Planeta Forum

[planeta]

Introducing the NaTour Communications topic
>> http://forum.planeta.com/viewtopic.php?t=396

Founded by Jeremy Garrett, NaTour Communications works in the development, promotion and marketing of sustainable tourism products and destinations.
>> http://www.natour.us

[natour]

Many thanks to Ron for offering this opportunity to talk about what's going on in the industry. I hope to provide some interesting perspectives on how I see the industry proceeding, and whether sustainable tourism can gain a foothold in the mass tourism industry.

For background, I've got a degree in wildlife ecology (science) with a minor in communications (promotion) -- so already that gives me an interesting outlook on conservation matters. I've been working in the natural resources field for 15 years, including 8 years at a state wildlife agency in the U.S., 2 years as the marketing director for The International Ecotourism Society, and now 2 1/2 years running my own consulting firm NaTour Communications, www.natour.us. With my diversity of work, one of the things that I've been able to do is to bring in a variety of viewpoints to the marketing of sustainable tourism products and destinations.

For example, I'm now finalizing a large, multi-phase project in the eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, along the Canadian border. This project is being led by local community leaders who desire to use nature-based tourism to expand their local economic development. Classic ecotourism, in other words. To this I brought in someone who is an expert at adventure tourism marketing, because I quickly realized that not enough people are ecotourists to be a viable initial audience for this region; I also brought in an expert in the business of ecotourism, as well as an expert in interpretive writing to "sell" the areas assets.

With this wealth of expertise, we are creating various "products" for the region to use in promoting itself. This includes three highway-based driving routes or "trails" that incorporate the region's natural, cultural and historical destinations. We're also developing a marketing plan that will give the region flexibility in promoting themselves, depending on the funds and personnel available. Finally, they're receiving various interpretive materials that will assist all their efforts to describe the region and its assets -- for websites, maps, brochures, etc.

For more information on NaTour's current and recent projects, please visit www.natour.us. Also, I'll be serving as Show Director at the upcoming New York Times Travel Show, from 4-6 March 2005, so please feel free to introduce yourself if you attend.

[natour]

A Note on U.S. Travel Shows:

The busy travel show season is now over for the winter, and the winner is definitely the New York Times Travel Show, which took place this past weekend -- March 4-6, 2005. I served as the show's Conference Manager, so I am a bit biased, but the public attendees and exhibiting companies all agree with me, some deciding that they won't be exhibiting at any show in the U.S. except for this one.

Only three years back, the only "show" in town (pun intended) was the IATOS in Chicago. If you were in the eco/adventure tourism industry, that's where you went. The show also included the World Congress -- two days of meetings and networking opportunities. The show itself had decent attendance of 15,000, and the World Congress always received top marks, but the show's numbers weren't growing as much as exhibitors wanted.

And then along came the Adventures in Travel Expo, which began in NYC in 2004. This show certainly picked up a lot of public attendees (numbered at 21,000 by show organizers, although that number is up for debate in certain circles) and had a lot of buzz as the "best", "biggest", etc. show in the U.S. Because of their success, the show organizers decided to expand nationwide: San Francisco in September 2004, Chicago and Washington in January 2005, and other destinations such as Los Angeles and Dallas.

Although it cannot be denied that their marketing machine is top-notch, their delivery of quality clients is questionable. Yes, some companies and organizations found public attendees that matched their product, but I would venture that the majority only found the "state fair" crowd, who simply collect materials off their tables, only to be dumped in the trash on the way out.

And the IATOS itself changed this past January 2005, morphing from a primarily eco/adventure show to a broader Travel Show Chicago that was co-located with the huge Chicago Boat Show. I also served as Conference Manager for this show, and have for the past three years. So why would a successful show change so drastically? Simple -- the exhibitors wanted more public attendees treading past their booths. The boat show normally has some 50,000 public attendees, who have disposable incomes to purchase boats (of which the cheapest was in the $20,000 range, running up to several million) that are only used 3 months out of the year. Our feeling was that by combining with the Boat Show, we'd attract their 50,000 plus our 15,000, thus bringing our exhibitors the types of numbers they wanted.

Unfortunately, the weekend of the show had a huge snowstorm, dumping so much snow that the city was paralyzed. As you can imagine, the numbers were not what we expected. Still, we believe that at least 11,000 public attendees did come past our exhibitors' booths over the five days of the show, so being connected to the Boat Show did in fact assist our attendance numbers.

