Outlines the what, why and how of Conscious Travel as a movement, concept and collaborative learning and change agency. Presents the new "7 Ps" of an alternative tourism model to mass industrial tourism whose outcome of Plenty is achieved by a focus on People, Place, Purpose, Pull Marketing, Protection (resource conservation & rejuvenation) and Pace - the art of slow.

1. Conscious Travel
Presentation in Quito, September 10, 2012
reaching the peak one conscious host at a time
1

2. INTRODUCTION
Background
Passion
Purpose
www.linkedin.com/in/annapollock
www.conscioustourism.wordpress.com Anna Pollock
https://www.facebook.com/ConsciousTravel strategist
www.slideshare.net/AnnaP educator
change agent
visionary

3. Vision
to create learning communities of conscious hosts who work together to
generate above average profits,
deliver higher net benefit from tourism to their communities,
while increasing their resilience and stability
and.....
3

5. Why??
Breakdown or Breakthrough?
Tourism is the biggest connecting activity on the planet
Travel & Tourism has a unique role to play in helping
us breakthrough
Tourism will either be part of the solution or part of the
problem
5

6. FOUR KEY ASSUMPTIONS

7. The dominant model (industrial tourism)
no longer works

8. The dominant model (industrial tourism)
no longer works
A mindset shift is essential

9. A
The dominant model (industrial tourism)
Change can’t & won’t come form the top
no longer works
A mindset shift is essential

10. A
The dominant model (industrial tourism)
Change can’t & won’t come from the top
no longer works
Change will emerge from action-oriented
A mindset shift is essential
learning communities

11. Mass Industrial Tourism Started with
Great Promise

12. But Is Now Producing a Different Reality

13. Industrial Tourism Grew Up In the Age of the Automobile &
Mass Everything
It borrowed its operating model from manufacturing

14. Based on Assembly Lines, Specialisation & Hierarchies
Focus: efficiency & productivity - producing more for less

15. Standardisation, Order, Planning
Economies of Scale - consolidation, vertical integration

16. Based on a mindset of boxes and lines

17. The Hotel Box

18. In summary, this is a box that....
Productizes
Standardizes
Homogenizes
Commoditizes

19. Success?

20. Mass Industrial Tourism Hangs on the Edge
Tourism now supports 1 billion
international trips a year
It can produce income, economic
growth, jobs, foreign exchange,
conserve wildlife, preserve cultures..but
it doesn’t always
Are we at a tipping point?
Metaphorically speaking, we’re about to
experience a tourism tsunami +
galeforce winds + earthquake
Will the tourism capsule hold out?

21. Mass Industrial Tourism Hangs on the Edge
Industrial tourism is producing
diminishing returns for nearly
everybody
This graph shows the fate of
individual destinations - could it
apply to industrial tourism as a
whole?
Are we at the inflection point?
If yields decline industrial tourism
can only succeed by growing in
volume

22. Can we handle another 400 million tourists in just 8 years?
How will we handle congestion?
How will we handle waste?
How will we handle emissions?
Protest Sign Erected by Young Balinese
How will we manage our thirst for water The Queue to Climb Everest
Source: Guardian
Source: ABC They Paved Paradise
and land?
How will avoid residents’ backlash?
How will we protect vulnerable people and
cultures?
The Island Where Tourist Garbage is Stored in the Maldives
Source: China Daily
Source: Daily Mail
• see: Can Tourism Change its Operating Model?

23. Does Industrial Tourism work for Providers?
Do any of these issues apply to you?
•declining margins,
•greater income volatility,
•increased risk,
•more regulation,
•higher input costs (energy, food, supplies),
•disengaged employees,
•more complexity - especially marketing, and
•often more demanding guests

24. Is this you?
in short, I bet many of
you are working harder
than ever before and
making less return.
Do you ever feel like the
hamster on his treadmill?

25. A Mindset Shift Is Essential
•we need to think differently
•see “Changing the Dream - Why
Mindsets really, really matter!”
•see: Can Tourism Change its
Operating Model?

26. A worldview or mindset acts like a lens
These lenses are made up of the values beliefs and assumptions that we use to
make sense of our world
We’re often not aware of our lenses - live in a trance
They are very powerful
When the lenses change, everything else changes
Many are changing their lenses & waking up - becoming conscious

27. Mindsets Are Already Shifting
•many customers are thinking
differently
•emergence of the conscience
consumer
•On average just under 50% of
consumers prefer to buy from
responsible companies
•In South America that average is
75%
•In Australia - 35%

28. Mindsets Are Already Shifting
•other businesses are thinking
differently”
•growth in “conscious business” and
“conscious leadership”
•“Business as Usual” is over
•Huge opportunities for those who
adapt

