To revitalise destinations, awaken the senses

In a glob­al­ised world in which if sub­urb­an shop­ping centres on oppos­ite sides of the plan­et were to switch places overnight there would be very few dif­fer­ences for loc­als to get used to, what does it take to rebuild unique­ness in destinations? 

Michael Hay­wood appeals to the senses.

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [You too can write a “GT” Insight.]

Tourism’s “Big Shift” is a clari­on call to “Build Back Better”. 

But are obvi­ous oppor­tun­it­ies being ignored? 

If the intent is to accel­er­ate trans­form­a­tion and achieve mag­ni­fi­cence, what exactly is required if com­munit­ies are to sur­mount sur­viv­al and ensure revival? 

Com­munit­ies def­in­itely need new eco­nom­ic strategies to sup­port small busi­nesses; bring com­merce back to down­towns and streets­capes; and, to gal­van­ise invest­ment in infra­struc­ture and cli­mate change initiatives. 

They also require strategies that cata­lyse the power of pull (access and attraction). 

And, inev­it­ably, they need strategies that revital­ise tour­ism devel­op­ment by mar­ry­ing fin­ance with the con­tex­tu­ally-appro­pri­ate and cul­tur­ally-rich know­ledge and cap­ab­il­it­ies embed­ded with­in communities. 

But, is that all there is? 

Don’t miss oth­er “GT” posts tagged with
“Des­tin­a­tion marketing”

To suc­ceed as des­tin­a­tions, com­munit­ies have to be truly compelling. 

But what does ‘com­pel­ling’ mean in the con­text of a sense of place with­in a dis­rupt­ive world? And for vis­it­ors and citizens?

Par­ti­cip­at­ory per­form­ance prac­tices cer­tainly help, and can add to the exper­i­ence of places, but what is it about cer­tain fest­ivals, mar­ket­places, and fash­ion­able activ­a­tions that stim­u­late people’s senses and pleas­ure areas? 

We often talk about the char­ac­ter of places, their essen­tial spir­it, ambi­ance, res­on­ance, pres­ence, or charm. But what is it about them that actu­ally makes people feel alive? 

Pleas­ur­able exper­i­ences cer­tainly con­trib­ute to pub­lic hap­pi­ness. They restore con­nectiv­ity that is organ­ic to our lives. But what is it about these exper­i­ences that fosters place-attach­ment and feel­ings of belonging? 

Also see K Michael Hay­wood’s oth­er “GT” Insights, includ­ing
“Tourism’s chal­lenge: How do we cre­ate ‘com­munity shared value’?”

The sur­viv­al of des­tin­a­tions depends not only on return vis­its and habitu­al pat­ron­age (the abil­ity to cata­lyse vir­al­ity), but also their abil­ity to cre­ate pub­lic value.

Multi-sens­ory exper­i­ences are tourism’s stock-in-trade, but what more must mar­keters do to pos­i­tion des­tin­a­tions’ sens­ory appeal to cre­ate effect­ive value propositions? 

If DMOs are adam­ant about cre­at­ing com­munity shared value, what must they do to enliven sens­ory com­pon­ents in ways that have deep mean­ing to all stakeholders? 

We all want our com­munit­ies to have and demon­strate an express­ive vital­ity. 

If our inten­tion is to build avid com­munit­ies of reg­u­lar vis­it­ors and sup­port­ive stake­hold­ers, what more can be done to ensure our vis­it­ors and cit­izens exper­i­ence a place through feel­ing, ima­gin­a­tion, memory, intel­lect and the senses?

How can we nur­ture unique and power­ful com­munity-as-des­tin­a­tion identities?

The riddle of identity

When trav­el­ling for pleas­ure, it’s hard to avoid crit­ic­al analysis. 

As trav­el­lers we’re con­scious as to how tour­ism can degrade the rich diversity of nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al land­scapes, includ­ing the region­al iden­tity of so many communities. 

