El Bloc de Turisme

The other day I, Touristologistly, tweeted this post

Jordi, exactly what do you mean with “DEU N’HI DORET” is this English? No, it is Catalan my beautiful mother tongue! It has a lot of translations but on this occasion it can be something similar to… what a surprise!!!
I also attached a video about one ad of the buyer, Get Your Guide.

I find this add interesting because it is an example of “how to increase the relationship with your customers” that we talked about here. At the end of the day, to introduce the members/workers of the company is a way to convey the idea that we are more a family than a company and, usually, you get more attached to people than companies!
I love the idea of Gidsy as I said here it was an excellent example of, at least three really important concepts for any Touristologist: Servuction, Pro-Am and Super3.
Furthermore, Gidsy was more focused on providing experiences for specialized segments than products for anyone… and you know my bias for specialized tourism.
I checked out the new website and it seems very similar. I will keep an eye on it. It still seems like a very good example for my classes and seminars!
Anyway, this acquisition (more information here) is a wake-up call for all startups. If your business is very original BUT generic, sooner or later a bigger competitor or a member of the chain of value will try to buy you. It’s the next logical step. Generic tourism is based on economy of scales. So, the bigger fish eats the smaller one. There’s nothing wrong with that, but you have to be aware. I talked about this here remembering the cases of room 77 and worldmate and foreseeing something similar to WeHostels.
On the other hand, if you aim at specialized tourism with an international scope, the possibilities to start and endure is multiplied by 1000. Of course, you will have a small number of potential customers, BUT you have a greater potential of growth and chain of value control, as we explained here. In specialized Tourism the winner is the one which gets the trust of the customer by adding value NOT by lowering the price. This value can come from:
1) Synergies between people that like the activity, pro-am and professionals. Touristologists represent this fact with the following matrix.
2) International routes. You will have customers from around the world and you must offer products with the same scope
3) The possibility of becoming a Super 3. Take the case in point of Wyndham for instance. They developed a customized service for Business Women (a good example of My Own 1,2,3). Then, they create a central reservation system for any hotel desiring to serve this segment. This is the power from getting the trust of the segment!
I repeat, you can choose generic or specialized. It’s up to you! Just remember, they are a different kind of business with both pros and cons that you have to be aware of …. Of course, only if you want to become… A TOURISTOLOGIST!!!

On Sundays I like to meet with a crowd of programmers and pretend to be one of them. I copy their lingo, I do my best using their tools, I try to understand, use and make their framework mine.

Sometimes, we meet in public libraries. Absolutely my fault! I love books, I love public spaces….

So, Here I was one Sunday with a different mindset (Cloud computing/Portals/ WebScraping /Tablets-smartphones/ NoSql…..) waiting for the wake up of my virtual environment. When my eyes glance at a book with an attention-grabbing title “The constant art of being a writer” I was browsing through its pages when out of the blue… the author talks about the importance of a strong will and the need to recharge your energy if you want to be a writer.

She said that idea in this way… “….So you feel like giving up” THEN… “Revive your creative energy with an exotic residency in a place you’ve always been interested in like Spain”

My mind becomes a blackboard… a segment with specific needs (amateur writers willing to travel in order to get an extra boost of creativity). This is number one!

Go to Spain? Find a place where it will be easy to isolate, to concentrate into your work and to get spiritual energy? Where you can learn to eat and cook the best food and beverages for intellectuals warriors? Where you can get the opportunity to meet and share experiences with other literature lovers? This is number 2!

We need to use or build a chain of value, to get the trust of the tourist and add value, to provide support for the tourist from the beginning to the end of the trip. This is number 3!

Meeting places for the segment? What about Universities giving seminars about how to become a writer? Can you give examples for specific countries?

Outgoing travel agencies? I think literary traveler can be an interesting option. Also vocation vacation where people will try their vocation through a vacation! Can you give examples for specific countries?

Reading this sentence and beginning to create the 1,2,3, theory is something automatic to me! Damn it, I’m a Touristologist!!!!

Literary travel is one of the great opportunities for travel motivation. Who doesn’t like after reading a good book to have the opportunity to see the scenarios, to talk with people from this culture, to have the opportunity to talk with the author, to go to a university, to an educational center…Nowadays, there are plenty of ways to attend university courses, to expand your mind… some of them for free. Does MOOC ring a bell? or Khan academy OR Gidsy where experts sell their expertise as we explained here.

But Jordi!!! You are an old chap! I know that you pretend to be forever young learning new tricks, BUT… books? This is old media! OK Touristolgists don’t talk about books (even though I think that some of you STILL read books with e-readers and tablets) what about movies, television series?

You know Touristologists, there are things that never change, the desire to learn, to feel emotions, to live others’ lives… and you can get this through a book, a movie, or a storyteller! After that, there is another thing that never changes and never will… The desire to go to these places! Here is where we, as a Touristologists, appear! Remember our definition of Touristology! “Touristology is the art and science of travel motivation promising improvements in quality of life, international contacts and broader perspectives for the tourist AND a way to take care of culture and create richness and employment for the tourist destination.”…

Jordi! Is the code ready? We are waiting!

