Planeta Forum

[planeta]

TOPIC: Marketing and Market Development
1. Internet marketing
2. Cooperative marketing
3. Event marketing
4. Destination marketing
5. Rural marketing

MODERATOR: Richard Edwards

SETTINGS: Active participants can reply to this topic

PARTICIPANTS:
http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/tour/emerging.html#part

REFERENCE

Ecotourism Emerging Industry Forum (Nov 1-18, 2005)
http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/tour/emerging.html

[Richard Edwards]

Judging from the list of participants, this should be one of the most valuable and productive topics on the agenda. Welcome to everyone interested in this most dynamic facet of furthering the principles of ecotourism and responsible tourism.

Personally, I've lived most of the past 15 years in Costa Rica, working (diligently at times) in both sustainable development and ecotourism. Though I've worked in all areas of ecotourism development, sales and operations, I'm currently very dedicated to bringing effective marketing both to our relatively small company in Seattle (http://www.wildland.com) and to ecotourism stakeholders in general.

One of the main goals I would propose for us here is to make a contribution leading to the industry better reaching and influencing buying decisions within the potentially large market of socially-conscious travelers making uninformed decisions, but who could easily be persuaded to make more environmentally and socio-economically sound travel choices.

My first request would be for both comments on this goal and developing a small number of realistic goals, perhaps more specific, we could focus on throughout the 17 days of the conference.

Looking forward to this productive dialogue!

[redbilb]

One hurdle I see in marketing socially and environmentally sustainable tourism is setting some standards for comparison. This ties in with one of the topics in the Triple Bottom Line Accounting - Ecotourism Certification.

There are a number of ecotourism certification organizations out there but for the most part they go largely unknown in North America. I think the North American market is a long way behind Europe/Asia/Australia in this regard. Organizations such as Blue Flag and Green Globe 21 are virtually unknown here in Canada.

They could be used as excellent marketing tools but they need to be promoted in North America more by the organizations themselves as a service to their members and by the members to better define this niche market in North America.

I'd be interested if somebody has an idea on how North American travellers can become better educated and aware of these ecotourism certifications so they know what they are paying for when they visit certified destinations.

Rod Bilz
FRi Ecological Services

[jsweeting]

My principle interest here is to see how we can use markets (both direct to the consumer and within the supply chain) to increase competitiveness and profitability of tourism SMEs working in high biodiversity areas. The more successful SMEs are the more people they can employ and the greater likelihood for getting local communities to support conservation --because they see more economic benefit from protection than destructive utilization.

How do we more effectively help grow these kinds of businesses? How do we encourage European and North American outbound eco/adventure (and for that matter Mass Tourism) operators to be more proactive in seeking out and supporting such SMEs and promoting those that are most committed to making a difference in the lives of local people and conservation?

[Tropic]

I agree that this topic may be one of the most important in this forum, being sustainable means making a profitable business.

Here in Ecuador most SME or CBE ecotourism projects are limited in several areas related to its commercialization.

I think that the best results we could look for is learn how our small enterprises can reach this "large market of socially-conscious travelers making uninformed decisions that can be easily persuaded" with limited marketing budgets and skills; I believe that if we can find practical suggestions many people and communities will be able to present their experiences to the world.

[Aivar_Ruukel]

[oliver]

Hi, this is Oliver Hillel from Puerto Princesa, Philippines. Please excuse me for my short message, but the topic is so interesting (and the participants so experienced) that I cannot avoid provoking a little debate... To make it short, in my experience there are only 2 ways to allow SMEs to get one step further in marketing: subsidies for 3-4 years AT LEAST (meaning training, technical assistance and persistent support), which will allow at least a few of them to pick up by themselves, or 1-3 leaders with a vision (the "follow the leader" approach). In most cases of SME networks that made a difference ( in Guatemala with Alianza Verde, in Europe with the "Gites Rureaux"), there was an organization that stayed on for a longer time, or a larger "anchor" enterprise that "created" a destination but (a rare case) allowed others to benefit as well. No technology by itself can do this - or can it???

Look forward to your replies!

