Conscious Leaders Aren’t Better – They Are Different

Although we’ve tried to explain why we think the Conscious Travel movement is different in an earlier post here; the following image and the Primes’ animation sum it up perfectly.

“A butterfly is a transformation, not a better caterpillar.”  

Humanity is being called to transform itself, not simply change.

Transformation At Work

We don’t think that the future of tourism is about being more of the same (as expressed by the forecasters at UNWTO); or even just about being better (delivering a higher yield or net benefit); but really about a completely different vision altogether. The problem is that that a new “vision” has not yet been articulated or shared by enough people to become an alternative reality. So the movement part of Conscious Travel is really about the shift in consciousness needed to create a new vision that transforms our sense of self and our understanding of what is possible.

The Primes – a change management consulting company  - provides a concise yet dynamic explanation of the distinction between  Change Vs. Transformation here.

After watching this video distinction, it’s not hard to see that the tourism community is dominated by managers all beavering away with the admirable intention of making matters bigger and desirably better but, in so doing,  are  stuck in a form of time warp as the future can be nothing but an extension of the past.

True leaders – people we call Conscious Leaders – are free of the past. Their vision creates an imaginary future that has no ties to a past and is free, like a balloon that has escaped a child’s grasp,  to drift over the rooftops in search of a new home.

According to Chris McGoff, the purpose of leaders is to create visions that followers will  fall in love with.

Change, which is about fixing the past, is done by managers.

Transformation, which is about creating a new future, is done by leaders.

Are you ready for leadership?

First Conscious Travel Event in Canada

AWAKENING THE DREAMER SYMPOSIUM – Nov. 22^nd - 4:00 – 8:00 p.m. 

 (Capilano University Library 322 — 2055 Purcell Way, N. Vancouver)
For information, please contact: Joe Kelly by email:  jkelly@capilanou.ca

Conscious Travel is  a movement and an e-learning community designed to help travel suppliers become Conscious Hosts so that they can can attract, engage and support Conscious Travelers and develop a viable alternative to mass industrialized tourism. The end goal is to create and enact a vision for a tourism economy that doesn’t cost the earth.

Who better then to inspire and recruit but the next generation of leaders – those energetic, connected and free-thinking members of Gen Y and Gen Z who will be responsible for stewarding tourism towards a more prosperous and stable future?

To raise awareness of the issues affecting humanity and to encourage future hosts to become active change agents in their community, the founder of Conscious Travel, Anna Pollock, is teaming up with Capilano University’s Project Change initiative, LinkBC and the  Be The Change Earth Alliance to host the symposium known as Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream. The symposium is a transformative educational experience that empowers participants to respond to humanity’s current situation with action and informed, grounded optimism about our future.

Through dynamic group interactions, leading edge information, and inspiring multimedia, participants in this half-day event are inspired to reconnect with their deep concern for our world, and are empowered to make a difference.

The Symposium was developed by The Pachamama Allliance.  Designed with the collaboration of some of the finest scientific, indigenous and activist minds in the world, the Symposium explores the current state of our planet from a new perspective, and connects participants with a powerful global movement to reclaim our future.

It is an exploration of four questions:

• Where Are We?
An examination of the state of environmental, social and personal well-being
• How did We Get Here?
Tracing the root causes that lead to our current imbalance
• What’s Possible for the Future?
Discovering new ways of relating with each other, with the Earth and looking at the emerging Movement for change
• Where Do We Go from Here?
Considering the stand we want to be in the world and our personal and collective impact

What to Expect – here’s the trailer:

Awakening the Dreamer Symposium Trailer from Pachamama Alliance on Vimeo.

A youth version of the Symposium – Generation Waking Up - is currently being developed.  We hope one outcome would be for tourism students in British Columbia to take this version back into their communities. The individuals behind this project, Valerie Love and Esteban Duarte,  recently raised over $20,000 in crowdsourced funding to complete the development of materials that will make this symposium partucularly appealing and relevant to the younger generation. You can see their appeal on Kickstarter here. With commitment and creativity like this, humanity is  in good hands. Breakthrough rather than breakdown might just be possible.