Yes, yes sure…

You know sometimes you seem to be lost in another world.

Yes, Touristology’s world, my friends!

Damn it! Even on Sundays, even with another mindset …I read a book and …. Automatically I began to imagine segment needs, service suppliers and a chain of value (1,2,3, theory!) Damn it, I’m a Touristologist and….

VERY PROUD OF BEING ONE…. ARE YOU?

Previously in this blog, I Touristologistly declare to be a Touristologist builder. I have been a lecturer in tourism for 21 years. I neither teach the same course 21 times nor use the same methodology. Both the concepts and the methodology improve/ evolve after each class, seminar, in-company training or conference.

A long time ago, I understood that it is not about lecturer’s knowledge (of course, it is important that you master your topic, but this is a prerequisite) the real thing is that at the end of your job your seed the desire to learn AND a framework to get new information, process it and make the right decisions.

As some of my Touristologists from Portugal say…

At the beginning of my path to become a Touristologist builder I had the opportunity to travel to Peru and improve my skills as a speaker and consultant.  It was a great experience! The only inconvenience was that the trip was in the middle of a course… when I returned I thought that in 5 days I could do the same as in 10 and I did it. I finished the syllabus BUT a little voice was telling me all the time “You explain everything BUT are you sure that they understand, that they get the framework, customize it and create their own one?”  That year I learned that the good part in the educational process is when I stop talking and begin listening.

When my Touristologists take control of the class, prepare a presentation and become leaders of the class is when I can see the strong points, their weaknesses, their misconceptions…  I begin to sculpt the Touristologist inside each one of my students. Sometimes we end up with a regular Touristologist (always my fault!) sometimes with a masterpiece (always thanks to good raw material!!)

I do that in my classes but also when I do in-company training and try to transform isolated departments focused on their task to a perfectly greased machine coordinated with the whole enterprise OR Isolated enterprises into a fully integrated chain of value: A nimble, agile system able to get the trust and add value to the customer.

As I always say “We have to achieve that all departments work  as a single organization and our chains of value working as a single enterprise” This is not easy, but it is what XXI’s century tourism is demanding in order to create communicate and commercialize, fast and customized tourism services.

So, what is the beginning of the process, the bedrock of these kinds of entities?

Without any doubt… PEOPLE! Beginning with tourists. It is not enough to create customer orientated organizations. We have to transform our clients into our collaborators. At the end of the day, it is not MY enterprise or MY tourism destination anymore. It has to be OUR company or tourism destination.

Are you worried about your on-line reputation? Do you want to give positive comments about your enterprise? Do you think about giving negative comments about your competitors? I strongly recommend not doing it! First because I ‘m sure you have better things to do (look for new segments, build and manage chain of value….). Second, because I believe that these kinds of actions create a bad energy around you ( you are in the service business, you have to smile and be  good with people and convey good feelings). Third, because it is possible that the web discovers your actions and it usually doesn’t forgive this kind of behavior.

Is it not much better to convince, to engage your customers to make positive comments related to your business?

Is it not much better to convince, to engage your customer to gently reply bad comments and try to convince others to change their minds related to your business?

Do you want to know what kinds of services are valued the most by your customers? What kind of activities they desire? Let them make proposals of products! Let them communicate and commercialize these products (Here we have an example related to KLM, that I commented about in another post).

In order to do that, you have to transform your customer into a kind of Touristologist. You have to do the same with your collaborators and your employees. So, do you want a better company? Educate, train, your customers, collaborators and employees. As I always said “Help them to help you”

You can achieve this goal through a teaching specialty named in-company training or seminar. A seminar or an in-company training is far different from a regular course. In the second one I know from the beginning what I have /need to teach. In an in-company training, on the other hand, I put all the knowledge (related to the topic, of course) in front of the assistants and then WE pick up the best tools and mental schemes, taking into consideration their lack of experience or interest. As I said right at the beginning “This is not MY class, this is OUR class” It could not be any other way. Am I not repeating over and over that we have to convince our customer that it is not MY enterprise but OURS? Why would the education process be different?

The other day my five year old son was crying. He was afraid of dying. I’m telling you what I told him (of course after big hugs and tender kisses!!!)…

Don’t be afraid of dying… Be afraid of dying without finding yourself first, without learning your role in this crazy world and accomplish it! Then you will die in peace with a smile in your face…

I’m a Touristologist builder. I have been helping to create hundreds of Touristologists. They’re spreading like a plague into the tourism sector around the world, changing the way we enjoy, manage and define Tourism. They are Touristologists AND Touristology is OUR science!

