Why Conscious Hosts Will Help Their Guests Fall in Love

The most popular post in this young Conscious Travel web site is the one titled: Tourism What’s the Point?  Its popularity reflects the fact that:

• travel and hospitality enterprises need to attract and engage a diverse and intelligent workforce;
• there’s widespread recognition that money is no longer a sufficient motivator.  As companies describing themselves as “Conscious Capitalists” have discovered,  it pays to put a sense of higher purpose first, if you wish to increase profitability;
• there’s a growing need to align the members of a company around a common set of values and principles that can shape and guide behaviour on a day-to-day basis. A company’s culture (the sum total of its mission and values)  – even though it may be invisible and hard to measure or articulate – is often its key point of advantage or disadvantage as it most directly affects the level of engagement, productivity and creativity.

In that post we started to explore three deeper motivators:

Picture from Hubble Space Telescope

1. Tourism as a healing agent that rejuvenates guests ‘ well-beiing,  regenerates despoiled landscapes and resuscitates indigenous/local cultures;
2. Tourism as a connecting agent that helps guests encounter people from different culture and settings to both widen and deepen their mindsets and cause them to face the unexamined assumptions that underpin their behaviour;  and
3. Tourism as a “wonder and awe making” agent that helps guests not only appreciate the beauty of our Planet but also find deeper levels of meaning, purpose and contentment from their experience.

While clearly these motivators offer a greater sense of purpose than the act of “making money,” they still sound a little dry.  Perhaps our language should be more inspiring, colorful and clear so may I suggest this:

The purpose of travel is help people fall in love with a place, with each other
and with the miracle we call Life. 

This concept came to me after watching Filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg  summarize 40 years of work studying flowers and the critters that pollinate them. This is what Louie had to say at his TED talk:

To watch them move is a dance that I’m never going to tire of.  It fills me with wonder, and it opens my heart. Beauty and seduction, I believe, is nature’s tool for survival, because we will protect what we fall in love with. Their relationship is a love story that feeds the Earth. It reminds us that we are a part of nature, and we’re not separate from it……

The concept that “Nothing lasts forever. Everything in the universe wears out “ blew my mind. Because I realized that nature had invented reproduction as a mechanism for life to move forward, as a life force that passes right through us and makes us a link in the evolution of life. Rarely seen by the naked eye, this intersection between the animal world and the plant world is truly a magic moment. It’s the mystical moment where life regenerates itself, over and over again.

So in this context, the purpose of a conscious host is to help their guests become mindful, awake, alert and aware of the beauty, magic and mystery of life on this planet — in short to fall in love with it.

For when you are in love you are utterly present and when you are in love you will do whatever you can to protect the object of your love.

When you are in love, you slow down, you have no desire to rush away and seek another object for your affection.

When you are in love, you are most attentive and observant and take pleasure in the smallness of things.

When you are in love, you also experience peak health and vitality.

When you are in love, you are most awake, aware and alert – in short most conscious. You don’t need to be told how or  why to behave in a way that respects and reveres. It comes naturally because that’s your  real uncensored nature.

And there’s a reason it’s called falling in love and not climbing into love. It’s because it involves a spontaneous shift in consciousness – an “aha” moment when you “see” differently.

When you fall in love you are changed – albeit sometime temporarily and you experience a sense of infinite possibility. Isn’t that what latent or actual Conscious Travellers are seeking?

And when you are in love, all you want to talk about is your beloved. Isn’t that the source of the infectious spark that makes us share?

So dear Conscious Host, by helping your guests fall in love you will be playing a conscious role in the evolution of life itself – and surely that’s a good reason to come into work on Monday?

 

Patagonia Shows How To Future Proof Your Brand While Being Contrarian

I am pleased to announce that in this blog I have acted sustainably – I have reused, recycled and reduced two excellent blog posts by Marc Stoiber. The first is titled  Business in a Post-Green World  and the second Patagonia Building a Strong Brand Out of Old Clothes.

In the first post. Marc draws from Ogilvy’s research Mainstream Green to identify the reasons why some 82% of Americans have good green intentions but only 16% act on them. Too many years of zealous, finger wagging environmentalists telling everyone what they couldn’t or shouldn’t do has caused the associations pictured below (stolen from Marc’s page, btw).  More recent attempts at suggesting Green is Cool or Chic (a.k.a. Green is the New Black) haven’t yet managed to overcome the emotions of guilt that each of us associate with not living up to our green aspirations.