Good Morning Tourism: Time For Your Wake Up Call – Part Two

99% of Tourism are Small Independent Operators.

In the first part of this post “Good Morning Tourism: Time for Your Wake Up Call – Part One” I suggested that tourism needs to wake up and grow up.

Tourism is a relatively young industry – having grown from a few hundred million international passengers a year to just under a billion and is expected to experience another growth spurt over the next 8 years.

If tourism were a person and the general economy a family, then tourism could be likened to an adolescence. We want recognition for our emerging identity; we want freedom but we also still want to borrow the family car for a Saturday night out. Throughout its growth, tourism leaders – be they heads of multi-national private sector or government associations; Ministers or executives of trade associations – have been complaining that tourism is not recognized, taxed unfairly and embedded in too much red tape. At the same time, hundreds of millions are spent by governments from the municipal to national global levels on tourism marketing and, occasionally, on infrastructure improvements that make a tourism economy possible. Given the projected population increase and its ageing, the reduction in resource availability, the increase in climatic volatility, the debt and uncertainty associated with failing economic systems, and the pressure in public sector budgets, tourism cannot assume it will continue to be supported in the future. We’ll have to earn our own pocket money.

A sign of personal maturity occurs when the individual starts to recognize that he or she is part of a family and that with rights comes responsibility. There is an awareness that it’s not just about me or I but “we” and that instead of asking what the family can do for me, I should be asking what can I do for the family.

So for tourism to be considered mature, it needs to ask the same question.

“Ask not what the community needs to do for tourism, ask what tourism can do for your community”

Conscious Travel is about helping the 99% of the tourism community – all the operators of the small businesses that contribute to a visitor’s experience of a place — to wake up and assume responsibility for their own destiny and for contributing to the community in which they live and work.

The act of waking up and growing up go hand in hand.

It’s also time to recognize that growth cannot continue indefinitely. In nature, there comes a time when more is replaced with better. Once a point of maturity is reached, change is about qualitative development – we become more balanced; more efficient, more wise.

The industrial model which fuelled our growth for the past 60 years needs now to switch gears and focus from quantitative growth to qualitative development – from more to better. But that won’t happen unless we come together to realize the need for such a shift and to share ideas and dreams about how to make that shift.

That’s what’s happening in virtually every other sector of society right now. A few years ago, Paul Hawken could talk to the Bioneers and suggest that the great transition is taking place under the radar (see his inspiring and encouraging 9 minute video here)

That was then. TODAY, such revolutionary talk of change is being openly discussed in the hallowed halls of the World Economic Forum, no less!!  If you look at the Storify summary of tweets from the World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday (October 10th) you’ll see that the 1% might,  in fact,  getting the message. Klaus Schwab opened the #WEF agenda by talking about the need for new taxation and lifestyle models that reduce ecological harm: a focus beyond growth to quality of growth; a more holistic approach and new models to cope with the speed of technological change.

It’s time for tourism to be showing such willingness to put on fresh lenses and think new brave thoughts based on a different way of seeing and believing. 

It’s based on a belief that to change our own personal behaviour we need to make small but consistent changes every day; so then in the tourism community, a critical mass of enterprises and individuals will need to change the way they operate by thinking and acting differently.

Individual hosts and guests are more likely to do this when they are presented with a very attractive, positive image of a better future.

Unfortunately, acting responsibly is still associated with suffering and loss – it comes across as having to give up pleasure and enjoyment or to go backwards rather than forwards. The argument is often reduced to simple concepts – the economy versus the environment  - and the perishable nature of the “product” encourages short-termism.  What we need is a dynamic, expanded vision of a better, more profitable, more durable, more appealing, alternative to mass industrialized tourism.

It’s not that we haven’t got hundreds of thousands of people dedicated to leading change. Ron Mader has helpfully inventoried here all the different ways that proponents of an alternative to mass industrialised tourism label themselves. While great work IS being done by many, the Tower of Babel that dominates the change landscape is in danger of fragmenting and diluting both our focus and resources.

