La sostenibilidad ya no es una ventaja competitiva sino una necesidad para la supervivencia! / Sustainability is no longer a competitive advantage but a need for survival
One more year at Fitur meeting with old friends and getting to know some new professionals. This year I´ve also been able to attend several seminars of FiturTech and FiturGreen and the general message put forward is that the type of visitor is changing. Their motivations and what they look for are normally a memorable experience and we need to adapt in order to fit into this new niche that is clearly increasing in strength.
Here is a little thought;
In the nineties, the question was; where do you travel? The place was important, I would say I´ve been to this location or this destination.
At the beginning of this century the question evolved to; what did you do? Understanding that the destination is secondary and what is important is the activity, skiing, hiking, golf, among others.
Finally tourist of today and more importantly visitors of tomorrow seem to add to these two questions, how did you do it? & with Whom? Putting the emphasis and the importance on the experience and how unique. Move away from the traditional trip and look for something different with local people who know the destination and are able to offer something exclusive, creating that memorable experience to the visitor.
As a responsible traveller and entrepreneur who always try to put the emphasis of promoting a sustainable tourism that puts into value the natural and cultural resources, promoting the local business and the local heritage it seems our time has come to stay. This type of tourism also helps to develop remote and deprived areas as the tourist expenditure goes directly to the local economies helping them to thrive while preserving their local heritage. It also requires lees investment in infrastructure as it uses the local systems and reduces economic speculation; meaning everybody wins.
I have met with former colleagues and have met many new consultants and travel agents that promote sustainable management practices and local development through cultural activities. There is a strong commitment to increase training for heritage interpretation and for local guides. There is also promotion of local practices, local architecture, reduction in energy consumption and use of local materials and investment in more efficient technologies.
With this post I appeal to all those friends and to all those colleagues looking to travel in a responsible way to continues to encourage this type of tourism and help us to get out of the difficult economic situation that many of us are facing.
As a final thought I´d like to think that its bee the actual crisis the turning point that has made us be aware of what really is vital. What is the most important reason why we travel? In my case and I think every day of more travelers; is to find ourselves through discovering other cultures and ways of life. The most important factor and what makes a trip memorable, leaving a trace in us; is always the people.
Let’s promote and preserve cultural and natural diversity, not only for the future generations but simply out of pure selfishness in order to be able to learn from them and be able to discover ourselves in the process.
Tourism of the Future: is the Responsible Tourism; the truly memorable tourism!
This was the final presentation of the ATWS in Scotland. It followed the title Inspire, and it was a breathtaking intervention with a lot of emotion and value. Truly inspiring!
Dr. Sakena Yacoobi is Executive Director of the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL), an Afghan women-led NGO she founded in 1995. Established to provide teacher training, education and health services to women and children, over 7 million have benefited from AIL’s programs to date. Sakena’s vision of a healthier Afghanistan evolved after watching her mother give birth to 15 children, only to have 5 children survive. Under Sakena’s leadership, AIL has established itself as a visionary organization which works at the grassroots level and empowers women and communities to bring education and health services to poor rural and urban girls and women, as well as other disenfranchised Afghans. AIL was the first organization to offer human rights and leadership training to Afghan women in the 1990s. AIL supported 80 underground home schools for 3000 girls in Afghanistan during the Taliban regime. AIL was first to open Women’s Learning Centers for Afghan women—a concept now copied by many organizations throughout Afghanistan. Dr. Yacoobi has received multiple recognition-of-service awards in Afghanistan.
Who she is:
Not much more can be said to this introduction. She was the first in her family to be able to go to university in the US, when she finished and wanted to go back to Afghanistan but the border was closed. When she finally was able to go back to her house, she created a learning center for women, which was illegal at the time.
She told some stories that she has to live through, this is an example:
One day while travelling as of any other day she got stopped by a line of armed men with riffles. When she saw the line of men in the middle of the road that she travelled every day, she was very afraid for her life and those on board the truck. The young men aged between 16-22 years wanted her to get out of the vehicle. The people inside requested for her to stay but she knew they were all in danger if she did not do what they said. Finally when she confronted the men they told her that they wanted education and they would stop her every day until she accepted, they knew that she had a school. She said she will try to look for a solution, even though the school was for women and that she had no means to take care of them. When she got to the school the phone rang and it was from the aid program, she explained what had happened to her that morning and they told her they would take care of them too. Finally next day when she was stooped she told them she would teach them to write and read but on the condition that they would come every day, clean and behave correctly. After 4months in the program they had learned to read and write and today they are their guides and protect her.
This is a true story and shows the feelings and how everybody wants to learn and be educated. They wanted to improve their life and change, education as a means of transformation and growth.
Another story was that of a young girl who wanted to go to school to read. She was told by her parents that the only way to go to school was if she woke up at 4 o’clock and did her labor before leaving every morning. For the first 4 months she did not speak a word but from the work she was doing by knitting she could pay his brother to do her work at home and take care of her 3 children. By the age of 22 she had become the leader of the local center with 300 women under her training, and people come and ask her for advice. She has become an important figure in her village and people come to her for advice. She is in the local council and is spreading the word to other areas.
This is an example of how empowerment of women thorough education can lead to development.
Finally she told us that her main aim is to make the world and the afghan women aware that they are individuals and that they can do anything they set to do. She is doing a great work in developing a women liberal right movement in Afghanistan and creating leader in that country. Empowering women in a very complicated country.