Six Reasons To Reject Green courtesy of @marcstoiber

Marc wisely suggests that we stop thinking about sustainability and more about future proofing  and to do the latter we must focus on resilience – i.e., the ability to adapt to unforeseen external shocks as it’s likely in this chaotic world that there’ll be no shortage of those. He suggests there are five ways to future proof your brand which I think tie in well with what it takes to be a conscious host (and I’ve paraphrased and taken liberties with the language):

1. Internalise Green – resilient companies won’t brag about being green, they’ll simply get on wit the task of showing they care by respecting the laws of nature and living in harmony with it. . Companies like Nike and Patagonia incorporate sustainability into every business decision but not into the brand. In Conscious Travel, we call this creating places that care.

2. Insight – resilient companies will invest in understanding how the market and context is changing and, more importantly, why it’s changing. Unless you have some understanding of the dynamics and change drivers, you might as well be playing at the roulette table. Companies like Sixth Sense and Virgin, who have been hosting the SLOW Life event in the Maldives understood where the market was going several years ago .

3. Design – Marc suggests: “Good design creates a visceral reaction in people. It conveys beauty while aiding function. It generates
feelings of wonder and drives desire.”  Apple’s products are cool not because Apple promotes them as such – they attract the loyal followers because they are beautiful as well as functional objects that make you want to spend time with your “device.”  Conscious Hosts focus their attention on the customer’s unique experience and endeavour to ensure all aspects of what it means to be human are stimulated and fulfilled showing that they care about the body (sensual pleasure), mind (mental/intellectual curiosity), soul (emotional response) and spirit (meaning). These experiences are sufficiently impactful and meaningful as to be transformative.  There are still few destinations thinking seriously about Experience Design, exceptions being Finland (LEO) and Canada (GMIST & Tourism Cafe).

4. Social Interaction – as pointed out in a previous post, this means more than using various Social Media but designing your entire business and business planning process around interaction between all stakeholders – guests, employees, suppliers and destination hosts. BBMG, the agency that first coined the term “Conscious Consumer” call this the Age of Creativity. The boundaries between guest and hosts, consumer and producer are blurring fast.

5.  Innovation – resilient companies will never sit on their laurels but will be constantly scanning the horizon for the opportunity to stand out or stand for something that differentiates and attracts, By interacting with all their stakeholders and creating cultures in which it is safe to play &  experiment while obsessing about customer delight, they create the conditions for innovative ideas to emerge.

If that wasn’t enough food for thought, Marc’s next post,  on the other hand, Patagonia Building a Strong Brand Out of Old Clothes.suggests that sixth way to futureproof your brand might simply to be contrarian.

Decades before businesses embraced the green movement, Patagonia spearheaded campaigns to use eco-friendly materials and fabrics in its clothing and pioneered sustainable manufacturing practices, turning the outerwear industry on its head.  The result? While most of the world was grappling with the Great Recession, Patagonia had its two best years ever. Sales at the 1,265-person company stood at $315 million in 2009, and Chouinard–still the sole owner–says they’re still growing. This year they’re expected to be near $340 million.

The reason for their success?

1. A commitment to quality gave Patagonia the courage to resist the call of the herd and drop prices when frugality was the buzz word of the time. Instead they became the Rolls-Royce of their product category.  Chouinard didn’t sell out, lower prices and dilute the brand because, to quote: “sometimes, the less you do, the more provocative and true of a leader you are.”
2. An association of quality with durability. Patagonia builds clothes to last. In their most recent initiative, Patagonia has actually asked its customers to reduce unnecessary consumption of its own products. Called the Common Threads Initiative it first asks customers to not buy something if they don’t need it. If they do need it, Patagonia asks that they buy what will last a long time – and to repair what breaks, reuse or resell whatever they don’t wear any more, and, finally, recycle whatever’s truly worn out. Patagonia in turn commits to make products that last, help repair quickly anything that breaks, and recycle the company’s entire product line. To help customers put used clothes back in circulation, Patagonia and eBay Inc. have joined forces to launch a new marketplace for customers to buy and sell used Patagonia gear.