Furthermore, what we haven’t yet done either as a sector or as a community, is address the root cause of the current problem – which is our mindset, our paradigm and our worldview.

And that’s why we’re developing a conversation around the notion of Conscious Travel.

So why Conscious? Simply because “conscious” is to be awake, aware and alert.

• First we need to wake from the trance of an old paradigm that no longer works when there are about to be 7 billion people living on one finite planet.
• Second, we need to become fully aware of the impact that our behaviour has on others and the impact of being embedded in multiple other systems that will determine our future prosperity and even our survival. As individuals, businesses, communities we’re all interdependent now.
• Thirdly, we need to become infinitely more adaptable and creative if we are to thrive during what will be a period of intense upheaval and uncertainty.
• Fourthly, we need to grow up and assume our responsibilities as adults. Tourism operators can be the agents of change and renewal in communities. 

In other words we have to address our “inner world” of values, beliefs and assumptions that underpin our choices and behaviour. Many of us have never examined those assumptions and understood why they might no longer be helpful or relevant.

So Conscious Travel isn’t another association, or agency. It’s a unifying approach that integrates the good work done in eco, responsible, geo, and sustainable tourism and which starts with the values and mindset of the tourism operator as an individual human being. You can read more about what we are and what we’re not here.

Our aim is to attract a critical mass of operators in communities everywhere who want create durable, healthy businesses that “don’t cost the earth, are “worthy of the human beings that serve in them, ” deliver a richer more meaningful experience for guests while revitalizing the culture and biophysical environment of the host community.

We’re inspired by people like Seth Godin who understands how to create movements and Steve Jobs who believed that Apple’s success was based on its core belief that “passion & people can change the world”.

“Heretics are the new leaders. The ones who challenge the status quo, who get out in front of their tribes, who create movements.” Seth Godin

We don’t expect to attract people happy with or benefitting from the status quo. We’re looking for the heretics, misfits, and innovators who exist in virtually every community – the kind of people that inspired Steve Jobs – to co-create a better alternative and ensure that tourism lives up to its potential to be a positive agent of renewal and regeneration.

If any of this is appealing or frightening, then please explore, engage and comment.
It’s a conversation that’s just beginning and will be richer for your participation.

Good Morning Tourism: Time for Your Wake Up Call – Part One

During my 40 year career in travel and tourism, the number of people crossing international borders has grown from 100 million a year to just under a billion. At the same time, I have watched distinctly different, magical and remote communities with cultures whose unique worldview had so much to teach us, be engulfed, usurped, diluted, and become endangered. As lamented in a previous post called On Homecoming and Wayfinding – Re-thinking Sustainable Tourism, present generations simply don’t know what they have been deprived of experiencing.

According to the UNWTO, the current volume of international trips is confidentially forecast to double over an 8 year period – in other words at rate 5 times that of the past growth I have witnessed. What alarms me is the lack of serious, considered debate as to whether such growth is possible or even desirable and what the costs of trying to meet those forecasts might be let alone the probability that they could be achieved or sustained.  What does the doubling of tourism really mean? Who will benefit and who will suffer?

There is no doubt that tourism has become a powerful economic and social force with both positive and negative effects. It has provided entry jobs that have enabled hundreds of thousands of people to lift themselves out of poverty and helped spread wealth from what were once called “have nots” to the “haves”. Tourism has preserved some cultures and provided an economic justification for protecting some natural landscapes but at an enormous cultural, social and environmental cost that has never really been systematically inventoried or assessed.

