How do we encourage responsible consumers?

Toyota are the world’s biggest car manufacturer. They build their cars in a very clever way that’s famous amongst production engineers and students of manufacturing It’s called the TPS (originally called ‘Just In Time production’) and it’s a socio technical production system that organizes manufacturing and logistics.

The reason you have probably never heard of TPS is because it’s never used in their customer marketing. Toyota’s latest advertising line in the US is ‘let’s go places’ and is about the accessibility of its products and the freedom they create for the consumer. Customer marketing is about dramatising the benefit of a product to customers rather than describing the detail of how it’s made

Responsible tourism research We often survey whether people would be interested in buying a ‘responsible holiday’ I wonder why we do this? If Toyota did their customer research about the propensity of drivers to buy cars made by TPS production they would conclude that there was limited demand for their cars

Where’s the customer benefit? Responsible tourism is designed fairly in partnership with local communities, and built around local guides, foods, cultures and traditions in order to maximize the local economic benefits of tourism & protect their heritage When you design tourism in this way and well-treated, local people open up their ways of life the tourist gets a more authentic experience I wonder what % of tourists want more real and authentic travel experiences?

Telephone survey conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres for responsibletravel.com among 1002 British adults between 30th January and 1st February 2004

The problem with distribution

Distribution Responsible tourism encompasses mainstream tourism businesses with global distribution and SME’s without it - – After the Second World War, American Airlines invented ways for third party distributors (agents) to be able to sell flights. Over time, hotels and car hire has been added to this and we’ve seen the emergence of the GDS or Global Distribution Schemes – Having availability and the ability to book these products has enabled a vast distribution network to form – However, participating in these schemes comes at a cost to the supplier and it’s often beyond the reach of SME responsible tourism businesses. They/we are in effect excluded, and marginalized from the global distribution of tourism

Distribution This is now changing as SME’s have access to Booking.com and Tripadvisor and responsibletravel.com! (if not GDS) – The playing field is becoming more even The greatest asset of any responsible tourism business – big or small – is the stories about the experiences, and connections made with local people & places – Social media means good (and bad) stories are super charged

Changing behaviour Unconscious – Some people buy a holiday designed in a responsible way without being aware of this – Benefits to communities and conservation are achieved & this is fine! Conscious – In other cases more overt understanding of the issues are achieved through communication..

Travellers reviews – include RT

Our destination guides includes information on local issues & responsible tourism

In summary At responsibletravel.com we will continue to champion the authenticity and responsibility (intertwined, inseparable and equally important) of our members’ holidays and accommodations and to give them a platform to sell from Responsible tourism is green & gold – Green – sustainability – Gold – authenticity Remember to sell the gold as well as the green!