Wheth­er such a cri­ti­cism applies to Mex­ico’s San Miguel de Allende, for example, is debat­able, yet it is inev­it­able that tour­ism, as a form of eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment, would impose itself and modi­fy the “Best Small City in the World”.

Please read my “Reflec­tions on the ‘best small city in the world’: San Miguel de Allende”, a “GT” Travel Exper­i­ence I penned for The “GT” Travel Blog. [Use the same sign in details for “GT” Travel that you use for “GT”.]

In this I offer my first impres­sions of a place my wife and I would revis­it six times. 

See K Michael Hay­wood’s “GT” Travel Exper­i­ence
“Reflec­tions on the ‘best small city in the world’: San Miguel de Allende”

But the Cana­dian former fig­ure skat­ing cham­pi­on and artist, the late Toller Cran­ston, whose home and stu­dio we vis­ited that first time, called atten­tion to his disquiet: 

“Sleepy and inno­cent San Miguel has become a pre­co­cious teen­ager; I’m not cop­ing as well as I once did.” 

It is evid­ent that in San Miguel de Allende, as in any­where at all, pro­found ambi­gu­ities of exper­i­ence exist. Per­spect­ives differ. 

For my wife and I, the town awakened in us “a new­found aware­ness of ourselves, a won­der­ment, and a fresh con­nectiv­ity to the people and things around us”. 

For Cran­ston, the hon­ey­moon was over; change in his chosen home town was grating.

Every­one lives dif­fer­ent real­it­ies, revealed through silent lan­guages, hid­den dimen­sions, and the dance of life. 

As Edward Hall states: “We are tied togeth­er by invis­ible threads of rhythm, yet isol­ated from each oth­er by hid­den walls of time [which is] an organ­izer of activ­it­ies, a syn­thes­izer and integ­rat­or, and a spe­cial lan­guage that reveals not only how we really feel about each oth­er, but the dif­fer­ences between cul­tures”. 

In pon­der­ing the struc­ture of exper­i­ence and try­ing to grasp how the fea­tures of people’s dif­fer­ing exper­i­ences fit togeth­er, the riddle that is San Miguel confounds. 

Can it be the “Best Small City in the World” without acknow­ledge­ment from its cit­izens? Will such a state­ment of praise hasten the inev­it­ab­il­ity of unto­ward con­sequences: gentri­fic­a­tion, exclu­sion, over-tour­ism, a degrad­ing of cul­ture and tradition. 

Don’t miss oth­er “GT” posts tagged with
“Policy and governance”

For tour­ism author­it­ies, politi­cians, and developers, you could say “Best Small City” serves their interests. 

For­tu­nately, tour­ism devel­op­ment has remained con­strained, reflect­ing the intent to main­tain a har­mo­ni­ous rela­tion­ship with the region­al ver­nacu­lar; a respect (and UNESCO require­ment) that has served to cul­tiv­ate a degree of trust in the polit­ic­al and eco­nom­ic system. 

But for how long?

Per­haps strangely, the expat com­munity has taken that trust seriously. 

Over the dec­ades they have been very influ­en­tial as guard­i­ans of San Miguel’s region­al iden­tity and its his­tor­ic and cul­tur­al integrity. 

Through the form­a­tion of NGOs and vari­ous edu­ca­tion­al and entre­pren­eur­i­al ini­ti­at­ives, expat­ri­ates have provided socially, cul­tur­ally, and envir­on­ment­ally focused oversight. 

Senses, sentiments, and sensibilities … by design 

Few places may be as blessed as San Miguel de Allende. 

But what are the les­sons to be learned? 

A first order pri­or­ity is not to approach the “Big Shift” as a massive prob­lem to be solved per se, but as a riddle to be understood. 

As exper­i­ences of places dif­fer, so we are obliged to take into account all the vari­ations in people’s feel­ings, ima­gin­a­tions, and memor­ies if we are to revital­ise destinations. 

This means under­stand­ing how our inner senses, 19 at least, respond to stim­uli from our extern­al envir­on­ments; how we inter­pret them as pos­it­ive, or not.

