Sunday 29 November 2015

Climate Change and Terrorism – Are we going far enough … in the right direction?


This article argues that we need to move our focus away Aid and Charity to more Participation and Integration – integration of more people and businesses from less developing economies in the PROCESS of wealth creations.  We need to change current practices of making money based on exclusion, contradictions and inefficiencies, and then thinking about charity when distributing the spoils.
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales in a Sky News interview on November 23, 2015 posited that there is a relationship between climate change and terrorism the logic: severe floods in Syria driving many Syrians into urban areas, fuelling unemployment, hopelessness and ultimately, terrorism.  Prince Charles’ linkage between climate change, poverty and terrorism was quickly shot down.  Observers such as conversation.com argue that while climate change is important, the current crisis has to be seen in the context of centuries of wars and conflict, often involving vested political and economic interests of the West.  Nevertheless, the Prince’s statement has started a conversation about the true causes of poverty, war, climate change and terrorism.  And while no one claims to have the total answer, contributing factors, such as climate change/environmental destruction also need to be placed on any agenda for development and change. 
Pope Francis on his visit to Africa on November 26th added his voice to the environmental cause, appealing for more progress to be made on sustainability and the need to avoid violence in the name of religion.  This appeal comes ahead of the November 30th two-week COP 21 Environmental Negotiations in Paris – a city that is still reeling from the November 13th Terrorist Attacks by Islamic State militants that has left 130 people dead and the entire country in shock, disbelief and terror.
At the Business Forum of Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference (CHOGM) in Malta 24-26 November, 2015, the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, the Hon Perry Christie drew the link between youth unemployment, hopelessness, and the growth of the culture of drug and terrorism.  He emphasized his own government’s commitment to the youth education and employment.  The Bahamian Prime Minister suggested that addressing core issues of unemployment and hopelessness among youth, as well as creating dignified employment, are a key strategies for combating drugs, crime and terrorism in the Caribbean, and globally. 
The links between poverty, youth unemployment, hopelessness, environmental degradation, climate change, and increasingly terrorism, will continue to occupy the hearts and minds of businesses, policy makers and civil society for decades to come.  This is especially the case, as solutions to these unending problems appear to be elusive at best, but also growing in volume and complexity.
It is key is to understand the complex causes of the problems, build consensus and carrying out combined actions to solve them. 
While there are numerous initiatives and actions on many fronts to address issues of poverty, climate change and terrorism, the question really is: are we aiming at the correct targets; and do we have enough ammunition to go the full round (forgive the puns). 
Many actions to “help” are aimed at the poorest poor (granted that this makes us all feel better) and many support are “final solutions” (water delivered to poor; fish or food given to people).  But are we really teaching people to fish so that they can feed themselves, by themselves, for themselves?; are we really providing sustainable solutions? (or are we planning to donate fish, food and water to the poor forever?). 
It is critical that we “re-think” the current model of development (to use Pope Francis’ words).  And we must lead by example.
The Prime Minister of the small twin-island republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the Hon. Keith Rowley set an important example at the Business Forum of Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference (CHOGM) in Malta 24-26 November, 2015. Prime Minister Rowley indicated that Trinidad and Tobago will continue to support to African states, such as Rwanda and Ghana and Nigeria, to build their energy capability and contribute to their energy security.  Trinidad and Tobago’s capability to support African States is based on more than five decades of experience in developing the islands’ abundant oil and natural gas resources.
It is through this direct technical support to build production capacities locally that true sustainable development will take place.  It is only when sustainable, competitive and profitable production capacities are built locally, that the unwelcome flows of immigration and perhaps terrorism, will be stemmed.
Considerably more effort is required to build productive capacities at source, in developing economies.  This can be achieved through partnerships, strategic alliances, a different form of Aid and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and businesses have to play a key role in this process.
At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference (CHOGM) in Malta 24-26 November, 2015, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, adviser to the Chairman of the global bank, HSBC UK, clearly indicated that companies have to move beyond CRS; beyond the green economy and that saving planet earth has to become part of the DNA of the global financial sector. 
It is through interventions at the back end of development process (building sustainable, competitive and profitable production and management capacities locally) and throughout the entire value chain, rather than at the front/final end (delivery of final solutions/aid, such as food and water), that true progress will be made. 
Partnerships are key to this process and the business sector is key.  In this regard, there are many other Commonwealth States that have built capacities and world-class sectors – Singapore’s IT and Smart City/Country Initiatives; London’s Financial Services Sector; South Africa’s Game Parks and Strong Conservation Heritage; and many others.  It is critical that other CommonWEALTH countries take the example that Trinidad and Tobago has set, to support and pull up other nations and sectors where they have competencies.
On the receiving end, it is critical that the public and private sectors of lesser developed Commonwealth states build their capabilities and build competent and corruption-free institutions that could best leverage and direct national, regional and global private sector support.  Initiatives to develop the Blue Economy, to collaborate regionally and and to drive development such as that taken by the islands of Grenada and the Seychelles needs to be supported.  Indeed the Blue Bond, the financial instrument developed by the Seychelles Government to drive grow and support its environment initiative and industry requires support from the international financial sector.  Developing states within the Commonwealth cannot continue to sit and wait for AID resources to trickle down to them, but must actively participate in designing, developing and influencing the direction of those flows.  In addition, it is key to ensure that the flow of funds and other resources actually reach the target beneficiaries and achieve the maximum impact. In this way, the Millennium Development Goals and the seventeen Global Goals can be truly achieved.
Major private sector institutions, such as HSBC, need to focus their sustainability efforts on building and supporting productive capacities locally (and not just helping the poorest poor because it is easier and makes us feel good).  A great start can be actively investing in the Seychelles Blue Bond and assisting with its management and sustainabilty.  It is therefore important to channel private sector CSR efforts on partnering and building productive capacities locally and not just on giving generic Aid.
It is also critically important to build capabilities, competent and corruption-free institutions that could best leverage and direct national, regional and global private sector support.  Skilling the commonwealth continues to be a priority.
Ahead of Paris COP 21, it is therefore important not only to agree on the targets, but importantly, the mechanisms, instruments and measures requires to achieve them, and perhaps even more important, the people, organisations and institutions that will ultimately deliver these target.
In addition, we have to move our focus away Aid and Charity and achieve more Participation and Integration – integrating more people and economies in the PROCESS of wealth creations. We need to move away from the current practices of making money based on exclusion, contradictions and inefficiencies, and then thinking about charity when distributing the spoils.
The 53-strong CommonWEALTH nations with a combined population of 2.2 billion, comprising one-third of humanity with a projected trade of US$2.75 trillion by 2030, is well placed to drive this development.