The ATE shows that have taken place since the original NYC show in January 2004 have been poorly attended by the public, when you consider that they take place in the largest cities in the U.S., although I've heard the Washington DC show was the best of them as far as pre-qualified attendees. What the ATE shows have done is to split the market, and unfortunately, the adventure/eco companies don't have the time, staff or money to exhibit at every show, even if the booths are free and they get public buyers.

So how did the NY Times Travel Show fare? Well, the final numbers aren't out yet, but should be later this week (see www.nytimes.com/travelshow/ ). Definitely, all aspects of the show grew -- double the number of exhibitor booths, double the trade attendance (estimated at 7,000+ on Friday), greater attendance at the public and trade seminars, and tons of buzz and on-site sales from extremely qualified public attendees.

All over I kept hearing that the NY Times show is the only one that companies will come to next year, and that they're planning a bigger presentation, which means that the show could again double in size next year. Certainly, many would like to see this show as North America's version of the World Travel Mart.

It will be interesting to see how the future shows fare in this new atmosphere.

[natour]

Celebrating 2 Years as a Consultancy

It has been more than two years since NaTour Communications announced its debut as a tourism consulting firm. In that time, our firm has experienced enormous growth, working within the U.S. and internationally to develop, promote and market sustainable tourism products and destinations, especially to the North American market.

Occasionally, NaTour provides informational campaigns on new destinations. Recently, NaTour enhanced its website ñ www.natour.us ñ to provide additional information on our services, partners and clients.

Over the past two years, NaTour has worked with a variety of clients (www.natour.us/clientlist.php), including government agencies, nonprofit organizations, communities, and private companies. Projects included marketing plans for companies and destinations; training courses; trail development; trend research; promotional campaigns; Press/FAM trips; tradeshow coordination; local economic development efforts based on tourism; and the development of a sustainable tourism facility within the Caribbean. See www.natour.us/projects.php for a list of current projects and www.natour.us/completed.php for completed projects.

In addition, NaTour had the fortune to partner with a number of talented individuals in the sustainable tourism field, expanding our firmís services in key areas. These partners (www.natour.us/partners.php) include: Arq. Hector Ceballos-Lascurain, Carol Patterson (Kalahari Management), Bob Garrison (Nature Tourism Planning), Ed Sanders (Eco-Tourism International), Tim Warren (Adventure Business Consultants), Motti Essakow (OmWardBound), and Mike McCarney (Legitify).

NaTour also had a number of honors and international speaking engagements (www.natour.us/updates.php). These included publication of NaTour founder Jeremy Garrettís helpful guide Landscaping for Wildlife in the Southern Great Plains; and presentations and marketing and tourism development at conferences in Italy, Venezuela, and within the U.S. Jeremy also contributed to a report sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme on Marketing Sustainable Tourism Products: Challenges and Opportunities (www.uneptie.org/pc/tourism/private_sector/Marketing%20sustainable%20tourism%20htm.htm).

This year looks to be just as exciting, with work in the Americas, the Caribbean and even in Asia. NaTour excels in supplying a different approach and outlook to marketing sustainable tourism destinations and products, and wishes you a successful 2005.

[natour]

Recent UNEP Sustainable Tourism Reports

Just a quick update on a few recent publications that have come out of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) over the past 4 months. These should be good resources, and I provide a link to the free downloadable PDFs.

Making Tourism More Sustainable: A Guide for Policy Makers (http://www.unep.fr/pc/tourism/library/A%20Guide%20for%20Policy%20Makers.htm) -- printed in coordination with World Tourism Organization

Forging Links Between Protected Areas and the Tourism Sector: How tourism can benefit conservation (http://www.unep.fr/pc/tourism/library/forging-links.htm) -- printed in coordination with UNESCO, RARE and United Nations Foundation

Two-part series: Integrating Sustainability Into Business (http://www.unep.fr/pc/tourism/library/Integrating%20Sustainability%20into%20Business.htm) -- printed in coordination with Tour Operators Initiative
- An Implementation GUide for Responsible Tourism Coordinators
- A Management Guide for Responsible Tour Operations

[planeta]

A request -- please keep posts in the NaTour topic focused on NaTour Communications, including original publications, collaborative work and upcoming events. The UN publications are very interesting and such news is most welcome in the 'share news' topic in our public suggestion box:
>> http://forum.planeta.com/viewforum.php?f=8

I hope I am not nagging Jeremy too much (!) and news items from Jeremy are always most welcome in our forum.