Patagonia saw the deeper shifts that the recession accelerated – in an era of uncertainty and distrust, consumers realized that it made practical sense to become more self sufficient; to take responsibility; to truly value homemade things made with care. They are attracted to companies that can show they share these values.

Marc is right in saying that sustainability needs to be built into the product but not the brand especially when you consider that the word sustain means to prolong or endure. Sustainable products, like Patagonia’s clothes appeal because of their design, quality and durability not because they are green.  Men don’t feel “girly”, the value proposition is easy to understand; their message doesn’t confuse; it’s an easy straightforward purchase; you trust the brand and don’t feel guilty – if anything, the opposite – and that’s worth paying for!

Lessons for Tourism Operators

1. Quality in tourism is directly related to uniqueness and authenticity. The best way to “stand out” is to offer an experience that reflects and celebrates the essence of the place in which you’re situated –  as it is unique, and the end result of 13.5 billion years of evolution, why sell your place as if it were a commodity?  Take the time to research local history, culture and geography so that you can impress that uniqueness on your guests. When a guest wakes up in your hotel, she should know where she is; over the course of her visit all her senses should be engaged in shaping an enduring memory of what made that trip different, memorable, and special. Quality doesn’t have to mean expensive – it  requires imagination and taste not money. Quality in this sense is inextricably tied to authenticity – BE who you ARE. Don’t try to manufacture something bland that emerges from a focus group. Be true to your values.
2. Create memories that last! Travel providers are in the fantasy fulfillment business! Our guests start their trip with a fantasy, a dream of somewhere different; then enjoy an experience and take home memories. The more vivid and positive the memory, the more it will last and be shared. Engage your customers in the kind of conversation that encourages them to share their expectations and personal interests so that you can direct them to events and places most likely to generate the “wow” or OMG (O My God) response that leads to referrals.
3. Make it easy for your guests to share those memories. Every visitor goes home with a collection of photos and videos that they expect to edit and package in order to impress the folks back home. Within days of being back in their routine, they find they haven’t the time and the memory fades. Create and brand slide shows, videos, e-books complete with appropriate music, professional images and short video clips, in which all the guest has to do is insert some of their own pictures to have an immediate but personal memory of their experience. If it looks good and entertains and informs, it will be shared.

Those are my first thoughts about what it means to be contrarian but not my last. What do you think BEING CONTRARIAN might look like in the travel & hospitality sector?

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Empowering the Conscious Traveller

We’re pleased to discover a web site devoted to “Empowering the Conscious Traveller” that was created independently of us – see our thoughts on the Conscious Traveller. 

Their site iSeeiTravel  was founded by Marc Bollinger and Eytan Eltermann, filmmakers and storytellers currently creating a documentary about Conscious Hosts and Conscious Travel in Costa Rica.

The Euro RCSG Report on the New Consumer

Euro RSCG interviewed over 5700 adults in five countries and their results are contained in a report titled The New Consumer in an Age of Mindful Spending. The report describes a shift historic in scope away from mindless hyperconsumerism toward an approach that is at once more conscious and more satisfying, and certainly more sustainable.

Consumers still want MORE, but they are defining that differently. Not more shiny trifles and mountains of consumer goods but, rather, more meaning, more deeply felt connections, more substance and more of a sense of purpose. People are looking to live life in a way that offers longer-lasting satisfactions and pleasures than can be found at the Mall.

A few statistics from the Euro RSCG report sketch the outline of an emerging “new consumer”

• 72% say they are trying to improve the way they live
• 71%  are trying to improve who they are as individuals
• 59% worry that society has grown too disconnected form the natural world
• 51% would like to be part of some important cause
• 67% believe most people would be better off if they lived more simply
• 69% claim to be smarter shoppers than they were a few years ago
• 64% say that making environmentally friendly choices makes them feel good about themselves.