Best is to listen to her:
Do you think it´s an inspiring story?
After hearing this incredible story that I feel charged up with positive energy and feel to continue with our mission of achieving sustainable development in the region of la Vera through the promotion of responsible tourism.
Esta presentación continúa el ciclo de la Cumbre Mundial de Turismo de Aventura y el ponente fue Keith Bellows – Redactor jefe de National Geographic Traveler. Keith nacio en la República Democrática del Congo pero es ciudadano canadiense, Keith Bellows, de 58 años, fue nombrado editor en jefe de la revista National Geographic Traveler en enero de 1998 y vicepresidentes de la National Geographic Society en marzo de 2000. Bajo su dirección, la revista ha sido nominada a dos National Magazine Awards, ha ganado más de 60 Premios Lowell Thomas como mejores reportajes de viaje (siendo nombrada mejor revista en ocho de sus 11 años como director y este año ganó como mejor revista y el mejor sitio web), y ocho premios a la Mejor Folio Travel Magazine. Como guinda y en referencia a los nuevos medios, ha ganado un premio iTunes’s Peoples Choice a la Mejor Podcast de 2006, para lo cual Bellows escribió dos guiones. Su “Intelligent Travel” ganó un Travvie 2007 y el Premio 2009 Lonely Planet como mejor blog de viajes.
Keith ha vivido en Escocia, entre muchos otros destinos. Comenzó su discurso dirigiéndose a sus lectores que son nuestros potenciales clientes (turista aventurero). Y planteó la idea de “Nutrir el futuro” (hay que salir de nuestra zona de comodidad todos los días). Algunos de los aspectos más representativos incluyen;
35% de los hombres del congreso de los EE.UU. no tienen pasaporte, no hay datos sobre los habitantes de EE.UU. pero deben de ser muy altos.
Él cree que el viaje puede ser una experiencia de aprendizaje y puede conducir a cambios en la forma de verla vida, abrir la mente del viajero. Viajar es aprender la verdadera realidad, conocer las necesidades de la gente, y aprender de las diferentes culturas del mundo. Estas oportunidades de aprendizaje deben centrarse en los niños y jóvenes con el fin de abosorber el conocimiento local de otras culturas.
“No me digas que educación tienes, sino dime cuando has viajado” (Profeta Mahoma)
Es hora de enseñar a los niños a viajar para que viajen en busca del aprendizaje y la búsqueda de uno mismo como persona.
No hay una gran oferta de viajes específica para los niños, sobre todo se incluyen en las vacaciones de sus padres. Es hora de comenzar a centrarse en esta sector del mercado y de esta manera ayudar a desarrollar regiones remotas. Esto es una forma de mantener el patrimonio cultural mientras que a la vez se educa a los niños sobre otras culturas y formas de vida. El Guía pasa a ser un actor primordial y esencial para crear una experiencia única para los niños.
Si quieres conocer el futuro, pregúntale a un maestro de jardín de infancia (guardería).
En el futuro debemos crear ofertas específicas para los niños, los jóvenes y para el creciente mercado de los jubilados. Identificar otro tipo de viajeros que están aumentando en número y la demanda asociada a estos.
Parece necesario que empecemos a enfocar oferta turística a estos nuevos nichos de mercado. (Jóvenes y jubilados):
Create a business plan a marketing strategy (Physiographic, demographic, surroundings, who is my audience, among others.)
There is a problem with the way we address this sector, the terminology has to change:
Adventure Travel è no the same for US than for EU, and tourist and customers don’t even know what it is.
Ecotourism è Definition is ambiguous, need to be profitable and competitive if you want to have a stable business.
Environmentally friendly has to reduce price in order for the today customer to choose over other cheaper offer. Sustainability is seen as a competitive advantage if there is no price difference.
Sustainability has to be a competitive advantage when all the requirement of quality and cost has been addressed. Customer will choose sustainability when there is no difference in cost or quality.
Online Marketing
Theory that the web is dead: People surfing the net is decreasing but the number of people using and interacting in social media is growing.
Travel search:
Google increase by 6%
Yahoo is losing a bit
Bing is connecting with yahoo and is increasing 69% in travel searches
Online Usage trends:
10% hotel application use smart phone.
16% trip advisor positive comments
13% of social media site search.
From a Deloitte study carried on May 2010.
Google maps is going to include prices of hotels (direct competition for bookings and reservations). Average number of visits before buying at travel sites is 22. When travel is over 1.000 $ customers don’t even look. Airport fare stops them from going to that destination.
Mobile:
We began with a funny story: A young person approached him at the airport and asked him that there was no internet available and wanted to be assured that giving his details to a person through the phone was safe. Should I give my details over the phone, he preferred to do it through PayPal or via web thought it was safer. This shows the change in the new generations.
Europe market grew 125%. During May 2010 is a 9.8 Thousand Million business.
54% accessing travel services from smartphones.
Mobile technology is here to stay and is increasing.
Customer engagement, how do we do the conversions from social to real customers?
Apple i-travel connect hotel services, room reservation, temperature of your room, food and beverages of your taste, i-phone card as a room key and remote control.
Virtual technology is creating a big impact.
Google launch goggles pictures to search the web, take pictures from the telephone and google will tell me where I am.
Social networks.
50% of the population under 30 years old
YouTube is the 2nd largest in the world.