This week, twenty one years ago… I taught my first class in Touristology. I soon realize that my students in their last year knew more about tourism than myself. I put all my energy and effort to change that! I learn from my students (I still do!), I learn from other teachers, I become a regular in the library, I talk with any professional related with Tourism… The more I learn the more I wanted to become a Touristologist! I knew that the best way to learn something is to teach it. So, I got voluntary to teach any subject: Financial Maths, Business Administration, Statistics, Technology, Economy, Entrepreneurship… anything BUT with always ending up “TO TOURISM”. Some people make fun of me and call me the firefighter teacher… Anyway, after two years I was absolutely in love with Touristology. When I decided to do my PhD. I chose as a topic … Touristology, what else!!!

My kids enjoy writing a letter to the Three Wizard Kings AND … so do I! I only ask for three things (one for each Wizard!).
“Gods, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.”
Serenity, Courage and Wisdom… those are real gifts!
I hope they help me to:
1) Focus on do great things, as Steve Jobs said “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”
2) Surrounded myself with young people hungry of doing these great things. Then create a startup with them using both a business model and a technological scheme. We will need people working with the first (business model) here My Touristologists are a fast, lean killing machine perfectly suited for this job! What about the second (technological scheme)? Any of My Touristologists is able to communicate with a technician; many of them are able to create the basic technological skeleton BUT we need a team of people able to focus on the Web-Engineering side, the kind of people more happier talking binary code than English, not so excited when two human begins or organizations make a deal but when the data base (SQL or NoSQL) finally is dealing with the server, the laptop or the Smartphone. If you are one of these people, or if you know them… Maybe we can do big things together!!!
3) Pay minimum attention to mediocrity and envious people. Yes, you have to deal with them BUT never pay extra attention. All your mind, energy, generosity… are for the great things and for the people that help you to achieve them.
Some people believe that 2013 will be a bad year, I don’t believe in bad years. My happiness, my passion, my vocation is from within. I’m not immune to external events it is just that I have been in worse places and circumstances and there is an eternal truth: whoever resists wins!
I still want to be a Touristologist! What about you?
I still want to revolutionize our lovely sector! What about you?
I still want to make clear than Touristology is a science! What about you?

THE BEST IS YET TO COME!!!

Jordi Oller

joller@tecnocampus.cat

http://turistoleg.blogspot.com

twitter.com/Turistoleg

The other day I was asking for another successful Touristologist in order to win the battle against mental limitations… if I had known that if was just necessary to ask for it…  I would have done it before!!! Just after writing my post appears a good bunch of so-near-to-get-the-grade-that-you-can-call-them-already-Touristologists showing their projects, their ideas for creating and managing tourism enterprises.

It’s so good, so nice, so intellectually refreshing to see their faces, their eyes shining with desire for success that when they ask “Jordi can you help me? I always reply “I always have time for my Touristologists!!!”

One of them (I avoid to use his real name, they always can make a comment in this post if they desire to share their identity!!! I will use the neutral gender as well, but don’t confusion here… women Touristologist are at least as good as their male counterpart!) is dealing with an enterprise that want to motivate/ improve/ revolutionize travel for deaf people. “It’s a huge segment. 70 million worldwide” She/He claims. She/He had just won an important prize from one of my favorite events: startup weekends . Now, She/He has to move from a good idea and good business plan to a real enterprise. It’s a long road, plenty of challenges, difficult but far away from impossible… especially for one of my Touristologists!!!

Another is making the expansion of a virtual community, magazine and a travel agency focusing on tourism and golf “I want to do it globally, of course. The world is my office” She/He  Touristologistly claims.

I love seeing my Touristologists becoming professionals, it can be as entrepreneurs (like the previous ones) or as international warriors… like the Touristologist who wants to work in the MICE industry his passion, his hunger for success are difficult to match! Or the one willing to work in different hotels around the world “I want to get international perspective. I know that a good hotel manager has to deal with multiculturality and nothing better than work with international customers and international coworkers!”

As you know, I like interaction in the educational process I like to present/introduce a study case to my Touristologists and do it together. Sometimes it is like a pregnancy with strong emotions and arguments involved (my Touristologists have a strong personality and… So do I!) but at the end of the subject we deliver a beautiful baby, I mean… project!

Jordi! Maybe you can use a methodology which means less work for us and for you! Sure I could! BUT with this kind of interaction I’m sure that my Touristologists don’t learn the subject by the book. I want them to become master and commander of Touristology’s Framework. In order to achieve that nothing better than trial and error methodology!

It requires a lot of work, stress management skills, to develop a strong will and to learn how to work as a team, but this is what is needed to becoming a Touristologist!!!

This year I have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to be a teacher to very good Touristologists. Great news for the future of Touristology!

There are a lot of feelings that their actions/dreams/willingness to win provoke in me, but… in a nutshell…. thanks for being Touristologists!!!

I’m absolutely sure that they will be successful. I made a promise to them… today is 01/12/2012. In five years time I will talk again about them. I’m sure that they will fulfill their destiny. As sure as Touristology is a science!!!

And then it won’t matter what your parents said, neither your teacher’s opinion nor the favor of the leaders of your community…

Show me your desire, your passion.

Show me your plan of action.

Show me your discipline to stick with your decision…

and  I can promise… you  will achieve your mission!