Thriving Beyond UncertaintyThe role of the indigenous community in building a better tourism

Presented at

The International Tourism Aboriginal Tourism Conference

Anna Pollock, Founder, Conscious Travel April, 2014

My Purpose Today

My personal challengeWhy better?How might we make the shift from more

to better?Why should indigenous communities

take the lead?

Nature offers the perfect metaphor

Remember: without caterpillars there would be no butterflies!

This Has Happened BeforeExcept for

SOME MAJOR DIFFERENCES!

Source: HUMANITY 4.0 by Michelle Holliday, Slideshare

Connections

Source: https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=469716398919

Connections: Airline routes

Source: www.lx97.com

Why Us – Why Tourism?

• Tourism is the biggest connecting agent on the planet

• Tourism connects hearts and minds

• Equally important as digital connectivity and social media

• Enables new ways of seeing

• Results in Transformation not just Transactions

You never change things by fighting existing reality

To change something, build a new model that

makes the existing model

obsolete.14

Buckminster Fuller

The Old Promise

The Present Reality• No straight lines in

nature• In nature, nothing

grows indefinitely• Reality = volatility• The current model

produces diminishing returns for the majority

• Wealth is increasingly concentrated

• Growth = congestion• = Lower consumer

satisfaction• Turned experiences

into commodities

So What Does Better Look Like?• Higher net benefit to the entire community,

sustained over time

• Higher margins for the host sustained over time

• Higher ROI for investors

• Happy, engaged employees enjoying sustained livelihoods

• Healthy environment & cultures

• Happy guests who rave, refer and return

When you want to build a ship, you don’t start

collecting wood, cutting planks and distributing work, but waken in the

heart of people, a longing for the

great and endless sea.

Antoine St Expury 18

How Do We Build a Better Model?

And change the way we “see”

"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

Identity – Who am I?

Why am I here? Values, beliefs, Assumptions,

Personalityexperience

FiltersWhat do I see?

How do I respond?

ActionWhat do I do?

How do I behave

To do better tourism, you can’t avoid the metaphysics!!

Even Deloitte & Touche Agrees!

So, how Do YOU Perceive This Floating Sphere?

Real Estate?

Spaceship Earth ?

Living Organism?

Our Mother?

The Journey

Old Seeing

Old StoryOld

Times

New SeeingNew StoryNew Times

The Old Story• Universe is like a dead

machine, • parts we can label, analyse,

link, put into boxes• Because they are separate• Universe is hostile, stuff is

scarce• Must Compete• Money, gains to be hoarded• Replaced the sacred,

mysterious with “Nothing but”

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The New (?) Story• Universe is alive • It’s a dynamic, self

organising system• Interconnected• System is greater than sum

of parts• Relationships • Collaboration & cooperation• Universe is intelligent &

creates abundance

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The Old Tourism Practice

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Tourism is not an IndustryIt’s an Ecosystem

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What might a better tourism look like?

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PURPOSE

PURPOSE

What’s the Point?

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Profit followsPassionatePursuit of Purpose!

PURPOSE

31

Look to NatureNature doesn’t grow, she

thrivesWhat does thriving look like?

• Vigor, vitality, aliveness

• Diverse, co-existing, interdependent forms

• No waste• Convergent – whole

personality• Order, complexity

emerge• Resilient and

adaptable

PURPOSE

NATURE’S VALUES

• Respect • Reciprocity• Kinship• Reverence• Empathy• Love

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When we recognize the virtues, the talent, the beauty of Mother Earth, something is

born in us, some kind of connection—love is born. We want to be connected. That is the meaning of love, to be at one.... You would

do anything for the benefit of the Earth, and the Earth will do anything for your well-

being.

The real purpose of tourism

To have them fall in love again with life

To move our guests from numbness to aliveness

from indifference to empathy

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To have our guests experience wonder

can “read the love letters sent by the wind and the rain, the snow and the

moon”

Our Purpose – to help our guests fall in love with life and Mother Earth and so

that they too

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PEOPLE

PURPOSE

THE ENCOUNTER!

• Guest meets Host

• Involves all senses

• Affects the whole person – body, mind, heart and soul

• Engaged, passionate hosts creating happy, transformed guests

• Authentic to the place

• FIRST HOST

PEOPLE

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• Both parties must flourish and thrive

• Flourishing is more than a transaction – it occurs when:

• Happy, fulfilled guests• Refer others• Return• Rave

• Happy fulfilled hosts enthusiastically encourage & enable their guest to explore more, stay longer, value more and care more

Great Encounters!

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The Encounter is CRITICAL!What factors influence choice of hotel?

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PURPOSE

Places are NOT commodities

• Each has its own unique essence or spirit

• Unique mix of geography, history, people

• Can’t be outsourced

• Places are COMMUNITIES

• Celebrate Revere

PEOPLE

PLACE

PLACE

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Place Shapes Personal Identity

You cannot know who you are until you know where you are Wendell Berry

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We are being called to become indigenous once again—to become living and contributing expressions of a particular place.

Bill Reed

Send your guests home with a desire to become “indigenous”

Maybe start at home with your fellow residents

PURPOSE

• SLOW down

• Focus on the small things

• LOCAL

• Experience don’t do

• Learn to observe

• Learn to BE in nature – listening, feeling

PEOPLE

PLACE

PACEPROXIMIT

Y

PACEPROXIMIT

Y

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PURPOSE

• Conservation• Stewardship• Regeneration• Protect and

revitalise cultures

• Respect residents

• Nurture Conscious travelers

PEOPLE

PLACE

PROTECTIONPACE

PROXIMITY

PROTECTION

• Attracting the right visitor

• Support not sell• All business is

social• Need for Digital

Literacy• It’s the

ENCOUNTER remember?

• Rave, Refer, Return

PEOPLE

PLACE

PROTECTION PACEPROXIMIT

Y

PULL

PULL

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PURPOSE

All Business is Social

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PURPOSE

• We manage what we measure

• Measure what matters!

• Not volume but net benefit – community health & well-being

• Customer delight ----

• R3 NPS• Smaller footprint• Sense of welcome

& enthusiasm from hosts

PEOPLE

PLACE

PROTECTIONPACE

PROXIMITY

PERFORMANCE PULL

PERFORMANCE

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PURPOSE

PEOPLE

PLACE

PROTECTIONPACE

PROXIMITY

PERFORMANCEPULL

Integrated, Holistic Model

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Conscious Travel

• A concept• A collaborative learning tool for hosts• 12 Step Transformation Program• To enable hosts to become change

agents in their communities• A Network of Conscious Travel

Destinations48

Summary“Business As Usual” won’t workWe need a new tourism for new timesIndigenous people will be on the frontlineThe “imaginal cells” must partner, join up

regardless of who you areIndigenous values can help create a better, higher

value, more resilient tourismLet’s work together

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Imagine......a network of host communities each

exploring how to deliver net benefits from tourism,a good living for people,

and transformative experiences for guests

each in their own way?

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In the same way that cells combine to form different organs of the body, so will the collective output of these cells combine to create a new organic, ecological form of

tourism -

one that is environmentally sustainable, socially just and

spiritually fulfilling

www.conscious.travelwww.slideshare.net/AnnaP 51