75% of housewife’s use social media.
46% growth rate year over year.
1/5 online users publish or have their own blog.
Older America:
Women between 45-55 years old most users and increasing
Decreasing the number of teenagers.
Facebook 500 million users (average is 137 friends)
Almost an hour a day
Fans page
Product spending, fans 28%more likely to spend and 68% more likely to recommend.
Tripadvisor and Facebook are linking
More exact information; ask the opinions of your friends.
Will have the possibility of only seeing your contact opinions.
Facebook Places
Where are you in the world. I.e. John is in Scotland.
Ability to pin point and target customer when they are close.
Brands incorporate check ins on fan page
Figures:
Twitter: 100 Million users with 50 million tweets each day
Linked in: growing to 65 million users
Foursquare: 1 million. Geared form mobile, link to twitter and facebook, get discounts, tips, brands can offer deals, growing quick.
Youtweetface: Combien the three.
Flow town: platform that business use to connect with their customers everywhere in the social media. Connect all the social media, online data Know your customers.
Online video: Hulu, 2.600 TV shows (simpsons, 30 rock, lost glee)
Try to advertise in the national geographic channel in Hulu.
YuMe
Video network, preview viedeo, adverts. Combine video viewing by informing customers data. Ability to target to customers, have their taste.
YouTube: viral video, Evian Roller Babaies, 100 Million views, started online and then went as a TV commercial on the US.
Online spending is growing. Companies spend around 12.6% of total advertising in 2009. ON campaigns as CTR Click Through Rate, good ROI? 0.1% one in thousand click on the add.
Travel industry is even worse 0.08% CTR from a flash add. CTR works by size and shape.
Case Studies:
Example was the Best Job in the World.
Done by Queensland Tourism (Australia) great barrier Reef.
100 million listed to
Received 34.000 applications.
Increase in touris 0%
The majority didn’t know what destination was been promoted (mainly Australia)
Advertising Balance:
The credibility Continuum (What do tourist think of information from):
Advertising spending: Direct mail 98% read it, direct marketing advertising increasing.
Publications & Broadcasts
How to get the best out of your Ipad. Amazon even has 11 printed books on this issue, very strange for an application that substitutes the paper. (Best out of your Iphone).
Amazon has guide books which people still buy:
624 books on Germany
862 books on Scotland.
Power of Magazines
Increase in 11 % in the 12 years of Google. We surf the internet (43 seconds in our website and we are happy). We swim the magazine (43 minutes average time reading a magazine)
Broadcast TV Benefits:
Average US citizen 35 hours of TV watching a week
Kids 25 hours per week.
Adults 48 hours per week.
Broadcast can be truly memorable and is when it’s most effective. The problem is the cost associated but it’s still the way to get an impact on more potential customers.
I.e. Ocean Spray adverts have created a set of commercials which have been very effective in the US making consumer link cranberry juice with Ocean Spray.
Can be very effective if done correctly, need to know your client and where to place them to have the most impact.
I.e. Goodwill created a campaign based only on billboards which gave them a return of 9$ per 1$ spent.
Goodwill
“It can be difficult to measure the success of any campaign asking for donations, especially cars because it is not a ‘see today donate tomorrow’ scenario. However, ‘billboards’ was consistently the number one response to ‘How did you hear about Goodwill titled goods?’. Along with that, if we take the amount we spend on billboards (almost exclusively how we advertise) we see that for every $1 we spend on billboards, we get back roughly $9 in revenue. This has increased as we have kept a billboard program in place over several years.”
Without forgetting the 3D Billboards displays. Use transports as billboards, among others.
I.e. Virginia tourism used a billboard campaign in the nearby state Washington DC to attract national tourism.
Another important note is that we had a 142% increase in unique visitors over April 2008. Virginia Beach saw a 45% increase in web visits from DC in April (over March).
Radio
We cannot forget the power of the radio and how the Iphones, Ipods have online radio, podcast, people record their programs and listen to them on their free time, when going to work or during lunch. Internet and local station are allways a good mean to get to potential customers.
Domino’s Pizza is to launch its first national radio campaign for seven years, to promote its Texas BBQ line. The sales increased by 9%!
Integrated Media
The key is not to put all the eggs in the same basket. We have to combine efforts and use the different channels and tools available. It’s a matter of combining efforts. The best campaigns always use a variety of means.
I.e. CNN Heroes was a US program that made people vote online but the winners were nominated on a TV show.
I.e. Donuts / Pepsi Max created a web contest for the top 6 videos, 3 from each brand. They were put on air during the super Bowl. If you wanted to know who won or if your advert was a winner you had to view them live.
I.e. Many online magazines have turned to printing issues.
Failure leads to Insights
This is one of the ideas that the US population is keener on. The trial and error, we have to experience in order to learn. We do not have to be afraid of failure as we can learn some very valuable lessons from it.
Try other means.
Marketing famous phrase:
“I know half of my advertising works; the only thing is that I don’t know which half.”
Microsoft Tags: Online and traditional banners have to combine efforts. The idea is to merge social and traditional marketing.
Questions:
What about the smaller players? (SME´s)
First we need to define precisely who your audience is and use specific publications as ITN (International Travel News), one full page 13,000 $.
Go directly to consumer or distribution channel, CRM Program, talk to them, and get to know what they are looking for. Work with local tourist boards, tell them our needs, look for help and aid programs, promote, and talk to writers, publishers, among others.