The Tidal Flow of Tourism
The returns from each incremental visitor are now diminishing year by year due the very nature of how the industrialized model works. In the same way that the ocean tide is controlled by the phases of the moon, the tide of tourism is driven by forces outside the control of the receiving community.  Changes in exchange rates and the economic vitality of source countries account for over 90% of tourism traffic.  So when the tide comes in and volume surges more capacity is increased (more hotels are built, roads are widened, and runways extended or increased.)   When the tide flows out due to external factors that can range from terrorist attacks, epidemics, natural hazards to the collapse of stock markets, then prices are discounted and suppliers attempt to fill their time-based perishable products of rooms, airline seats and restaurant covers at whatever price consider necessary to meet an internal revenue target. Tourism demand is a roller coaster and its frequent and often unpredictable boom and bust cycles can cause untold hardship experienced mostly by vulnerable workers located at the bottom of its wage pyramid.

With each passing year the vitality of the sector is sapped. Consumers’ ability to make instant price comparisons increases the downward pressure on prices and converts what were once scarce, magical, mysterious retreats into commodities. Cost cutting follows. Processes and procurement are standardized and unique places lose their distinctiveness as services and places start to look the same. Automation strips the cost out of many services but deprives the traveler of human and humane care.

Tourism as Time Bomb 
Tourism has become a time bomb, according to Accenture’s Paul Newman and Mark Spelman in this Havard Business Review Paper of the same name.

They suggest that a doubling of demand will have serious impact on the cost of living in key attractive cities where local businesses will have to compete with tourists for many services and, presumably, taxpayers in the host city will have to pay extra infrastructure costs (water, waste management, transportation, policing etc)

While vulnerable places like England’s Stonehenge, Ecuador’s Galapagos and Peru’s Machu Pichuu are having to limit visitation, it’s Venice that is probably the most obvious  “canary in the mine”. We publicly may mourn “the death in and of Venice”  - see previous post on this blog but fail to address the real problem: there is only one Venice and its capacity to absorb more and more visitors every year is limited.

USA today recently published an article on the tourism hotspot, observing:

Venice is “under siege” by tourists and faces “irreversible” catastrophe if limits aren’t imposed on visitor numbers, warns a report released Monday by Italy’s leading heritage group.

Italia Nostra (Our Italy) accused the Italian government of ” underestimating the devastating effects of past and future development projects and tourism policy,” Reuters reports.

The group will ask UNESCO, the United Nation’s cultural organization to place the city on its endangered list and consider removing it from its list of World Heritage Sites. The lagoon city is besieged by 60,000 tourists a day, including many from an increasing number of cruise ships that come to call, says Reuter

How can we as a tourism community be proud to say “we destroyed Venice?” Furthermore,  if sustainability is all about acting now to provide subsequent generations with the same choices and opportunities we enjoy, then how could our actions of the past 50 years be considered even remotely sustainable.

Disappointment with Leadership From Above who avoid “The Elephant in the Room”
I am disappointed with the leadership shown from both governments and the private sector. The UN-related organisations send out mixed signals. They talk a good talk about sustainability – even issuing Green Passports- but get positively gleeful when volume projections bounce back to “near normal” and growth gets back on track.

They talk about tourism being resilient and a force for good but continue to demand more recognition and influence. Despite the fact that their demands for recognition have been made year after year on every Tourism Day with boring monotony, they have to admit that their approach is not working. In March 2011, Taleb Rifai, Secretaru General of the UNWTO was reported saying that tourism ministers around the world lack authority.

Even the WTTC, an exclusive club comprised mostly of the large vertically integrated corporations that have benefited most from the industrialization of tourism, continues to put out a begging hand and, every World Tourism Day, plead for more marketing support, less taxes, less red tape etc. None of these so called leader organizations puts serious pressure on the airline sector to raise prices necessary to cover the “externality” cost associated with spewing carbon into the upper atmosphere. In this Linked In Discussion Valere Tolle is right in part – the “big fat elephant in the room” is carbon but Valere is right only in part though. The real elephant is bigger. Until all the costs – social, cultural, economic and environmental – associated with international travel and tourism are completely and accurately measured and paid for, the elephant we’re trying to avoid is the one with the banner –

Can we Afford the Cost of More Cheap Travel?

