a new tourism for a new economy
TRANSCRIPT
a conversation between The Critical Tourism Studies Network
andAnna Pollock, Founder, Conscious Travel
Opatija, CROATIA, June 29th, 2015
A New Tourism for a New Economy
A Conversation that• Is inclusive: industry practitioners, policy makers, host
communities and academics• Encourages critical thinking that..•Gets to the root of the problem – yes radical!• Stimulates the imagination• Is positively creative• Involves our whole selves: mind, bodies, heart and soul
RoleStrategist, thinker, “sense maker” Social Entrepreneur
Why Conscious?
Wake Up to the nature of changeSustainable Tourism Certification Alliance Africa
http://www.slideshare.net/AnnaP/beyond-csr-sustainability
Victoria Tourism industry Council
http://www.slideshare.net/AnnaP/vtic5-game-changing-long
Wake Up
Grow Up
Step Up
1. Old economy is hooked on growth2. Not paying full cost (externalities); or engaging in protection (insufficient de-
coupling)3. High leakage (only 5% stays in host community where all inclusive resorts are
concerned); wealth increasingly concentrated 4. Heavy resource users (land, water) and waste producers (emissions, trash)5. Diminishing returns – “Cheap Travel” homogenization, commodification, 6. Limited local ownership – property and development rights closely aligned with
sources of capital 7. Poor labour-relations record; low pay; seasonal, temporary work, poor conditions8. Boom & bust – resilience?9. Social cost: trafficking, displacement, child abuse, disempowerment, 10. Market splitting (bifurcating!): Price-Experience
Plenty of Fodder for Criticism
The Tourism Tsunami
Demand forecast
Demand dependent
The UNWTO Position
The core of our mandate as a UN-specialized agency is to promote sustainable tourism, but you can’t promote sustainability if you don’t promote tourism, so that’s why we said competition and growth on one hand and sustainability on the other. We stand for a belief that the growth of this industry on one hand and the preservation, protection, responsibility and sustainability on the other hand are not a zero-sum game. We believe that we can continue to grow, we have to embrace growth and never be afraid of it. UNWTO
Conscious Travel “Model”
1. Business as usual is impossible and unsustainable2. We must shift our focus from symptoms to root causes3. We need to understand how systems work 4. Shift from an Extractive to a Regenerative Economy5. Change Our Purpose – from bigger to better; from more to
flourishing6. Empower People in Communities – change from bottom up
Perspective: Six Assumptions
Conscious Travel Principles
1. Business as usual is impossible and unsustainable2. We must shift our focus from symptoms to root causes3. We need to understand how systems work 4. Shift from an Extractive to a Regenerative Economy5. Change Our Purpose – from bigger to better; from more to
flourishing6. Empower People in Communities – change from bottom up
Perspective: Six Assumptions
We’ve started a new geological era: the Anthropocene
SOURCE: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/gallery/2015/apr/01/over-population-over-consumption-in-pictures#img-1
Do we really understand Exponential Growth?
SOURCE: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/gallery/2015/apr/01/over-population-over-consumption-in-pictures#img-1
SOURCE: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/gallery/2015/apr/01/over-population-over-consumption-in-pictures#img-1
Is This Sustainable?
THE GREAT UNRAVELLING
THE GREAT UNRAVELLING
Where are we on this curve?
Nature’s Timeless Pattern
Business As Usual Not Sustainable
“Population growth, exploitation of natural resources, climate change and other factors are putting the world on a development trajectory that is not sustainable…
If we fail to alter our patterns of production and consumption, things will begin to go badly wrong”
1. Business as usual is impossible and unsustainable2. We must shift our focus from problems and symptoms to
root causes.• We create and name problems because we are problem fixers!• We declare war on many because we are warriors, trained to compete and
win• We’re trained to compartmentalise, dissect, break down• Specialisation rife• CSR perfect example
Perspective: Six Assumptions
The real problem is how we view or see things
“We have one generation in which to shift human consciousness”
Jeremy Rifkin
How do make the transition?
