Tourism Revolution (I): New Values

Together for change

We’re not aware of it because we are a part of the change. We are inside the thing itself, inside its resistance to movement. In our comfortable roles. We know things are not going well, but we are afraid of the unknown. We call what we don’t know a crisis and hope that in one way or another it will be solved. We are egotists because we don’t see it: we only try to manage our crisis, our decline, with the minimum personal impact for ourselves. But in our heart of hearts we know it is unsustainable.

For some time now our society has shown clear symptoms of transformation. And  no, it didn’t start yesterday, or last year or the one before. Nor will it be solved tomorrow, or next year or the one after. Transformation means radical change. Of behavior, dynamics, roles, model. As such our current solutions, those that we know, don’t solve the new problems. We have to change. Beginning with ourselves. But it’s not easy. No, it’s not, because above all it creates fear. And fear leads to paralysis.

Every so often, societies transform themselves. It’s a part of humanity.  We can end up in stable times or revolutionary ones.  The revolutionary periods of centuries past that arose to transform and modernize social dynamics are now economic in nature. It is the economy that defines current dynamics and it is through the transformation of market models that we must address the challenges: the revolutions of the 21^st century must be built on entrepreneurship and take form in the market. Applying the Wendell Phillips phrase, “Revolutions are not made, they come.”

This serves as an introduction to our analysis of the current economic model of tourism: we are amidst a Tourist Revolution.

Revolution because we are “suffering” transformations, radical changes, in a short period of time, before which we must learn how to adapt in order to renovate the tourism industry and make our leadership position sustainable. The foundations of the Tourist Model that we know are changing. These transformations are painful in some cases. But less painful, certainly, that the consequences of failing to adapt to them.

The revolution, the transformation, comes out of the market itself, from demand, from “uncontrollable” factors that are giving shape to the new tourism scenario. Because the market, the demand, has already begun to adopt new values that characterize the new society – that which we have come to call the Network Society. Values still at some distance from being applied to supply, which continues to maintain the values of the Industrial Society and which do little more than produce a rupture in the market. This rupture, this movement along two different highways, we have called “crisis.” It is not a crisis; it is a revolution. Because there are new agents of change challenging the established order (mainly from demand itself). Because there are new dynamics challenging the old ones. And both agents of change and dynamics are not controllable. And this is not a crisis. It is a revolution. If we do not become aware of this, if we do not succeed in applying new predominant values to the tourism model, if we do not succeed in mentally adapting to these forces, the revolution will very hard. And in an economy like Spain’s, in which tourism is the main source of wealth, something that hard cannot be allowed to happen.

With this series of posts that we begin today, we want to issue a call to activate the necessary changes, from the point of view of supply, that can and must lead this revolution.

In this first post, we want to enunciate the values that we look upon as characteristic of the new society, which already exist in latent form within the supply. Values that must be incorporated in the supply, in management models for destinations, businesses and people.  Only by understanding the values that underpin the new society can we adapt ourselves to the new scenario, independent of associated changes.  Without any intent to be exclusionary or precise, we set out 15 values that we believe must be adopted by participants in the new model.

1. People.  They are the core of the new society. The society, the market, are composed of people. Knowing this and giving it the highest value, over and above agents, institutions, structures, algorithms, “ways” and “means” is the key.
2. Connection. There is no structure or institution that is not an assembly of connected people. The capacity for connection is a predominant value to impart logic to the new structures and agents of the network society.  Only those who know how to be connected will be able to adapt to the new model.
3. Belonging. The feeling of belonging acts as a glue between people and the new institutions and agents of society and the market. The obligation and intimidation to to belong to traditional models needs to give way to an emotional value that is reflected in the idea of belonging.
4. Transparency. Transparency is objectivity in the new model. The move is from competition, in the old model, in order to achieve asymmetries that create market power, to competition not only to achieve but to demonstrate the maximum transparency in order to acquire better market position and visibility.
5. Open Information. If knowledge is the motor and gasoline that opens the new model to create value based on its scarcity is incongruent and illogical.  People and agents must change their dynamics to develop value in abundance.  Only in this way are we assuring the model’s competitiveness and sustainability.
6. Collaboration, cocreation and cooperation. The support among pairs in order to develop any activity is a key value of the new model. Those agents that know how to adapt to this characteristic to develop ideas, proposals and new models of value based on “co-“ will be those who are permanently adapted to the new model.
7. Leadership. The new model needs leaders. But leaders who are committed and voluntarily accepted by people and agents.  Leaders who can change their minds and be flexible according to accepted standards. Those agents who want to continue leading based on structure rather than value will have no possibility of adapting. And an entity without leaders will have little chance of survival in the new model.
8. Responsibility.  As if it were inherent in the activity itself. Responsibility to the environment, society and to the economic dynamics in themselves to make sure they are sostainable. And it’s not an additional “extra,” but should be a central value that defines actions and actors.
9. Bravery. No fear of making mistakes. A mistake is a great teacher. Change is continuous, there are no absolute or everlasting truths, for which reason the capacity to move forward and make mistakes is an inherent value of actors who adapt to the new model.
10. Nonconformity.  Because you have never reached the goal. Doubt and continuous challenge are synonymous with success in the new model rather than stability and inertia. To know how to assume this value, always through action and not the paralyzing pursuit of excellence, is a key factor in adapting oneself to the new model.
11. Learning. Continuous and permanent. About people and agents. Because only through the capacity to absorb all the new knowledge and give continuous feedback can we maintain the new model.
12. Curiosity. The ability to explore the unknown to find new directions and ways of doing things, and know how to apply them to your situation and surroundings is an inherent value in those actors and agents that have adapted to the new model.
13. Diversity. Surround oneself with different knowledge and actors, with different perceptions and know-how, is a fundamental value for adapting to the new model and moving it forward.
14. Humility. Because we all have limitations to what we know and can do. No one is capable of knowing and taking part in everything. Everyone needs everyone else, and only from a perspective of mutual value can we adapt to the new model.
15. Dialogue. People dialogue, converse, listen. It is the only way to develop the “co-“ values, to learn, to absorb information… Only in this way, through a capacity for dialogue, can actors adapt to the new model.