Editorial and Advertising Person
Non ethical, no payment. How, when, media is it worth the risk?
One page publication in Travel and Leisure for example: Editorial is 3 times more effective, valuable and reliable than advertising.
Tourist board can be very helpful. Free-lances is difficult and you don’t know when is going to come out as the need 50% of editorial but also 50% form the advertising before they can publish the article. Bloggers be careful and is not a very reliable source according to customers.
“Best reason for Advertising is next year”
Very important to always use the same image so the public know who we are.
Target the audience, create a clear strategy and follow it.
World Nomads also showed a video of a development project in Costa Rica, but it’s still not available as its part of a series of documentaries: I leave a link to their website where there are many example videos:
Story took place in an ecosystem, environment, surrounding
Story of trekking, activity
Story of the founder, traveller’s information, staff.
What camera to buy:
Sony, hard drive, extra batteries, computer backup. (1.000 $).
Canon Camera with HD (1.000 $).
Revel T+I HD videos 19×20 full HD.
Different outlets, products – same video can be edited to be used in different events, platforms. The important is to record in high quality in order to be able to modify, use different segments, versions, for website, YouTube, sell your product or promote the destination, among others. (B-B, B-C, Episodes, etc.)
Camera characteristics:
Flipcams- take it with you in helmet (small for adventure stories, where a conventional camera is difficult, quality is not that good but viewer understand so it’s no problem, can even be given to tourist for capturing special moments.
Audio: use external audio (directional, etc. pump audio, license music)
Flash memory or hard drives (local Audio Band)
Lighting (very important, (information available at the ATTA´s Hub).
Battery life (charge and buy extra for whole day shooting).
Use strong characters
Use interviews (anchor interviews 30 minutes). Unite questions between the ones interviewed so that you can move from one to another character. Use personal, historical, mechanical, transitional, philosophical or whatever ideas that are the strong and differentiating characteristic of the company, destination.
Script writing
Transcribe everything; write what to do, create a paper cut, what you are going to do! One page is about two minutes of filming! Record short scenes never more than 10 seconds (the less time and more diverse the better).
Editing:
Never more than 20 seconds (except interview)
Ideal is 4 to 5 seconds!
Tools
Windows – Adobe premiere, Sony vegas, movie maker.
Mac: Final cut studio, final cut express, Imovie.
Always good to have B-role: this is material of scenery, beautiful features, sunsets, landscapes, visitors, film for the editing for crafting the story, set the mood. (always well categorized will aid with professional teams, will reduce costs if you can give this material)
½ of the budget is for editing, 1 day shoot takes two days editing!
Video Hosting:
Think of Ipad, Iphone, Mac! Make them available for all platforms.
YouTube; do not expect to get all your visits from this channel alone, use leads, from blog, promotion in order to get significant impact and views.
Do something to ignite the video!
Singular vs Collective voice (me, me, me / us, us, us) conservancy spirit, us believe more people do it in our community destination. Promote more videos.
These are just tools, it requires good marketing (conventional) connect tell people. Mix of traditional and social marketing is vital.
Promote interactions, What do you think?, ask for comments, send video, share.
New conscious / broad audience.
Distribution:
Google displays, ads, ad-words, Facebook adds.
Email, Facebook, YouTube, connet the different means of communication, marketing.
Happy if a visitor is in the website for 5 minutes.
Facebook 1 ½ minutes.
Think of users with small screen i.e. IPhone.
We have the first 10 seconds to draw them and keep them! Reach media.
In conclusion, we identify that the realization of commercial and advertising travel videos can be done at a relatively low cost and with a professional finish when we plan properly.
Scot Adam president of Birchbark Media, a marketing and PR agency, has been helping to market and develop outdoor tourism businesses for over a decade. His passion for outdoor experiences and entrepreneurial determination has allowed him to excel his field. He is the main speaker in the presentation and takes us through the whole process.
The course begins by presenting the idea of the fast growing potential of social media. Some of the key figures include;
Facebook figures:
2004 – 1 Million users.
2009 – 350 Million users.
2010 – 500 Million users.
Twitter: Over 50 Million twits a day.
Youtube: has more than 24 hours of video uploaded per minute.
Google: shows 20% daily new keywords.
What hasn’t change is the need to have a strategic reason for doing social media.
Still need to sell a value, what it is, what you give and how do you differentiate from the competition.
Need to be transparent, authentic, human (Relationship, be yourself)
Give and don’t sell!
Listen and ask and do not tell.
Kathy Dragon puts out what’s growing interest on social media at the moment.
Trip advisor – trip friend: Initiative with Facebook worth to have a look. It combines the recommendation of trip advisor with Facebook friends so that the opinions from trip advisor can be selected from your Facebook friends. Now the opinions in which you rely can be only from people who you know and therefore reducing the possible bad publicity from competitors or opinions from people unknown.
Google Images: is growing quickly and with new features, important to carefully tag and name all our pictures so that it can be indexed by the search engine.
Facebook “Like” new feed optimization, algorithm
Feeds
Places
Groupon
Presentation on the Hub –
Edde Rank Algorith
When posting, wait for interactions, wait until people connect, different people interacting is better,
Post diverse, fotos, links, questions, do not post constantly!
Facebook Places
Is going to take over Foursquare and Gowala
Google image: improving search overhaul, put URL always (traffic to your website)
RSS feed.
