We have apps to book flights, to book hotels, to book attractions and tours. Big money is focusing on software and automation. Which is great if you’re catering to robots. What is missing is service. And that means people. Howard Schulz, former CEO of Starbucks perhaps illustrates this best. He said “We’re not in the coffee business. It’s what we sell as a product but we’re in the people business.” 

Starbucks doesn’t sell coffee. It sells human connection. Which is lucky, because I’m not a huge fan of the coffee. But Starbucks is uber-successful for two reasons: its service and its education program. Very few people know that Starbucks is one of the biggest educators in the USA, paying for its employees’ university education, and putting them through 50+ hours of training in their first year of work. To put that another way, the success of Starbucks is its trained frontline staff.

1. Tour guides make or break a tour

We’re in the people business serving tourism. So why is investment in service – and those who provide that service – so limited?  It’s like building a billion dollar hotel with private sunbeds, and a Bang & Olufsen Entertainment system in the room, but forgetting to put in a manned Reception Desk. Without service, guests will go somewhere else. Tourism won’t die, it can never die, but there are many destination choices. 

Guests will go where they’re looked after. And they will share those experiences with others. 

2. People need people

If we’ve learned anything from lockdowns across the world, we’ve learned that a basic human need is other people. We’ve heard devastating reports of loneliness and depression. People needing a hug, a hand, some human contact. Solo travellers are excited to meet other travellers and make new friends as soon as possible. Guests are looking for an experience. Hosting a tour can’t be automated, or done through an app – it requires an expert tour guide with soft skills.

On an Excel sheet, the customer goes from Point A (home) to Point B (destination). There’s the hotel. There’s the tour. At the end, the customer goes from Point B back to Point A. It looks great on paper. But people are not Excel spreadsheets. Guests may suffer from jetlag or ill-health, there could be a problem being dealt with at home, there may be intercultural communication issues on arrival. The airlines could lose guest bags. 

Yet still guests want to travel. 

What the Mazlow pyramid shows us is that safety, love, belonging and esteem – in that order – have to be in place before self-actualisation. That means that basic needs – needs of people – have to be taken care of personally before enjoying a tour. That is service. It cannot be automated. This is where Schulz was ahead of the curve, focusing on service, and the education of Starbucks staff.

3. The importance of frontline staff

Most guests will never meet a tour operator. The tour operator is not frontline staff. The tour guide is often the sole ambassador for a company, yet tour guides are often viewed as an afterthought – ‘lowly’, if you like. Guides worldwide may have limited intercultural skills and lack Health and Safety training, yet the entire reputation of a company is placed in their hands. This is tourism suicide, particularly post-Corona, as the goalposts move.

So be ahead of the curve. Train frontline staff, and thrive under new regulations and expectations. As Lou Holtz once said, “In this world, you’re either growing or you’re dying.”

4. Tourism is Changing

Is your area of tourism dying? This is the time to reset, educate and re-evolve. 

Tourism has to become more sustainable now. Guests in future will need to feel secure, knowing Health & Safety requirements are in place. They’ll need reassuring. Tour guides must be in the people business serving tourism to these guests when they travel again. They will travel again. Mainstream tourism has been be paused. What we do now is prepare for the rebirth of tourism.

Tourism can never die.

L’article Why tourism can never die: Service with a Smile est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

Everybody has differing opinions. Some medical professionals advise against masks. Some say we should all wear them. We are confused, and left wondering what this means for tourism? Tourism can be paused short-term. But it can never die.

1. The Birth of Expeditions

2500 years ago, there was a Carthaginian called Hanno the Navigator. He set out with a fleet of ships from Cadiz, sailing out past the pillars of Heracles into the unknown outer ocean. It has been said that he made it as far as Ghana, the furthest anyone had ever gone into the continent of Africa. This was truly unknown territory. When Hanno returned, he spoke of men in caves who could run faster than horses. 

Hanno had no selfie stick, Instagram account or Facebook followers. Tourism as we know it today had not been invented. But he’d made discoveries. He’d seen new cultures, erupting volcanoes, and swift-footed pygmies. He returned to give an oral version of a TripAdvisor review, his reports igniting interest in far-flung lands. As time marched on, we’ve seen explorers – and conquerors – too numerous to mention. Genghis Khan, Christopher Columbus, Captain Scott. All of them extending frontiers and mankind’s understanding of the world.

And now look at today’s technology sector. Companies like Space X, Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin. We’re hearing about human colonies on Mars, and rideshare options to space. Ground-breaking tech companies are making exciting progress, pioneering in the name of discovery and exploration. Mankind wants to travel. The spirit of tourism – seeing new places – cannot be quashed. EVER.

2. Tourism Always Recovers

In 1918 we had the Spanish flu epidemic. With only 1.8 billion people in the world, there were an estimated 500 million cases of Spanish flu. That was almost one third of the entire world infected. 

The estimated death toll ranges anywhere from 50-100 million, depending on the source. Nobody’s quite sure. However, we can all agree that Spanish flu was more dangerous and more widespread than Covid-19. Yet tourism bounced back. We saw prosperity in the Roaring Twenties.

Since then, we’ve seen World War Two and many regional wars. This has opened opportunities for ‘war tourism’ and ‘dark tourism’. The Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster is now a tourist attraction. There are even Pablo Escobar Colombian drug cartel tours. Will “Corona tourism” feature in the future? Time will tell. 

3. Intelligence is adapting to change

What we do know is that entrepreneurial organisations will thrive through adaptation and innovation. These are the companies and governments that are using this downtime to learn about new expectations, set new standards of travel, and redesign tours. As Stephen Hawking said, “intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” Others will be left behind, rooted in the past, unwilling or unable to embrace the natural order of change. Don’t be in this group. Embrace the changes and prosper.

Despite wars, viruses, and regional travel restrictions, the tourism industry was thriving up until the beginning of 2020. Globally, travel and tourism directly contributed approximately 2.9 trillion US dollars to GDP in 2019. Tourism will thrive again.

Governments can impose restrictions in the name of safety. They can fast-track vaccination programs. They can enforce lockdowns temporarily. But they cannot change people’s basic DNA – our basic need to travel.

As you read this, there is powerful lobbying to get tourism up and running again. For example, the UK’s recent quarantine program lasted only 4 weeks because of lobbying voices from Quash Quarantine. 

L’article Why tourism can never die: Exploring the unknown est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.