by Growing your PEOPLE
4. Unleash the Power of PLACE
6. Become recognised as a PEAK destination
“The leaders we need today are not heroes who command but
hosts who convene”
5. Step up and LEAD as HOSTS

51. 1. Practice a new way of SEEING, together
old new
Industry – machine- separate
parts – hierarchy – command &
control - me –scarcity -
competition
Living ecosystem – community –
interdependent relationships –
self organizing network - we –
collaborate

52. Change the filters

53. Traditional Approach (Philip Kotler)

54. Conscious Travel Approach

55. 2. Change your PURPOSE
Increased
GROWTH as in
MORE volume
Increased
NET BENEFIT as in
BETTER value

56. Aim for People and Places to FLOURISH
Hosts – Guests – Host Businesses – Residents – Host Community – Your Descendants
Indicators from Positive Psychology (People) & Ecology (systems, enterprises & places) to track
Long-term NET BENEFIT – HEALTH/VITALITY – RESILIENCE - PASSIONATE/ENGAGED – BALANCE –
SELF ORGANZING – SELF GENERATING

57. 3. Grow Profit by Growing Your PEOPLE

58. 4. Grow Profit by being a PLACE that CARES
about THE NEEDS OF THEIR EMPLOYEES, AND …
Suppliers Community
AND THE NEEDS
OF ALL THEIR STAKEHOLDERS

59. 5. Unleash the Power of Place
We cannot know who we are, until we know
where we are.
Wendell Berry
“We cannot know who we are until we know
where we are” Wendell Berry

60. 5. Re-imagine, Re-member our Relationship with
Nature
“Nature” is NOT a market
segment Nor a problem to be solved
The clearest way into the
Universe is through a forest (John
Muir)
Nor even a set of services
to be paid for
“I only went out for short walk but
stayed till dark, for going out I
found I was really going in”
There is no wifi in the forest but I
promise you will find a better
connection there.

61. 4. Unleash the Power of Place
There are no unsacred places
There are only sacred places
And desecrated places
Wendell Berry
When we see land as a community
to which we belong, we may begin
to use it with love and respect
Aldo Leopold
This is NOT about BRANDING! It IS about becoming INDIGENOUS.

62. 6. Step Up to Lead as Hosts
“The leaders we need today are not heroes who
command but hosts who convene” Margaret Wheatley
New and exciting forms of leadership and collaboration that
Enable innovation to emerge will need to be learned and practiced.

63. 5. My dream

64. Create PEAK PLACES where
• All life flourishes; tourism is the means not the end
• There’s a distinct, feeling, character, “spirit” and personality
• Hosts are IN LOVE with their home and CARE for it with a shared
passion
• Guests experience an authentic welcome that inspires and
transforms
• Hosts CARE for each other and collaborate to create sustained
livelihoods
• Visitors generate sustained net benefits to the community as a whole
• Where the community determines direction, pace and type of
tourism that is right for them.

65. 5. Your role as educators, hosts and guides

66. Shared Leadership
It’s time for all the old heroes
to go home. It’s time to face
the truth of the situation –
that we’re all in this together,
that we all have a voice – and
to figure out how to mobilise
the hearts and minds of
everyone in our communities.
Margaret Wheatley & Deborah Frieze. Leading
in the Age of Complexity

67. Help your students and guests make this
journey

68. An inner adventure
A journey of becoming
An outer adventure
A journey of exploration

69. Help your students and guests make this
journey
HOSTING GUIDING

70. My Reasons Why Hosts can Lead
• Hospitality will drive tomorrow’s economy - hosts are the leaders
• You act locally but are part of a global network, a community
• Collectively and in local communities you have power and influence
• You are closest to the people – you are first to sense the pulse
• You understand and love your “place” – it’s home
• Your caring leads to protection, revitalisation, flourishing
• You can pull the community together behind a shared vision

71. The REAL Purpose of Travel and Hosting
• Tourism as a “wholesome” healing agent
• Tourism as a Connecting Agent –
transformative
• Tourism as an Agent of Regeneration and
Revitalisation
• Tourism as a source of positive social impact
• Tourism as an Agent of Inspiration – instilling
wonder and awe

72. Our Higher Purpose – The Revolution that
Matters
There is a revolution that needs to
happen and it starts from inside each
one of us.
We need to wake up and fall in love with
Earth. We've been homo sapiens for a
long time. Now it's time to become
homo conscious.
From Falling in Love with the Earth by
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh

73. can “read the love letters sent by the
wind and the rain, the snow and the
moon”
Your Higher Purpose – to help your
guests fall in love with life and Mother
Earth and so that they too

74. Through Experiencing Wonder & Awe
“it’s the wild that preserves humanity”
You’ll move your guests from numbness to
aliveness
from indifference to empathy

76. Thank you and there’s more on my
blog
Anna Pollock, Founder, Conscious Travel
For more, please ask!
theconscioushost@gmail.com
www.conscious.travel