Social media is beginning to be used as a guide, especially twitter is very linked with events and can be a very informative tool for up to date information.
Scott continues with his presentation with; why do you need Social media?
Maintaining relationships with clients.
Forming new relations.
Brand Building.
Promotion.
Managing disasters.
Promotions have become measurable. Use promos as dig or stumbleuoponit.org. Facebook can use wildfire for promotion, 2 people travel trip, group deal. Use Facebook and video promotion are some of the ideas proposed during the session.
Offering
Collect data.
Engage fans (gifts).
Facebook adds, free, try it (69$ led to 400,000 interactions).
Creative offer, look in the hub post link.
Measure
The main tools include Facebook, twitter, YouTube, Flickr but we have to look where our customer are. Do a Google search blog, twitter, Facebook and look a t the left panel in Google that has a lot of features. www.google.com/Insights/search (Keywords)
Look for influencers or anyone who is sharing your content. Add this website add icons for like, tweet and share to our website. Use shorter link (short URL). YouTube, also there is Vimeo for higher quality or flick tv.
How many followers are re-tweeting, we need to look for quality not quantity. Engagement – How often people engaging. Business page on Facebook. Youtube statistics on when are people leaving. Twitter analytics tools very interesting.
Conversion.
How to measure
Just ask where you arrive in the web-page to the customer, good feedback to trace the most effective mean for each company.
Free tools include; Social metrics addict.
Group Exercise.
We are a Backpacker Company that is present in Facebook and twitter.
Goals:
How to inform social media
Find people that like it
Establish the influencers
Design a strategy for new or existing products, how to attract people.
Get the buzz
Who are the influencers (Adprosumers)
Make content (select the right people. Market analysis
What is different about us!
Viral Video- post video of what we offer different to the competition.
Flip video and the camera!
Look for ADPROSUMERS
Look for LEADERS
Assignment: We are putting a new product on the market (tent) and we want to use social media marketing.
Contest on youtube, video.
Who is your consumer, how do they use social media, target wright people through the wright means.
Use other platforms, coordinate,
Story telling: When my backpacker saved my live – come and shoot our video.
Instead of video write a story which will be later put as a video.
Outside magazine credibility.
Take it to a concert, event (I.e. take the tent to try it) where you can record different experiences.
Include information about destination or product in videos:
Re-tweet, re-feed it.
Identify.
Gives prices.
Advocacy.
Encourage people (From each group).
Post on their blog.
Include information of sector in the blog.
Always respond in company language.
Mistakes or errors, do not debate, be transparent honest.
RSS feeds.
As a conclusion we need to remember that these are tools are not a strategy, so we need to define it before we embark on social media.
This session focused on real case studies on best practices for the promotion of sustainable tourism. How to achieve the theoretical goals and how to carry out these practices in the real world:
At the beginning the idea that there is a growing threat from mass tourism was put forward. The middle class population of china and India is growing dramatically and tourism is a fast growing market in these regions. These middle class people will be travellers in the near future and we have to target them and be careful with the consequences that will result. One of the key issues that we need to address is to harmonize and group the different certifications of:
Green tourism.
Ecotourism.
Cultural tourism.
Adventure travel.
Community tourism.
Sustainable tourism.
The GSCT is developing a global standard on sustainable practices in tourism:
The Global Sustainability Tourism Criteria.
Erika Harms is the Executive Director of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) and Senior Advisor on Tourism at the United Nations Foundation. In this role, Ms. Harms manages and oversees the implementation of activities under the framework of the GTSC, a cutting edge initiative that provides a clear set of standards, protocols, processes and measurements for how businesses can better the planet and practice sustainable tourism.
She set out to explain the process of elaborating the guide which has been summarized into 37 criteria and some of the goals that have been achieved include;
Created a platform for information exchange and the feedback process.
Maximize and promote collaboration of all the stakeholders
Cultural aspects of different communities
Reduce negative impacts, (not only economic but also environmental and social)
Develop the local economy,
The criteria is set to mark a minimum level, is used as a guideline, it’s a baseline accredited standard, it certifies the certifiers. It is based on the 4500 existing standards and more than 50 certifications. It’s been a long consultative process where all stakeholders have given their input.
There are four main actions or principles in which the indicators have been structured. The indicators will be defined locally, from the global principles or guidelines.
Demonstrate effective sustainable management.
Maximize social-economic impacts.
Minimize the cultural negative impacts.
Minimize the environmental negative impacts.
Implement criteria trough the Global Sustainable Tourism Council
Sets out to transmit, communicate, expand the criteria, best practices
Educate about the sustainability principles
Generate and increase market share
Increase public awareness.
Collaboration between tour operators, hotels, transport and all the key stakeholders.
After the introduction of the Criteria we have some practical examples form the speakers.
Starting with Mandip Singh Soin FRGS; who likes to be described as a Mountaineer, Explorer, Eco-tourism & Adventure Travel Specialist and Motivational Speaker.
Mandip is the only Indian to be awarded the Ness Award by the Royal Geographical Society, UK, for mountaineering and polar expeditions and encouragement of youth exploration. He is the Founder President of the Ecotourism Society of India and a Judge for the Tourism for Tomorrow Awards for the World Travel & Tourism Council.