We know that polarized arguments between environmentalists and industrialists doesn’t work; we know that finger wagging and making people feel guilty for their sins doesn’t work. We also know that dictats from global and national agencies don’t work.  Until recently there were no market mechanisms in place to provide the sticks and carrots that might change behaviour and when they were introduced (as in the Carbon Trading Scheme), they meet fierce opposition from vested interests…

In short, we think it’s time we all woke up – which is why we are talking up Conscious Travel.

To be “conscious” is the be awake, aware and alert. It means taking a fearless inventory of where we’re at, where we’re going, our strengths and our weaknesses. It means facing reality and speaking the truth.

“In times of universal deceit, speaking the truth is a revolutionary act” George Orwell.

So in an Orwellian sense is is a revolutionary act. But it’s not about blaming or shaming. It is  about coming together and supporting one another in envisioning and then creating a viable alternative that doesn’t cost the earth.

In addition to waking up,  we think it’s time we grew up.

Conscious Travel is about responding to the general question that JFK posed half a century ago.

“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”

Until members of the tourism community – be they operators of small businesses or leaders of global associations – address that question with sincerity; unless we start to engage in the same level of debate and soul searching that virtually every other economic sector is now embracing; unless the tourism community is willing to step forward and say this is what we can do to change and how we can help make the  transition, we’ll continue to be considered superfluous and trivial. Our ministers – even if we can keep them – will continue to be considered lightweight and lacking authority; and our corporate leaders will continue to whine and complain.

We’ve not started this to compete with all the other good people and projects that have been trying to minimise the negative effects of tourism.  We are trying to integrate and support.  Our only point of difference is a firm belief that tourism is about people and places and that change must start in the hearts and minds of the individual tourism operator.  It is this the operator of the small, unique, boutique style operations that make up 99% of enterprises associated with travel and hospitality that can collectively make the transition. For more on how, who and why, read

Good Morning Tourism: Time for Your Wake Up Call, Part Two (coming shortly)

So if any of these thoughts resonate with you – either positively or negatively – please join the conversation and make a comment.

Shift Happened Last Night – Conscious Leadership @ Work

Yesterday was World Tourism Day and history was made in Canada. A tourism event pulled in 1000 people.
Watch the web cast here.

#Futourism renewed my hope and commitment to the cause of co-creating an alternative vision for tourism. Even though I wasn’t there and, due to a lousy Internet connection, could only experience part of it through the tweets in the twittersphere, I knew it marked an important milestone on the SHIFT towards a healthier, more balanced travel sector.

As I wasn’t there, I will quote from someone who was – Flight Centre Canada published this summary earlier today here.

The energy in the room was high as David Suzuki kicked off the night with his talk about how tourism not only introduces people to other cultures, but raised some bigger questions about how tourism can create a positive impact and how we, as travellers, can reduce our ecological footprint. This was further highlighted with Erica Harm’s presentation on how sustainable tourism can turn vanishing cultures to enduring ones.

Travel Blogger Gary Arndt also known in the twitterverse as @EverywhereTrip, stressed the importance that if we want to understand the changes in travel, we need to understand the changes in technology first. People are literally picking up their lives and working from different parts of the world as WIFI is becoming widely available in many countries.

But the anticipation rose throughout the night for ‘the big announcement’  to be made by Bruce Poon Tip. And big it was! With a series of videos and a heartfelt story from Bruce about his 21 years building his company, Bruce addressed a topic that’s been in chasing him for the past five years regarding the lawsuit between Gap Clothing in the US and his brand.

In 1990 Bruce Poon Tip launched Gap Adventures with the belief that other travellers would share his desire to experience authentic adventures in a responsible and sustainable manner. They’ve since grown from a one-man show to a company of over 500, and from a handful of trips in Latin America to hundreds of adventures spanning the globe. Which is why as a company, they’ve decided to take a step forward together and ‘free themselves’. Effective globally October 1st,  the company formally known as Gap Adventures, will now be ‘G Adventures’

“The decision is liberating because we are confident in our product and people. I need to focus on the company and what I do best. We only dropped two letters, everything else remain the same. One of our fundamental principles here is to change the lives of anyone who comes into contact with our company. Our business model isn’t about bottom-lines and turnover. It’s about happiness, freedom and independence,” shares Poon Tip. “I’ve always believed that the secret to happiness is freedom, and the secret to freedom is courage. This year, we are taking a bold step with our identity – a change that’s an evolutionary step into the future.”