[George Duffy]

Hello everyone. Already there have been several subjects introduced which could be forum subjects on their own. Being a small tour wholesaler and also a marketing contractor for the last 15 years I have been involved at various levels of private and public sector policy making from volunteer work on civic, community and provincial tourism boards (in Alberta, Canada). At present I divide my work between promoting and operating my ecotour wholesale business, while carrying contract marketing for more conventional tour companies as a way to even out the cash flow. I want to touch on a couple of threads here.

Oliver, you mention that SME's need perhaps 4 years of subsidy, and maybe longer. I can relate, as even a conventional tour business takes this long to start getting any kind of sales volume. Seed money and operating capital for various activities are critical. The challenge however is to have the fortitude to get off the subsidy train. One system we have in Alberta which is fairly good works like this.

There are three main guidelines for funding assistance. This is for marketing projects only.
1. Project must be new or incremental. In other words, you can't apply for money to subsidize an existing project.
2. The project must include at least 2 or more partners. Example, a lodge, a transportation company and a village museum.
3. The project must have an objective with a measurable outcome. Could be something like attend an adventure travel trade show in Vancouver and get product placed in 5 wholesaler catalogues by 2007.

The program funds up to 50% of the hard marketing costs, the partners fund the balance. The project can be no longer can three years. All projects are assisted by advice from a tourism marketing executive to make the project as successful as possible.

The idea is that by making private sector come up with at least 50%, the projects will be better thought out and planned for success. Having measurable outcomes helps focus. Having partners helps both to raise the pot of available money and really encourages packaging. This makes a product which "consumers" can easily buy.

Over arching this is that the project must support the general marketing strategy outlined by the province. In other words, if the province has researched and found 3 primary markets and 3 secondary markets, there is no point to trying to spend dollars outside these markets as it would dilute the overall effect of trying to present the destination.

The thing that always creeps into the equation is tranparency. We struggled for years to root out people trying to manipulate the system or for that matter commit outright fraud. The rules have to be adhered to in order for the investor (in this case the Gov't of Alberta acting as custodians of tax payer's money) to be able to report back that things were fair and level for all.

Well that is a bit longer than I intended to write, but I have found this system to work quite well for SME's because all to often the top down programs from tourism boards are beyond our reach. The "buy in" is too high. This is a bottom up approach. It implies a level of sophistication and knowledge on the part of the partners, but at the same time with a good program administrator who can advise, it is also a way to provide valuable marketing knowledge and shared risk.

[Meganew]

Hi fellow conferees,

I think the exchange between Oliver and George is extremely instructive already. While I have observed what Oliver discusses to a degree, in the study my firm did on the Business of Ecolodges we found that in fact there would be many, many ways to systematize assistance to ecolodges (and other SMEs certainly) in developing countries.

We need to move away from being so dependent on a just a very few leaders to take the lead. What we have worked with in the past is undoubtedly that we have had to assist the pioneers - and hope they can move the process forward, but this model may now need to change.

Wiith suggestions like George's we can begin to systematize our assistance and make it work with careful administration to scale up our industry and support a wider variety of SMEs all at once. However, I would definitely avoiding supporting NGOs to represent business myself. I find they are usually scrambling to just find the next grant assistance dollar - while at the same time projecting that they are representing business - when business is in fact not truly represented by these NGOs.

This is one of key barriers I believe to setting up more effective marketing mechanisms for ecotourism destinations - there are no business bodies that can begin to formulate better marketing strategies. And most of the SMEs are too small to do destination marketing on their own. And as George says the tourism boards are far too large.

In my recent experience in Chiapas, the government had an overwhelming amount of money and good will to help support marketing - but little understanding of real needs. They were producing useless brochures that went out of date far too rapidly. Meanwhile the private sector was too busy and not even organized enough to capture the opportunity to get their information to Lonely Planet when they were recently doing the first new Chiapas edition in 10 years. I was trying to get my USAID contractors to assist the local communities and operators to put together material for Lonely Planet - but as I was already gone from the country I could get no one to act on what I considered to be an emergency.

Anyway, this is just one example.

Creative ideas are welcome.