[natour]

NaTour Principal Quoted in Recent Article

NaTour Communications principal Jeremy Garrett was recently quoted in the Puget Sound Business Journal on the topic of the rise of community-based and volunteer tourism. Visit http://seattle.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/seattle/content/story.html?story_id=1173294 for the full article.

The article is a good description of the Seattle-based tour operator Crooked Trails (www.crookedtrails.com), with whom Jeremy has worked in the past.

In perhaps one of his best newspaper quotes ever, Jeremy says: "People want to do more than sit on the beach and drink mai tais. They want to learn."

[natour]

NaTour Communications Coordinates Upcoming Venezuelan Expoecoturismo

Jeremy Garrett is working with local organizers in Venezuela to coordinate their third ExpoEcoturismo (www.expoecoturismo.com), set for October 19-21 in Maracaibo. A FAM/Media Trip will take place following the event from October 22-24.

The event will feature great local and international speakers on ecolodge development, marketing, community tourism development, interpretation and sustainability. Presenters include:

- Noted architect Hector Ceballos Lascurain
- Mark Willuhn MesoAmerica Ecotourism Alliance)
- Anthony Ippolitto (Southern Brazil Adventures)
- Christine Mackay (Crooked Trails)
- Paul Stanley (Angel-Eco Tours)
- Jeremy Garrett (NaTour Communications)
- Ed Sanders (Eco Tourism International)
- Cristina Suhr (Rainforest Alliance)
- Caren Rapp (Elder Treks)
- Marinela Chevalier (Caribbean Adventure Magazine)
- Douglas Trent (Focus Tours)
- Mercedes Silva (Association of Caribbean States)
- Hank Stewart (Green Team Advertising)

[natour]

Results of 2005 Venezuelan ExpoEcoturismo

Everyone needs a trip that keeps them on their toes. For myself and a number of international participants, that trip was the 2005 Venezuelan ExpoEcoturismo, held Oct. 22-24 in Maracaibo, Venezuela. Now, I'll state first off that I love Venezuela as a destination: fascinating people, great wildlife viewing, amazing natural locales. For this trip, the "fascinating" people quite literally turned this ecotourism trip into an adventure.

I arrived early and visited my friend Paul Stanley's Coral Lagoon Lodge (www.angel-ecotours.com/lodge/lodge.html) in Henry Pittier National Park. Beautiful place to go snorkeling on some coral reefs, and just to relax the mind and body. All of which we needed before making out way over to Maracaibo, on Venezuela's western border.

Maracaibo itself is your typical large Latino city with some colorful cathedrals off a main plaza. The Expo was located downtown, with three salons for concurrent presentations, and an exhibition floor, with a ropes-challenge course laid out in the rafters overhead. Exhibitors included NGOs, operators and lodging facilities in the region, but unfortunately, the national tourism office INATUR was conspicuously absent. Irregardless, our gracious hosts -- the governor Manuel Rosales and his staff at the Zulia Tourism Corporation -- supported the Expo and provided for travel expenses for the international participants, as well as showed us around the region.

The presenters -- both international and local -- truly made the conference and Expo a success, discussing all sorts of topics like ecolodge development, marketing, community tourism development, interpretation and sustainability. Attendees made numerous comments on how much they enjoyed and appreciated the presentations. One of the main reasons for the event was to raise the focus of a unique atmospheric phenomenon that takes place in the region called the Catatumbo lightning -- lightning flashes without the accompanying thunder, which is created somehow in the Lake Maracaibo basin.

Other highlights of our experience included visiting the palafitos (stilt villages) where Venezuela earned its name back in the late 1400s, climbing the sand dunes of Zapara Island, visiting a refurbished fort that spelled Venezuela's independence, birdwatching along the canals of Lake Maracaibo, taking a boat trip in the pitch black of night with the Venezuelan military, paragliding off the Andean peaks outside Merida (the nation's highest capital city), seeing the stark beauty of Sierra Nevada National Park at 3500 meters, touching the fuzzy stems of the gorgeous frailejÛn flowers, and wending our way through 360-degree switchbacks in a foggy rainstorm at night. And then navigating our way home around the hurricane that hit Miami!