I am excited because here we see Conscious Leadership @ Work and heard  a Conscious Host in action

1. Serve a Higher purpose. Bruce Toon Pip created his company in order to change the lives of anyone who comes into contact with it.

2. Create Transformational Experiences – G Adventures was out there doing “transformative travel” before it became a buzz word and bandwagon

3. Show You Care: G Adventures is a company that young people in travel long to work for and has created a culture that respects that fact that its employees are the brand. As a consequence its adaptive, nimble and innovative. Guests are happy.

G Adventures  recognises that it must also put something back – It created The Planeterra Foundation for that purpose and assembled one of the best teams possible led by Megan Epler Wood one of the brightest lights in sustainable tourism.

G Adventure's Brand Is Its People Photo Source: Flight centre CA

4. Bruce’s company  understands that all business is now social and their success in attracting, engaging and supporting travellers is due to their intelligent application of social media. They get “Conscious Marketing”

5. Last night at Futourism, G Adventures  showed that it has what it takes to be a change agent and serve a larger community – in this case tourism as a whole

I felt a breath of fresh air blow across the country.

Dear peers in travel (ie those of you over 55 – let these guys shine. It’s their future and their turn. Our job is to hand over the reins and support as best we can.

Now sit back and enjoy their video – spread the word.

How is this Program Different?

The last thing we want to do in Conscious Travel is undermine or compete with the good work being done by a host  of other travel-related organizations that are trying to build a better future. We fully applaud and support the efforts and achievements of such organizations as  the International Centre for Responsible Travel (ICRT) and especially the pioneering work of Justin Francis, founder of ResponsibleTravel.com; the various agencies involved in Sustainable Tourism such as Sustainable Travel International; the achievements of many eco-tourism and activity providers where great leadership has been shown by The International Ecotourism Society and Adventure Travel Trade Association. The work of Tourism Concern is also much appreciated and deserves more support.

What we are trying to do though is add value, impetus and encouragement by focusing on building the internal leadership skills within the tourism community to navigate the turbulent waters of change and grow high yielding, stable businesses.  Our intent is to make it easier for “SME” providers to access the knowledge, information and tools they perceive as relevant to their development.  As such, we will be pleased to work in partnership with others.

The concept has been based on a belief that within a sector as labour intensive as tourism, all the intelligence, drive and imagination exists within any destination community to adapt and thrive. It is the task of leaders to challenge, inspire, draw out, support and reward the innovations that will come from customers , employees, suppliers and the host community. Most tourism entrepreneurs have brought their skills as restauranteurs, hoteliers, activity providers, attraction and event managers to the sector but have not necessarily had the opportunity to develop leadership skills that are appropriate for our times.  Unlike the employees of Fortune 500 companies, few travel providers have had the time, money or opportunity to develop the managerial and leadership capacities of their personnel or access emerging thinking.

What differentiates Conscious Travel is our initial focus on the inner world of those who would afect change. If the tourism community is to have the capacity to thrive in turbulent times, it requires leaders who can make accurate sense of their world, adapt to changing conditions and demonstrate resilience. We reject the notion that concepts such “mindset”, “values”, “culture” and “character” are soft. On the contrary, they profoundly determine the extent of a company’s success.

Our vision is for Conscious Travel to become a global learning community in which participants recognise their interdependence and help themselves and each other. We’re looking to attract business owners, such as the ones Seth Godin describes below, who want to grow themselves and enable their employees and the host community to grow in a qualitative sense.

Heretics are the new leaders. The ones who challenge the status quo, who get out in front of their tribes and who create movements. Seth Godin

The Conscious Travel e-learning program is not for everyone. We wish to attract heretics and change agents, the curious and those willing to stretch themselves so that they can better serve their communities. The full scope of the program is summarised here and will be refined in greater detail after expensive consultation with travel-related suppliers and potential participants.