[George Duffy]

At the risk of seeming to hog this subject, it is something very close to me. Megan is dead right in not wanting NGO's to represent her interests. For anyone not experienced in this, let me say that I have been a member of several member based destination marketing organizations(DMO's) because the premise seems so logical: we all pool our money and hire someone to go out and "market " for us. What happens in reality is that the some members benefit more than others for various reasons (like they have a better business), the association loses members and has to either raise rates or recruit new members. Soon enough, recruiting new members becomes the goal of the association, not marketing. Happens all the time.

What does work is when everyone in a supply chain who pools money also stands to gain or lose. For example: I develop a tour using 5 lodges, a local guiding company, a local airline, a local bus company etc. We all contribute something, we all have a vested interest in making the program a success and we all will benefit proportionately. Once the plan is formulated if there were some dollars available to help ramp up the program, so much the better.

This is where a fund granting organisation can play a good role. Not to be the marketing body or DMO.

There is a lot of danger in giving marketing money to DMO's as Megan has also alluded.

[Richard Edwards]

Browsing around the forum Iím seeing quite a bit of discussion about certification and marketing sustainable/responsible/ecotourism. Most indicators Iím aware of point to the fact that consumers are not basing their travel decisions on these issues. The recently revitalized Adventure Travel Trade Association just finished work with Michigan State University reiterating consumer indifference to certification. TIES and George Washington U. had similar findings. And Megan mentions her own work, Sustainable Tourism Certification Marketing and its Contribution to SME Market Access, arriving at the same conclusion. Ron Mader says weíre 20 years away from having certification being relevant. So what should we be emphasizing in our marketing in order to promote the type of business models we know are environmentally and socio-economically sound? My thought is that we need to keep the basics in mind and that means to show that we are able to meet a real or perceived consumer need.

Everywhere Iíve been up and down the supply chain in ecotourism/adventure travel, from a strictly economic point of view we have strived to create, operate and market environmentally sound products in order to enhance travelerís experiences and build the business through consumer satisfaction and referrals. But its always been clear that those features donít sell travel up front. My view isnít that we should stop working toward a world where the environmental record of any business is relevant, but I do think that we need to focus our own marketing efforts, as well as any marketing assistance made available down through the supply chain, toward being relevant in the present. We have to answer the question of what consumers are looking for. We want to answer it with our knowledge of what the right answer is, but we still have to answer it.

Iíd like to jump back up to Oliverís rhetorical question about technology being the answer. Technology canít do it all by itself, but as mentioned in the World Bank publication that Megan directed us to in her last post before the conference began, the Internet has the capacity for leveling the playing field. It already has to a certain extent in an economic sense for those SMEs that have been fortunate enough to have adequate technological capacity, or the ability and knowledge to develop that capacity. With a focused web-based marketing effort any SME can reach markets and compete with larger businesses.

What Iíve seen so many times over the last few years are SMEs and coops that may have even reached a certain level of competence in receiving visitors operationally, but their marketing never gains any focus. The efforts are dispersed across a number of channels and resources are diluted, basically nullifying market reach. For those SMEs who have been able to funnel their efforts and resources into a coherent Internet marketing strategy, there is definitely an enhanced ability to leverage marketing dollars.

Who should tranfer this technology and how? If not NGOs, then who?

[George Duffy]

Richard,

I'd like to go back to your opening statement and reiterate the question of how do we reach and persuade that potentially large market of people who would buy more sustainably. I personally think this is a critical point because if you can answer this question accurately and precisely, we can
start to make something like certification more useful from a marketing perspective.

Many years ago now Roger Lafrancios and Pam Wight published a really seminal bit of research on behalf of British Columbia and Alberta on the demand potential for ecotourism. And more recently in 2000 Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson pubished the Cultural Creatives book. Both indicate that the market is certainly there for our product. Id' like to know if any additional work has been done to carry this knowledge forward.

Both of these identify certain common attributes in habits; the ecotourism demand report showed higher than average interest in nature by memberships in conservation orgs and clubs as well as subscriptions to nature publications. The Cultural Creatives book identified a new psychographic cluster by their raised consciousness.

While this is intellectually interesting, when I approach almost anyone I meet with my product they are surprised, mostly enchanted or attracted to the idea, but they have never considered their vacation or travel purchase in the same way they consider vegetables, even if they would normally buy organic, as an example.