29. Change Can’t and Won’t Come from the Top;
real change will come from below
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens
can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has
Margaret Mead

30. change is not just
desirable
it’s inevitable
30

31. Tourism is Human System
Embedded in a
Biological-Physical System
31

32. when our values and
beliefs change
so does everything else
32

33. Where have we come from?
OLD MODEL
33

34. Tourism Through an Industrial Lens
Guests are segments to be targeted and the prize is share of wallet
Both parties (consumer and provider) attempt to win at the cost of
the other. Adversarial
Guests seek to get the best or cheapest deal; producers try to maintain their margin
Rugged independence + materialism creates a mindset of exploitation - animals,
landscapes, plants are resources, then products that can be used to produce profit
The Industry is fragmented - each provider looks after his piece of the guest experience
and larger agencies are divided into functional silos.
Disconnect from nature - it’s the economy, stupid! Lack of appreciation of limits or
consequences.
The tourism industry resists paying for the ecosystem services it has enjoyed for free in
the past
34

35. surely there has to be a
better way?
35

36. Welcome Signs of Change

37. something new is emerging

38. blaze a trail and leave
breadcrumbs or markers
38

39. NEW MODEL
MODEL
Plenty
enough, sufficiency
implicit a sense of
limits
adequate - don’t
need more
implies that multiple
Plenty stakeholders benefit
focus on quality not
quantity
“wellth” and
happiness vs wealth
39

40. NEW MODEL
MODEL
People
encounters
People relationship
trust
transactions only
Plenty occur if trust is
present
40

41. NEW MODEL
MODEL Place
each place is unique
People
unique places sustain
value
Plenty Personality of Place
Living Presence -
essence,spirit, soul
Indigenous people
Place understand places re
sacred
41

42. 42

43. NEW MODEL
MODEL
Purpose
what’s the higher
purpose of the
business?
People
why should
employees bring
Purpose their whole selves
to work?
Plenty people seeking
meaning
conscious travellers
seeking to be
Place changed
Higher purpose
ignites Passion
43

44. NEW MODEL
MODEL Pull
power shifted to guest
People
challenge is to attract
Purpose to be magnetic you
have to be clear about
Plenty who you are and send
out strong signals
Pull you need to master
social technologies and
media in order to
Place
sustain relationships
and build trust
44

45. NEW MODEL
MODEL Protection
Hosts must become
proactive champions &
custodians
People
Compliance and CSR
Protection Purpose
programs not enough
Plenty “Licence to Operate”
will depend on minimal
(preferable zero)
Pull
footprint
Place
45

46. NEW MODEL
MODEL Pace
help guests learn the
art of living
People
rediscover what it
means to be a human
Protection Purpose being not a human
doing
Plenty
learn to savour &
Pace satiate the senses
Pull
increase length of stay
Place and spend
46

47. Ecuador: The first
Conscious Travel Destination
47

48. NEW MODEL
•Encounters & relationships before
transactions
People
•PLACES before products
Protection Purpose
•PURPOSE & PASSION drive Profit
Plenty
•PROTECTION = zero impact &
rejuvenation
Pace Pull
•PULL as in attract & support not
Push
Place
PACE as in SLOW & SAVOUR
48

49. How Do We Midwife This Birth?
A Mindset
A Movement
A creative e-learning program
There is no single blueprint on a shelf; no instantly
available “how to manual” It’s up to
you-us to create them
49

50. Four Key Elements
• People
• Program
• Platform
• Participation & Support
50

51. peer to peer
collaboration
curiosity
self-direction
commitment to collaborate
capacity to experiment
willingness to invest a year
desire to build a better model
51

52. 12 Step Transformation Program
core 12 step Conscious Host
program
11. Community
Outreach 12. Global Outreach
10. Social Marketing
9. Experience
8. Stewardship
Design
7. Ideal Employee 6. Ideal Customer
5. Culture/Personality
4. Power of Place
2. Mindset 3. Values & Purpose
1. Where are We Now? Where Do We Wish To Go?
52

53. Four Key Elements
peer to peer
collaboration
Community
12 Step of offline support &
Transformation Conscious coaching
Program Hosts
online platform
53

54. Roles & Responsibilities
Conscious Travel will supply
resources
Participants will determine
priorities, projects, methods
and outcomes
No imposition from
external authorities
The scope, scale and
originality of solutions will
be owned by participants
54

55. 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?
55

56. 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
56

57. End of PART TWO
Please view Part Three: Steps towards Making Conscious Travel a Reality
Do please send comments and feedback to:
theconscioushost@gmail.com
theconscioushost@gmail.com
www.conscioustourism.wordpress.com
www.conscioustourism.wordpress.com
www.facebook.com/conscioustravel
www.facebook.com/conscioustravel
57