Success will have been achieved if participants in the program:

• feel better able to make sense of the changes affecting their business, their community and the tourism sector and more confident in their capacity to respond and thrive;  and
• are able to create the conditions whereby their own teams can collaborate with others to delight the Conscious Travellers they attract; provide tangible net benefits to the host community such that its residents wish to actively participate in welcoming visitors; can attract responsible suppliers and investors; and generate above average profits.

Links:

 The ConsciousTravel e-Learning Program Outline

Is Conscious Business “Capitalism 3.0″?

Jean Houston

Dr. Jean Houston, scholar, philosopher and researcher in human capacities, and one of the foremost visionary thinkers and doers of our time and principal founders of the Human Potential Movement sent me a summary of the major mindset shifts taking place at this point in history. What an amazing time to be alive!.

If you are interested in and committed to envisioning and co-creating a fresh new vision for the travel and hospitality community, now’s the time to find fellow kindred spirits and get started. Many brave souls have prepared a path before us. All the  great work in sustainable tourism, ecotourism, geotourism, and responsible travel is building towards the same end – ensuring our travel activities don’t cost the earth. Conscious.Travel is not designed or intended to duplicate or fragment but to integrate and support. Our focus is on people not product; on helping nourish and grow leaders with courage and imagination. It was Victor Frankl who said,

When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves.

Here are Dr. Houston’s five shifts with my comments in italics..

1. We are changing our understanding of who and what we are and what we need to become in order to be able to deal with the complexity of our time. It was Theihard de Chardin who coined the phrase – “we are not human beings having a spiritual experience but spiritual beings having a human experience”. That being the case, there are no limits to what we can achieve. In the same way that we can acquire superhuman strength when in a dire emergency and loved ones are trapped, so can we find the power in ourselves to cope when the stakes get really high – and they are increasing every day. 

2. Human societies are in the process of re-patterning. Social constructs are dissolving and whole new stories are trying to emerge, such as the rise of women to a full partnership with men across the globe, and many others. Women are a vital and significantly important part of the travel community and are driving the movement towards conscious consumption. Time we stepped forth in our own communities. It’s not about seeking to climb to the top of decaying institutions but being a change agent at the grassroots level

3. How we conduct business and commerce is shifting. This is perhaps the most important social event of the last five thousand years, because commerce impacts almost everything in our lives. Capitalism as practiced in the past is seriously flawed. Even Alan Greenspan had to admit it contained flaws he hadn’t acknowledged. Now is not the time to discard the only means of sustaining ourselves but to re-think, re-set- re-create a better version. Simply put, Conscious Business is Capitalism 3.0

4. The rise and fusion of different cultures–we are swiftly moving towards a planetary civilization that accentuates the uniqueness of each culture while blending them together. Think of the great fusions of food and of music and of beliefs. Now if travel & tourism had a higher purpose, then this is it. But we won’t make our contribution to building a planetary civilisation so long as we continue to displace vulnerable cultures in our attempts to secure the few remaining unspoiled, remote spots of beauty left where indigenous cultures have existed for thousands of years. To be involved in travel means to care about the disappearance of a language every two weeks and to speak out where the actions of the travel community have created injustice.

5. Whole new orders of spirituality are emerging that are not about religion. The new cosmologies are giving us a view of ourselves that we never had before. For the first time ever, we find that we don’t live in the universe, but that the universe lives in us. In other words, for the first time in human history we’re consciously aware that our own evolution as a species is in our hands and not left to random chance. That’s both wildly exciting and terrifying. Isn’t that enough to jump out of bed with passion and enthusiasm?

Time to wake up folks. Fresh, organic coffee lovingly grown by a cooperative is brewing!

To quote our friends at Interaction Associates:

ROI = Return on Involvement

It doesn’t matter whether you get involved in Responsible Travel, Sustainable Tourism, Green Travel, Geotourism etc. what matters is that you participate and take a stand for what you believe in.