From here to here
Based on a set of Assumptions – a worldview • Humans are separate, superior & have dominion over other life forms• The planet and business operate like machines that can be engineered• Business is the best form for creating wealth; Money is the sole measure of success
that matters. • Private ownership of resources is essential to the operation of a free market
economy• A company’s fiduciary responsibility is to maximize returns to their shareholders• A free market best determines how capital and resources (input) are allocated to
create wealth (from goods and services)• Financial capital matters more than natural, social, intellectual, spiritual capital • The purpose of capital is to manufacture further financial wealth that “trickles
down” to benefit all!• The combined results of business activity (transactions) in a community is best
measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
Sustainable Economy, Renewing Capitalism, Conscious Capitalism, Corporation 2020, Sustainable Capitalism, Responsible Capitalism, Clean Capitalism, The Responsible Economy, Capitalism as if the Planet Matters, Creative Capitalism, Compassionate Capitalism, Just Capitalism, Regenerative Capitalism Spiritual Capital, Tomorrow’s Company, Breakthrough Capitalism, Sir Richard Branson’s B Team and WEFs New Social Contract.
CAPITALISM Re-thinking itself
INTRINSIC Systemic Flaws
• Systemic breakdowns are breakdowns that occur in an entire system, as opposed to breakdowns in individual parts and components. Systemic risks are characterised by: • Modest tipping points combining indirectly
to produce large failures• Risk sharing or contagion, as one loss
triggers the chain of others• Hysteresis or systems being unable to
recover after a shock.
EMERGING: Everything and everyone is connected
Systemic Change
When two waves collide
When two waves collide
1. Business as usual is impossible and unsustainable2. We must shift our focus from symptoms to root causes3. We need to understand how systems work 4. Shift from an Extractive to a Regenerative Economy5. Change Our Purpose – from bigger to better; from more to
flourishing6. Empower Communities – change from bottom up
Perspective: Six Assumptions
Why Travel & not Tourism?
• We’re part of a living system…• A visitor economy • With hosts (human beings) • Encountering and serving • Guests (other human beings)• In a community of other human beings
and life forms• That takes place in a unique space• Embedded in a larger ecosystem
Machine Living Organism
Parts – break apart Emergent wholes – heal, make whole
Objects – objectivity Relationships“We are a communion of subjects not a collection of objects”
Separate out variables Nothing can be understood out of context
More is better - quantity Better is better - qualityStructure Process and flow
From mechanical to systems perspectives
How do you change a system?
Let’s Reframe our Purpose as FLOURISHING
INSPIRATION
Human Health
Ecosystem Health
•Vitality, vigor, energy •Diversity, complexity•Balance •Resilience•Adaptable & Evolving
Video link
Society
Destination
Enterprise
Individual
1. Business as usual is impossible and unsustainable2. We must shift our focus from symptoms to root causes3. We need to understand how systems work – especially
living systems to build a Regenerative Economy4. Change Our Purpose – from bigger to better; from more to
flourishing5. Empower Communities – change from bottom up
Perspective: Six Assumptions
Conscious Travel Principles
Purpose
Purpose of a new tourism – Conscious Travel• Optimize the net positive impact to host community
• Ensure ALL stakeholders engaged in or are affected by tourism FLOURISH
• Restore a “right relationship” with nature
• Create an environmentally sustainable, socially just and spiritually fulfilling visitor economy that enriches and enlivens the many.
People• Changing Workplace• What does it mean to be a human in the
Anthropocene?• People from liability to asset• Engagement = Passion• Passion + Purpose = Profit!
Place• When places became products• Death of the Sacred• Role of Hosts in expressing place• Resurgence of “place-based”….• Journey Home
Power• Shift of power • From companies to consumers• From employers to employees• From government to citizens• From “old” to “new” power
• Power of the individual • Power of the collective• How do we empower communities?
Protection• CSR OK but not enough• Zero waste essential for ground-based hosts• De-couple• Stewards of and partners with Nature
Proximity• Buy Local • Localise movement alive and flourishing without
tourism• Join in• Slow down
Conscious Travel Principles
So What’s It Going To Take?
• Just knowing won’t get us very far. • We have to transform this knowledge
into a deep passion to change course.• But passion does not come from the
head. It is a product of the heart. And the heart is not aroused by bare facts alone. • It needs stories that weaves those facts
into a moving and meaningful narrative.
Source: Richard Schiffman
What’s It Going To Take?
We need a powerful new story that: • Shows we are part of nature and not
separate from it.• Properly situates humans in the world –
neither above it by virtue of our superior intellect, nor dwarfed by the universe into cosmic insignificance.• That we are equal partners with all
that exists, co-creators with trees and galaxies and microbes in a materially and spiritually evolving universeSource: Richard Schiffman
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcacx_i6MIE
We will each play different roles
Hello tourism imaginalsTogether let’s create a visitor
economy that’sBetterAnd
Better for all!Thank You!
[email protected]: conscioustravelTwitter: @conscioushost