I have found that in general, it is not the organic vegetable buying consumer who is buying my product. It is people I would descibe as active, curious, experienced travellers. Usually well educated. Most seem to be quite independent and individualistic. Hard as hell to pin into any sort of identifiable "target". Most are glad that I promote sustainable programs, but that is rarely the reason they take my trip. They have usually already chosen an activity and destination and we just happen to have the most suitable means of getting them the experience they seek. If we can do it more sustainably at a competitive price, so much the better. But if not, they will still go, whether we supply it or not.

To get back to my first paragraph, TIES has had a couple very nice but limited forays into this with the Travel Choice pamphlets. I thought these were very good as a start. Perhaps we need "someone" to mount a more sustained media campaign. TIES would be a logical choice. Perhaps others.

Thoughts anyone?

George Duffy
WorldwideEcolodges

[Meganew]

George & Richard,

I have to strongly recommend another reference - which I have already told Richard about - which is Harvey Hartman, Marketing in the Soul Age and Reflections of a Cultural Brand. He researches the market for sustainability products - largely organic foods.

Here is a key quote of his - which I am cutting pasting from my paper on markets for certification.

Sustainable products market research expert Harvey Hartman stated in 2004 that consumer research, ìmechanically ties consumer behaviour to consumer attitudes,î and that ìwe cannot quite shed the belief that consumers act merely on their convictions, despite the large and growing body of evidence to the contrary (Hartman & Hartman Group, 2003: pg 44-45).

All other commercial product categories find the psychographic drivers that get people to buy their products. We must use these techniques! As promoters of green and sustainability products, we have never gotten very serious about this. It is entirely possible to do more excellent studies of what are the market drivers for ecotourism. But it has never been done, incredibly.

I stood in my rural get-away drive last night under the stars explaining to new neighbors about how Mars is so close and the waterfowl migration is underway... and they were transfixed. The next thing I saw they were bringing out binoculars and their kids to look at the night sky with fascination.

I can only guess what truly motivates our market, but after years of studying the data - and I want to keep studying this - it is the fact that our industry offers unprecedented opportunities to learn in a relaxed way - using highly professional local guides. This is the value added that makes our industry tick. I have had industry people tell me over and over that it is their guides that are the key value added in their businesses. And if that is so, then we need to get behind this and market ourselves with this in mind. (And we need to further dialogue about what makes interpretation work in our industry in that section of the forum!)

As most of us know, to market effectively we have to understand what is the core market, what drives them, what distinguishes our products, and then create the message that grabs them, and use the best most cost effective communication methods possible to reach them, and as George says be consistent.

We cannot start with hoping to convince our market of something. That is indeed appropriate for NGOs to do - to seek to change attitudes - but for real marketing I think we have to get more serious and soon.

[Richard Edwards]

Megan,

In a word- exactly. Hartman's service is exciting and powerful, but hiring him or really any broad ranging research like his is probably too much of a financial burden for any one company in this industry to bear, and that wouldn't help the overall cause. However, an organized group of suppliers and/or sellers could access enough funds, or more desirably, convince a competent NGO to begin the journey of getting a better picture of who our market is and what will motivate them.

Up to now, all of the companies that I've been involved with or known well in this relatively tiny sector have been very preoccupied with the competition. When they think of (obsess over?) the competition, they are thinking of other companies that are very much like them. Our real competition is mass tourism. There are plenty of clients for everyone in sustainable/ecotourism, and the low hanging fruit we are not picking is out there buying green-washed products because we don't know how to differentiate ourselves in a way that speaks to more people.

As George says, we've never been able to pick our clients out of a crowd, but consumer research that is well-supported economically and intellectually is a next logical step toward that ability. TIES may be a good choice to head this up, but the funding required will be substantial enough that more organizations with deeper pockets (or access to deep pockets) would have to be involved. Rainforest Alliance comes to mind, especially since they're already doing good work in-country with their sustainable tourism program.

The industry has been complacent and fractured to this point. Ecotourism products are created and a certain market appears. We think we can explain some of it. "It's about the guides" is indeed a common thread, and there are other bits and pieces we think we have a handle on, but I haven't met anyone yet who can profile an ecotourism client any more specifically than George did earlier.

If there is someone who can, or has a thought on it, we would love to hear from you.

[planeta]