Dr. Auliana Poon, Tourism Intelligence International, Trinidad and Tobago,  November 28, 2015.

Wednesday 18 June 2014

From Sun, Sand and Sea to Shopping, Sightseeing and Sex

Emerging vs. Traditional Markets – How do they Differ?


The global travel and tourism industry is changing rapidly and radically.  The key drivers of change are the new demanding customers, on the demand side, and information technologies (IT), on the supply side.  Information Technologies – from the mobile phones to the Internet and Facebook – have taken the travel and tourism industry by storm.  These technologies are happily facilitating production economies of flexible, segmented and individual holidays. But it is really the customers that are driving the changing face of the travel and tourism industry, through key demographic, psychographic and geographic influences.  Many traditional travel markets are experiencing maturity.  Plus, their populations are aging. This means that it would become increasingly difficult to compete in these markets.  The key emerging markets, also known as the BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China) – are now witnessing strong growth and new wealth, is the new hope for future travel growth.  Emerging markets will drive the growth of international arrivals from 1,035 million in 2013 to a forecasted 1.8 billion by 2030.

Emerging markets are completely different from the traditional markets.  The top three traditional travel markets are the US, Germany and the UK.  These markets have been the backbone of travel and tourism for decades and account for 20% of global travel demand.  Emerging or BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are the new kids on the block and are shaking up the travel and tourism sector.  Already, these markets account for 12% of total international arrivals.

But how do these new markets compare with the mainstream ones?  Firstly, the traditional travel markets are experiencing slow growth in outbound travel.  Markets such as Germany and the UK have been experiencing growth rates between -1 and +3 per cent on average over the past ten years (2004 – 2013).  However, emerging markets have been experiencing double-digit growth.  China and India for example have been growing on average between 10-12%.

Figure 1

Traditional and Emerging Markets Compared

Source: Tourism Intelligence International,  2014

Second, traditional markets are experienced and mature travel markets. The 'new' travellers are young and curious about travel.  But the comparison goes even beyond travel experience.  Emerging markets are comparatively younger than the traditional travel markets.  The respective populations of India and Brazil for example, each has an average age of 25.1 and 29 years. For China it’s 34.5 years.  The population of the traditional markets of Germany and the UK each has an average age of 44 and 39 years respectively.  There is a 19 year age gap between Germany and India.



Travellers from the traditional markets have been accustomed to wealth.  Many of the more mature travellers have inherited their wealth and travelled because they simply could.  The new travellers have earned their wealth and it is relatively novel to them.  They see travel as social currency – the more they travel the wealthier they feel.

Traditional Western markets have travelled in search of warm weather.  They lusted after the sun, sand and sea.  Emerging markets have a different take on travel.  They are looking for other “S”s.  They want shopping, sightseeing and opportunities to gain status / social recognition and of course like all travellers, they are looking for sex.  This is especially the case in China with its one child policy where female foetuses were destroyed in favour of the male sex.  Now that the males have grown up, there is a real shortage of females.