After more than 30 years in the Himalayan doing diverse expeditions, he has been being doing diverse project for the development of remote areas. He focuses on identifying the local issues, it is vital for the sustainable development to use the local knowledge and it´s key to empower the local population and understand what their real needs are.
The second speaker was Lennart Pittja of Pathfinder Lapland; a Sami person from Sweden who started his business as a small family company in 1995. Their philosophy includes:
“We work close with nature and are proud of our origin and our history. We wish to spread knowledge about Sami culture, but also how to enjoy being close to animals and nature. For reasons of sustainability and “Natures Best” we always find new trails, a way of not leaving marks behind us“.
Vägvisaren – Pathfinder Lapland’s products are certified as “Natures Best” by the Swedish Eco-tourism Society, one of the first systems in the world for Eco-tourism certification.
He focuses on 6 pillars:
Education culture
Local economy
Environmental impact
Conservation
Create responsibility, respect from guests to their culture
Quality, reliable.
The success factors that he has identified include;
Right Staff
Government Support
National Label
Stakeholder process
Practical tool
Local and social content (Create rural value for visitors)
Visit Sápmi, has developed Sustainability Criteria including Social and Cultural Aspects of the Samis.
Tourism Community Management plan.
Lennard works normally with small groups, 5 or 6 days journeys in the Lapland sami region. The trip is to guide the reindeer between Sweden and Norway. (Sapmi: area or land, Sami is the person) Their parents and ancestors where reindeer herder and wanted to keep their traditions and cultural heritage. Visitor can experience being reindeer herders for the spring Migration.
Next speaker was Federico Solano who brought the approach from the Rainforest Alliance. The programs they are developing in order to certify organizations with the rainforest alliance badge. The programs include agriculture, forest and now they are beginning with the tourism one. The main goal s of the tourism program includes;
Improve operations, become more sustainable in the whole process
Build business awareness and increase in numbers.
Create global standards that can be compared in different locations.
GSTC are a guideline for companies to follow if they want to improve their behavior, become more transparent and responsible for their operations.
Global Sustainability Tourism Criteria as backbone of Training Manuals:
For the last 8 years they have been looking at 100 inbound and 500 outbound tour operators. Now they are in the process of creating a blog where they will share the experiences.
GSTC helps to:
Create a common language worldwide.
Strengthen organization through its tools.
Increase benefits to organizations and local communities.
Establish partnerships, connect stakeholders.
Accomplish their mission: which is to conserve and broaden sustainability issues to more population, increase awareness.
What do you think of this tourism criteria, could you be interested in been certified in sustainability issues?
This certification is a guideline and all indicators and action differ from location to location but the principles are global. Do you think this is a correct approach?
The Crash Course Creating demand for Sustainable Tourism took place in the Alvie, Morlich & Glenmoore room. It was organized by the Rainforest Alliance (www.rainforest–alliance.org/), which was represented by Federico Solano.
Federico has worked in the tourism industry since 1994 focusing in the marketing field in different areas such as hospitality, airlines, travel agencies and car rentals. He joined the Rainforest Alliance ´s Sustainable Tourism program in 2004. During his time in the Rainforest Alliance, Solano has coordinated projects in several Latin American, North American and European countries, and supporting sustainable tourism by helping offer and demand to adopt responsible practices towards the environment and local communities. His dedication in promoting sustainable tourism to consumers and the tourism industry has led to multiple strategic alliances with local governments, international organizations and private industry.
The session began with a small presentation of the Rainforest Alliance. The organization sets to create best practice guides (Forest, coastal environments or anywhere). They create these tools to aid companies in different areas around the world to increase their sustainability strategies and efforts. It provides tools and a work structure which has been adopted in many different areas with a lot of feedback to improve these tools.
They provide a certification for sustainable practices in tourism, through this guideline. We are aware that as nobody is perfect, therefore no business can be 100% sustainable but this program aids companies in order to work in the direction of sustainability and implements these types of strategies. They look for win-win situations where business and local communities benefit from the developments and give back to the community some of the industry incomes in order to preserve the natural and cultural heritage.
They also have an agricultural, forestry programs among others. The agricultural is the second biggest, a figure is for example of the British tea consumed, and 50% is certified by the Rainforest Alliance. In terms of the tourism program it is growing rapidly and has various programs, some targeting companies and best practices, the sustainabletrip.org organization which educates travellers, or the green travel program.
After this initial presentation there is a panel of companies that will debate some of their actions and activities that they have carried out in order to try and increase demand for their sustainable products and practices.
Enrique experience has been a learning process towards sustainability. He focused on this idea of comfort versus sustainability in terms of managing expectations. We must understand that we are selling emotional comfort and quality. He educates the visitor and explains why things are done in a certain way. He transmits what are the benefits to the environment and local population of carrying the operations in the way they do.
She works in a rural community in Peru which is self-sustained, (agriculture, fishing, school). She focuses on local development but through community integration. The local people are the ones who identify their needs, for example a small playing area for the children, a greenhouse with vegetables so that they don’t have to travel so much to trade. For example: The visitors are the ones who learn the language of the local inhabitants. Shows a great job of conservation of ancient cultures and how this community continues to live in the traditional way and it is they who have the control to continue in this manner or introduce products and services of the “new world.”
The program plants trees in the rainforest and there is a strong commitment to keep this community intact and living in their traditional ways.