But despite the obstacles that seemed to keep arising, the Venezolanos continued to smile and share their lives with us, reminding us that no matter what language separates us, no matter what our political leaders say in public -- we can still connect as people and as Americans all.

[natour]

NaTour Developing Conferences for Upcoming Travel Shows

Jeremy Garrett is serving as Conference Manager for three upcoming travel shows in 2006:
- New York Times Travel Show (www.nytimes.com/travelshow), 24-26 February 2006
- Boston Globe Travel Show (www.bostonglobetravelshow.com), 24-26 March 2006
- Miami Herald Travel Experience (www.miamiheraldtravelexperience.com), 7-9 April 2006

Each event will feature a Trade-only Friday with a set of Travel Industry Conferences for travel suppliers, tourism destinations, travel agents and travel writers. The Saturday and Sunday of each show are planned for consumers, with hundreds of exhibitors, travel planning seminars, entertainment and show specials to purchase trips on the show floor.

[natour]

NaTour Managed Several Travel Shows

It's been a busy spring for Jeremy Garrett, NaTour's principal, as he has successfully managed the conferences for two prominent travel shows and is off to a third event in Miami.

The first, the New York Times Travel Show, brought together a broad cross-section of the entire travel industry under one roof, with three conferences, various co-located events, and a wealth of knowledge available to trade and consumer both. With 26,000 attendees and nearly 500 exhibitors, the NYT show is now officially the largest travel consumer/trade event in the U.S., perhaps in the Americas. We are now looking at how to increase the scope and size of the event similar to the ITB in Berlin and World Travel Mart in London.

The inaugural Boston Globe Travel Show was a smaller affair with 9300 trade and public attendees, but it is the first in the New England market to combine both these elements in a travel show. The conference was well-attended and provided various topics on sustainability and local communities. Traffic was steady over the weekend, with many companies making sales from the show floor. With the first show now behind us, we're looking at making the Boston Globe show THE event to target the New England audience.

And this weekend is the fourth Miami Herald Travel Experience, which this year also builds in a trade component that will address the Hispanic travel market, changes in travel regulations, and best practices in tourism promotion and marketing.

[natour]

A Tale of Two Cities

I had the opportunity recently to visit the northern shore of the Dominican Republic -- mostly for a family vacation, but also for some work opportunities, helping to develop a sustainable community-based tourism project supporting rural areas. I hope to share more information about this project in the near future.

My family stayed in and around the town of Sosua, about 15 km east of the main resort town of Puerta Plata. Our first two days were spent with a Hungarian/German couple who run The Secret Garden (www.the-secretgarden.com), a pension with 5 rooms. It was very international, as the other guests consisted of Germans, Swiss and Dominicans -- I think there were some seven languages flying around the table during morning breakfast!

We then transferred for 5 days to a beach resort located inside Sosua itself. Yes, it was an all-inclusive resort, but it also provided easy access to the local town -- just walk out the front door (no gate locking you out) and you were in the town, where you could go to the "local" beach, purchase gifts and artwork, visit an internet cafe, eat with the locals, etc. We would walk around safely without any concerns; yes, there were a number of street hawkers (hair braiders, art, etc.) but none were as pushy as places I've been in Jamaica and other islands. So, in all, a great opportunity to visit with local folks and support the local economy.

Contrast this to the town of Puerta Plata to the west. Some 20 years ago, a hotel/resort was built just outside of town on some private beachfront property. The hotel was not all-inclusive, so visitors would also visit the local town to eat and purchase gifts. Many restaurants and hotels were built to accommodate the visitors, and the town was thriving. But then someone had the idea to make the hotel an all-inclusive.

Skip ahead 20 years, and the resort area is now separate and cut off from Puerta Plata, with gated enclosures and Keep Out signs on the outside. It's about a $10 cab fare to go into town from the resort area (which holds some 6 or so all-inclusive resorts, golf course, etc.), but there is no need to -- if your specific resort doesn't have what you want, there's a mini-village inside the resort area (and run by the resort area) to supply anything you want, including a supermarket.

After driving through the resort area with my local associates who are working on the sustainable development initiative, we then went into Puerta Plata itself. You can see the difference in the town, with many closed-up or for-sale businesses, mostly restaurants and lodging catering to travelers. All the money stays in the resorts and has greatly impacted the town itself.