The authors of this report summarize a myriad of statistics into four main paradigm shifts:

1. Embracing Substance – people perceive a loss of depth and meaning. They want more substance and the fulfillment that comes with it. They want to feel connected to something more real than the artificial world that surrounds them. This means connecting with nature and with other people
2. Rightsizing – in response to a rising mountain of personal and national debt and dazed by the excess of choice, consumers are feeling more anxious and more and more are opting to hop off the consumption treadmill and enjoy the simpler pleasures of life. They seeking to buy and own neither too much nor too little and the majority (70%) respect and admire people who live simply
   
   
3. Growing Up – New Consumers want to feel more certain of themselves and more in control and are taking steps to make that happen, accepting personal responsibility and seeking to build individual competencies  (DIY, gardening, growing food, making clothes) This self-reliance whether alone or in collaboration with others offers a much needed measure of control in a time of anxiety and uncertainty.
4. Purposeful Pleasure – Where many of us used to prize instant gratification and adhered to the credo of “More is More” the new Consumers are seeking more purposeful pleasures that are longer lasting. They are more interested in how and where products are made, enjoy buying locally produced goods that enables them to get to know the makers.

Conscious Consumers at Work in New Zealand

This New Zealand project demonstrates New Consumers at work. A “collective” of conscious consumers have a vision of Wellington as a place where it’s easy for people to live socially and environmentally responsible lifestyles.

Their goal is to: To

• empower consumers to make more informed purchasing choices; and
• encourage and support Wellington cafes to adopt more environmentally and socially conscious business practices.

Badges Awarded to Cafes in Wellington

The project promotes nine practices which they believe make good business sense, respect people and the environment and reflect current consumer preferences. Participating cafes get awarded a badge for each of nine actions or practices that result in higher levels of sustainability. The nine badges encompass such topics as Fairtrade, composting, organic, recycling, BYO cups, eco-friendly cleaners. free range, and eco packaging.

Emergence of The New Consumer

Source BBMG Conscious Consumer 2009

Use of the term conscious – as applied to business – only emerged in mainstream thinking shortly before the recession got underway. Business leaders like Anita Roddick (The Body Shop) and writer-thinkers such as Paul Hawken, author of Natural Capitalism paved the way for the the new values-based approach to business. Subsequently, books such as Patricia Aburdene’s  Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism and Fred Kofman’s Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Your Values have been cited as influential in the business community.

During the same period there has been a substantial shift  in the approach to Corporate Social Responsibility. Companies initially applied CSR as an optional extra – adding philanthropic projects to demonstrate a degree of responsibility but not really examining and changing their fundamental approach to the utilisation of resources and people in pursuit of profit. As will be described elsewhere, the term CSR is fast disappearing as the business commnuity grapples with the notion that all commerce is about relationships between people and is inherently social in nature — see FutureLab’s short video here.

If there was a reluctance by mainstream business to embrace concepts associated with responsibility, sustainability, or even “green,” it was because they lacked conviction that the market for products and services created by conscious companies was large enough. This feature applied particularly to tourism where responsible/eco/green/sustainable tourism enthusiasts were perceived as a minority fringe. The primary source of research that did identify a customer segment attracted to green, organic, natural products and lifestyles had an unfortunate acronym LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health & Sustainability) that reinforced the fringe element.

Conscious Consumer Segments (BBMG 2009)

As we slowly climb out of  the deepest recession to hit many economies since the 1930s, it has become apparent that a major shift in consumer attitudes and values has taken place that is changing their behaviour “for good” – literally and metaphorically.Conscious consumers are no longer the minority.

BBMG, whose report on the Conscious Consumer is summarized here, suggest that they comprise 60% of the total population. Even if this percentage may be a little inflated, there is no doubt that thanks to their affluence, education and proclivity for community, what conscious consumers do today will shape what the mainstream does tomorrow.

We’ve looked at five major resource sources, all undertaken independently of one another,  some global, others national, that show a remarkable degree of consistency. While the BBMG study is the only one that specifically applies the adjective “conscious” to the so-called New Consumer (BBMG), all describe how a more considered, mindlful, cautious approach to consumption has evolved during the recession and is unlikely to wane should the economy pick up speed.

• The BBMG Conscious Consumer Report, BBMG, 2009
• The Euro RSCG Report: The New Consumer in an Age of Mindful Spending
• Eyes Wide OPen, Wallets Half Shut by Ogilvy
• The Dawinian Gale: Consumption in an Era of Cnosequences
• The Edelman Good Purpose Study, 2010

The Social Media Revolution

Conscious Travellers are affluent, well educated and above average users of social media.

The screen they most frequently watch is the one of their phone, followed by their PC.

They are active and on the move and you’d better be prepared to converse with them in the form they want, wherever they are!