Randy has been part of the World Travel & Tourism Council, and now manages his has his own organization with other partners. HE put forward the idea that there is a clear change towards more sustainable practices and especially in tourism sector. There are EU guidelines, carbon emissions reduction Schemes and programs, surveys show there is a societal change occurring. People are becoming more aware of our impacts on the environment and there is an increase in people and tourist who look to reduce their ecological footprint. There is the greening of suppliers as airlines improve efficiency, companies want to do community development and tour operators travel and audit the greenness of their suppliers.
For example: Country walkers, (Part of TUI) has created a step program certification and awareness campaign to educate, clients, providers, suppliers and all their supply chain to reduce their impacts and becoming more sustainable. Another example he put forward was travel agency that has zero emissions as it neutralizes through forestry programs and using the lower emissions jets.
The represent a unique production and distribution team for US & North America. They carry over 175 events around the world. They create movies on experiential travel, we had a meeting with them and we are trying to produce a documentary on the shire of la Vera. According to their expertise the Nicaragua market needs more work in ecotourism and Costa Rica has been the leader year’s back. Their final goal is to educate the consumer. Today they are working on Granada in San Jose for their next event.
European Escapes are increasing and there are everyday more people looking for different type of travel:
Sustainable Travel – standards are evolving and more and more companies are increasing their sustainable practices.
We need to unify these standards. There are many standards and in order to compare different destinations these need to be unified.
Increase in the number of certifications (TI) carbon offset arena.
Formation education, it’s a process. No one is 100% sustainable!
Standards A to B and finally to C. (Long term Process)
Sustainableairlines.org set criteria and international language for transport companies.
From this session we can identify the changing trends in travel and how the sustainable market is increasing and been every day more demanded. Its changing from an additional value to something that is been demanded by the adventure traveller.
Adventure Travellers want more sustainable practices to be implemented.
Would you be willing to pay a little more for your holiday if you knew that this money is used for recovery and protection of natural environments to recover cultures, communities and ancestral customs?
The Crash Course Creating demand for Sustainable Tourism took place in the Alvie, Morlich & Glenmoore room. It was organized by the Rainforest Alliance (www.rainforest–alliance.org/), which was represented by Federico Solano.
Federico has worked in the tourism industry since 1994 focusing in the marketing field in different areas such as hospitality, airlines, travel agencies and car rentals. He joined the Rainforest Alliance ´s Sustainable Tourism program in 2004. During his time in the Rainforest Alliance, Solano has coordinated projects in several Latin American, North American and European countries, and supporting sustainable tourism by helping offer and demand to adopt responsible practices towards the environment and local communities. His dedication in promoting sustainable tourism to consumers and the tourism industry has led to multiple strategic alliances with local governments, international organizations and private industry.
The session began with a small presentation of the Rainforest Alliance. The organization sets to create best practice guides (Forest, coastal environments or anywhere). They create these tools to aid companies in different areas around the world to increase their sustainability strategies and efforts. It provides tools and a work structure which has been adopted in many different areas with a lot of feedback to improve these tools.
They provide a certification for sustainable practices in tourism, through this guideline. We are aware that as nobody is perfect, therefore no business can be 100% sustainable but this program aids companies in order to work in the direction of sustainability and implements these types of strategies. They look for win-win situations where business and local communities benefit from the developments and give back to the community some of the industry incomes in order to preserve the natural and cultural heritage.
They also have an agricultural, forestry programs among others. The agricultural is the second biggest, a figure is for example of the British tea consumed, and 50% is certified by the Rainforest Alliance. In terms of the tourism program it is growing rapidly and has various programs, some targeting companies and best practices, the sustainabletrip.org organization which educates travellers, or the green travel program.
After this initial presentation there is a panel of companies that will debate some of their actions and activities that they have carried out in order to try and increase demand for their sustainable products and practices.
Enrique experience has been a learning process towards sustainability. He focused on this idea of comfort versus sustainability in terms of managing expectations. We must understand that we are selling emotional comfort and quality. He educates the visitor and explains why things are done in a certain way. He transmits what are the benefits to the environment and local population of carrying the operations in the way they do.
She works in a rural community in Peru which is self-sustained, (agriculture, fishing, school). She focuses on local development but through community integration. The local people are the ones who identify their needs, for example a small playing area for the children, a greenhouse with vegetables so that they don’t have to travel so much to trade. For example: The visitors are the ones who learn the language of the local inhabitants. Shows a great job of conservation of ancient cultures and how this community continues to live in the traditional way and it is they who have the control to continue in this manner or introduce products and services of the “new world.”
The program plants trees in the rainforest and there is a strong commitment to keep this community intact and living in their traditional ways.
Randy has been part of the World Travel & Tourism Council, and now manages his has his own organization with other partners. HE put forward the idea that there is a clear change towards more sustainable practices and especially in tourism sector. There are EU guidelines, carbon emissions reduction Schemes and programs, surveys show there is a societal change occurring. People are becoming more aware of our impacts on the environment and there is an increase in people and tourist who look to reduce their ecological footprint. There is the greening of suppliers as airlines improve efficiency, companies want to do community development and tour operators travel and audit the greenness of their suppliers.
For example: Country walkers, (Part of TUI) has created a step program certification and awareness campaign to educate, clients, providers, suppliers and all their supply chain to reduce their impacts and becoming more sustainable. Another example he put forward was travel agency that has zero emissions as it neutralizes through forestry programs and using the lower emissions jets.