As we set about ful­filling people’s prac­tic­al needs, while blend­ing them with desired work and leis­ure activ­it­ies, our goal should not simply be to revital­ise tour­ism, but to revital­ise people’s lives.

Also see K Michael Hay­wood’s oth­er “GT” Insights, includ­ing
“Smart clusters: How des­tin­a­tions can organ­ise for a bet­ter future”

Con­sid­er­a­tion must be giv­en to people’s sense of place; how their emo­tions affect qual­ity-of-life and over­all well-being; even how they can cre­ate dis­order through feel­ings of detach­ment and insignificance.

As such, inten­tion­al change in an unpre­dict­able world requires being acutely aware of how we accept, influ­ence, and exist as parts of each other’s nature. 

Inten­tion­al change requires that we recog­nise how our com­munit­ies and places are repos­it­or­ies of feel­ings and mean­ings that ener­gise our exper­i­ences, social dynam­ics, pat­terns of move­ment, cul­tures and tra­di­tions, and envir­on­ment­al possibilities.

Such a focus requires a coher­ent con­sist­ency of pur­pose for tour­ism, par­tic­u­larly when it is selec­ted as a prime tool for eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment, and as we design products and experiences.

For instance, we accept tourism’s products as core to the cre­ation of value so long as we find them appealing.

Fur­ther, as with places, we want tour­ism exper­i­ences as mean­ing­ful, intu­it­ively and socially enga­ging, and vital in life-affirm­ing ways … In oth­er words, human-friendly.

Wherever one goes, bore­dom is seen as an afflic­tion to be avoided. Even grand designs, if they demean or des­troy our attach­ment to place, should be denounced. Vital­ity mat­ters, but it has to be felt, found, and fashioned. 

Con­sider “dark value”; hid­den nat­ur­al or cul­tur­al attrib­utes (Italy – Made with Love) so pre­val­ent in tra­di­tion­al folk­ways and per­form­ances, as in San Miguel.

This is a won­der­ment that can­not be found in words but in a spir­it that spurs exuber­ant vir­al­ity; the essence and out­come of an express­ive exper­i­ence economy. 

Through our own senses we become aware of how the out­side world affects us. 

Also see Bjørn Z Eke­lun­d’s “GT” Insight
“In the eye of the behold­er: How to cre­ate valu­able tour­ism experiences”

As such, we have an oblig­a­tion to be more cog­niz­ant of how oth­ers’ ful­fill their needs in par­tic­u­lar places; what excites or dis­sip­ates their ener­gies; how the hid­den and the obvi­ous aspects of places affect senses, moods, and behaviors. 

So, as we set out to revital­ise, let’s redis­cov­er what is vital to our com­munit­ies-as-des­tin­a­tions, our des­tin­a­tions-as-com­munit­ies; their express­ive intel­li­gib­il­ity, their sens­ory, mor­al, and emo­tion­al exper­i­ence capabilities. 

Let’s take into account the riddle of iden­tity of place so as not to com­prom­ise the integ­rity of place.

Let’s co-cre­ate express­ive fea­tures in places that aston­ish and resonate. 

Let’s pro­mote sens­ib­il­it­ies that serve to define what it means to be a “com­pel­ling com­munity”; a com­munity-as-des­tin­a­tion cap­able of real­ising net pos­it­ive shared value that bene­fits all. 

This may be but one import­ant step in the trans­ition from mediocrity to mag­ni­fi­cence, but it is the one driv­ing us, as sen­tient beings, to be adven­tur­ers among the senses.

What do you think? Share a short anec­dote or com­ment below. Or write a “GT” Insight. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive on travel & tour­ism because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

Fea­tured image (top of post): Awaken the senses. Image by ger­alt (CC0) via Pixabay.

About the author

K Michael Hay­wood is Pro­fess­or Emer­it­us, School of Hos­pit­al­ity, Food and Tour­ism at the Uni­ver­sity of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. Prof Hay­wood has recently writ­ten an e‑book “Aston­ish, Smarter Tour­ism by Design”. Find Michael on Linked­In.