Hopefully, future planners will look at this tale of two cities so that if they do decide to develop all-inclusives in an area, they should incorporate it wholly into the local community rather than separating it. The sheer numbers of people staying at the all-inclusives can be a bonus for local communities if these communities are brought into it from the start and not kept out of the process.

[natour]

The Tourism Consultant's Life

When Ron asked me to add something to these forums, I realized that I didn't really have any news to add as I'm in between projects at the moment. But that, in itself, is indeed our topic of discussion.

NaTour Communications now celebrates its 4th anniversary, when I formed the company after leaving The International Ecotourism Society in 2002. At the time, it was not my intention to start consulting, but to get right back into the 9-to-5 haul. However, an old friend of mine, who had received my leaving notice, wrote me back immediately and said, "I think I have something for you -- don't do anything stupid!"

So, I waited. And waited. And waited, all the while, watching my final amount of savings dribbling away. Finally, she returned back to me and said she had some consultant work she thought I would be perfect for, that would last several months, and then we'd reevaluate other opportunities. It turns out the work was located in my old home state of Oklahoma, working with my old comrades at the Wildlife Department, to develop a wildlife viewing trail that I had originally brainstormed!!

So since that day, NaTour has worked on more than 30 separate projects, for a variety of tourism destinations, tour providers, government agencies, nonprofits, media companies, and even other consulting firms. What no one really tells the new tourism consultant (there should be some Dummy Guide written for it) is how challenging it is to get projects. In four years, I've bid on dozens of RFPs, only to be short-listed on one, and to receive another (the majority of my work has come from personal contacts). I discussed this just last week with a fellow consultant, and she concurred that the majority (probably 85-90%) of all tourism bids are gained by huge consulting conglomerates. The problem is that if you do happen to get hired by these firms, you are paid peanuts (say $400 USD/day) for work that they turn in as their own, getting paid upwards of $2000-3000 USD/day for "their" efforts. Well, I'm glad capitalism is alive and well. at least for someone.

So what does the independent tourism consultant do? Well, for many, there are low periods where there is no work, but you're spinning out proposals left and right. You attend conferences and meetings and try to get known. You try to find a steady client that will use you every year. You call up old friends and ask if they need a latte or some consulting with that. And most importantly, you try to save some of that money you got when the money was pouring in, because that's all that keeps your spouse from tossing you out.

[natour]

New Book Available on Integrated Rural Tourism

NaTour Communications associate Todd Comen has just released the book Integrated Rural Tourism: Weaving Low Impact Tourism Into the Economic Fabric of Rural Communities.

Integrated rural tourism (IRT) combines the principles and practices of ecotourism but adds into the mix the life patterns of the rural community. This is not a new approach to socioeconomic development in rural areas, but up until now has been used in limited circumstances. IRT forms a complex web that features agriculture and rural life patterns as the foundation of the tourist experience. In its ideal form, this tourism model can play a prominent role in encouraging economic prosperity at a local and regional level because it encourages and supports the links within a diversified local economy. It is, by its very nature, low impact both on natural areas and on the human community.

This integrated approach is emerging over time as our awareness of the inseparability of human life and the preservation of earth’s biodiversity increases. IRT is essentially about creating a more sustainable and holistic tourist experience with human communities as the focal point. What people remember most on their trips are the people they meet. Typically on nature-based tours, the tourists remember the other people in their tour group. However, if the visitors spent time in a rural community, they would remember the smiles of the people they met, the food they ate, and the songs they sang.

This how-to book presents a template for successfully weaving tourism into a rural economy based on the key elements of IRT. It outlines a decision-making model and operational strategy based on twenty years first-hand experience developing tourism products, managing tourism enterprises, and researching tourism development. This practical book should assist rural entrepreneurs, development agencies, small-scale farmers, and rural community members around the world from Vermont to Honduras, Estonia to Fiji, Canada to Brazil in developing business strategies that bring economic prosperity to their communities and regions.

To order the book ($15 for CD version or $25 plus $3 S&H for hard copy), contact Todd at info@integratedtourism.com, or visit www.integratedtourism.com.

[planeta]

Thanks, Jeremy

Suggestion -- If Todd would like more promotion of his book, please ask him to send us a review copy.

Tips for authors are online
http://www.planeta.com/web/books.html

Kind regards, Ron Mader