The represent a unique production and distribution team for US & North America. They carry over 175 events around the world. They create movies on experiential travel, we had a meeting with them and we are trying to produce a documentary on the shire of la Vera. According to their expertise the Nicaragua market needs more work in ecotourism and Costa Rica has been the leader year’s back. Their final goal is to educate the consumer. Today they are working on Granada in San Jose for their next event.
European Escapes are increasing and there are everyday more people looking for different type of travel:
Sustainable Travel – standards are evolving and more and more companies are increasing their sustainable practices.
We need to unify these standards. There are many standards and in order to compare different destinations these need to be unified.
Increase in the number of certifications (TI) carbon offset arena.
Formation education, it’s a process. No one is 100% sustainable!
Standards A to B and finally to C. (Long term Process)
Sustainableairlines.org set criteria and international language for transport companies.
From this session we can identify the changing trends in travel and how the sustainable market is increasing and been every day more demanded. Its changing from an additional value to something that is been demanded by the adventure traveller.
Adventure Travellers want more sustainable practices to be implemented.
Would you be willing to pay a little more for your holiday if you knew that this money is used for recovery and protection of natural environments to recover cultures, communities and ancestral customs?
This session began with Christina Heyniger who is the President of Xola Consulting, Inc., which she founded in 2004. She works with governments, entrepreneurs and community tourism interests to develop and market eco/nature/adventure tourism products and services. They have supported clients in Latin America, Asia, Europe and the United States. She introduced the different participants and was the manager of the session. This session wanted to put forward the difficulties and success of some new destinations and how they are trying to establish themselves as adventure travel, responsible or eco-tourism destinations.
First speaker was Liza Masias – Director for Business Development Sales & Marketing, InKaterra. Liza acts as liaison between InKaterra and its clients and partners. She has broad experience in hotel management, conservation and fund raising, and a good understanding of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development issues.
Liza previously worked for the Four Seasons Hotel Company, Conservation International, the Brazilian Foundation for Sustainable Development, Special Events Coordinator for The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, DC, and Director for Special Events for the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution, DC, and most recently Assistant Analyst for InSpire Invest in the area of Social and Environmental Corporate Responsibility, Oslo, Norway. Liza holds a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Administration from Cornell University.
She focused on the business development of InKaterra in Peru. This is a case study of good practices. She has achieved this great success in such an isolated area thanks to the long term conservation projects that they run parallel to their accommodation and touristic operations. They have investigations running for 20 years which aids in Latin American countries were instability can lead to great changes when political power changes. The other key issue is that company has sustainability within the company and transmitted to all the workers. She says how thanks to the investigation programs that they run they have been able to survive some of the difficulties that the country has had to live by. This is a great example of ecological research for conservation funded by tourism activity.
The second speaker is Mads Pihl, a tourism consultant in Greenland’s Destination Arctic Circle Region, an emerging adventure destination on Greenland’s West Coast.
He was once a social anthropologist but nowadays those skills are employed in a bottom-up approach to destination management in a vast Arctic region where tourism actors are few and far apart.
He spends most of his time either on the road connecting with local companies, encouraging networking and collaboration or he develops an online presence for the regional brand through various social media and websites.
Greenland is approximately the size of Mexico and the region where he works is the size of Greece.
He begins his presentation with the idea that Costa Rica was the first Marketing Emerging communities (1998) focusing on adventure travel but since there has been other 15 countries in the world with the same focus.
Some key issues that were brought up in the session include:
We are not alone, bring NGO,s, Boards, Private business to work together as a destination.
Connect routes, use nearby destinations that are more known and promote collaboration.
Cooperatives: Ho to make decisions, how to empower, how to train guides in order to offer a unique and wonderful experience.
Partnership with local, what to do if the visitor are not coming. Service is vital and the local people must be trained and be aware of what we want to achieve and promote local goods, produce and services.
Attract private capital (Eco-lodge) Facilitate (Equity, state, ownership)
Responsible investment. (make money but also develop the region and conserve the resources)
What do you sell, how you market, what’s different, strategic positioning. How do we differentiate from other emerging markets!
Market; analyze what market, what is interesting, link to other existing markets, potential, future trends, new tourist needs, among others.
Accessibility: easy to get to, ways to improve, very important for tour operators.
Identify the Problem – Opportunity. I.e. what is causing the threat to conservation; is there a need to change (Social Employment); design tourism offer to develop and support local communities.
Turn the challenge into an Asset.
Developing destinations need to offer the link between education and training of local population is vital.
Use luxury like stay in your rucksack in a unique environment experiencing a place where very few people have visited. I.e. Greenland; sleeping on a dog pulled sledge.
What is first, accommodation or services? Infrastructure or experience
Management in private involves good relations with both local and international partners. You have to be present in order to adapt to changes (be out there business and associations). BE part of the local community but also market internationally, awards always help to create an image for your company or destination.
Tour operators and DMO´s (Destination Management Operators) have to work together to create products and services that follow the destination strategy. Private normally moves quicker that the public institutions so we have to take this into account. Is very important to never be isolated, connect with everyone in your area, with turoperators, reservations, local business, competition, administrational the key stakeholders.
In order to create a new destination it is key to create a close cooperation between local administration and business and to work on a joint strategy where the efforts of both are mutually reinforcing.
What are the most important aspects to create a new destination?
Sustainable Thinking 