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Wednesday 4 June 2014

Emerging Markets - A Force to Reckon With


Emerging Markets are A Key Economic Force


The emerging markets are an economic force to reckon with.  Emerging and developing markets on a whole, account for 47.7% of world GDP at purchasing power parity.  China is ranked as the 2nd largest world economy after the USA.  India, Russia and Brazil rank 4th, 6th, and 8th respectively.  

Emerging markets have significant growth potential for travel and tourism.  China for instance, has a population size of 1.3 billion citizens.  However, only 4% of the total population travelled abroad in 2013.  Similarly, a mere 1% of the Indian population travelled abroad in 2013.  Both China and India are growing by an average of 10-12% per year.  On the contrary, the traditional markets are primarily saturated.  Germany for instance, has a travel base of almost 80% of its population and has stagnant growth prospects.   China is now the number 1 travel market in the world ahead of USA, Germany and the UK.

Who are the Emerging Market Travellers?

With international travellers projected to almost double by 2020 to approximately 1.6 billion, the most significant increases are expected to take place in markets like China, India, Brazil and Russia. These markets are often referred to as “emerging markets”.


Travellers from the emerging markets are wealthy

But who are these new travellers?  Firstly, they are wealthy.  In Spite of the recession in 2008/2009 the number of millionaires in India jumped by 20.8% (the highest in the world). China had the fourth richest millionaire in the world in 2013 and added 5% more millionaires than the average for the USA, Japan and Germany, according to Merrill Lynch’s World Wealth Report.  The middle class in emerging markets is also growing apace. 




They are young, hip and happening too

Emerging market travellers are also comparatively younger than the top traditional travel markets.  The population of South Africa and India respectively, has an average age of 24.7 and 25.1 years.  Brazil’s population base is slightly older with an average age of 29 years, followed by the UAE (30.1 years) and China (34.5 years).  The populations of the traditional travel markets of Japan, Germany and the UK each has an average age of 45, 44 and 39 years respectively. 


These new travellers are also educated


Travellers from the emerging markets are also very educated. India has the 2nd highest number of individuals with tertiary level education (124.4 million).  China captured the 3rd place with just over 100 million.  Russia is in 4th place with 91 million.


They are Internet savvy


They are also very Internet savvy.  The use of the Internet to research, plan and book travel is quite a common occurrence for emerging markets.  The sheer number of online users is absolutely astounding. The Internet user population from the emerging markets, make up approximately 40% of the 2.4 billion Internet users worldwide, according to Internet World Stats 2014.  China leads with 538 million, followed by India (137 million), Brazil (88.5 million) and Russia (68 million).


They seek status from travel abroad


Many citizens of emerging markets, who are of means, enjoy the status that international travel brings and are quick to boast about their trips to their colleagues.  Culturally, there is social currency in international travel and this is a significant driver for outbound travel.






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Wednesday 30 April 2014

Big Data - Delivering the Big Picture to Drive Competitiveness


Big Data - Delivering the BIg Picture to Drive Competitiveness

What is the big thing about Big Data?


What is the big thing about Big Data?  Everything!  Welcome to the brand new world of data generation and data mining.  Big Data is arguably the biggest opportunity, in a generation, for the travel and tourism industry to embrace the changing structure of data and maximize its use.  We all know that the Internet has changed our businesses tremendously.  How we look, book, pay for and even consume travel services, have changed dramatically.  With that change has come entire new ways of tracking and measuring travellers’ intent, behaviour, thought patterns, sensitivities, sensibilities, desires, fantasies and needs.  This means that, more than ever before, suppliers are better able to understand the behavioural patterns of their customers and competitors.  In addition, these data are easier than ever to produce, capture, collect, analyse, integrate and use.

Big Data heralds a vast opportunity for all travel and tourism entities, equipping them with the tools to improve both the commercial and experiential sides of their businesses. As with any radical shift, however, the opportunities arrive hand-in-hand with the potential for significant challenges—challenges that Tourism Intelligence International (TII) describes as the four Cs: increased Competition, the need for new flows of Creativity and Content as well as the need to better understand and satisfy Customers.

So how can Big Data deliver the big picture to drive travel and tourism competitiveness?  The real gem of Big Data is the competitive power that it gives businesses to push the envelope on understanding consumer behaviour. This in turn creates the ability, par excellence, for businesses to predict, anticipate and exceed customer expectations in order to orchestrate the experience of a lifetime – the true raison détre of the travel and tourism business.

As the amount of data continues to grow exponentially, compounded by a variety of new technologies such as the Internet, social media, cloud computing, mobile devices and the Internet of Things, it poses both a challenge and an opportunity for the travel and tourism sector - how to capture, store, manage and use the ever increasing volume of data being generated. The big question is how organisations in the present can unlock the value of Big Data to deliver a vision into the future to predict and anticipate consumer behaviour.

By using Big Data analytics, businesses and governments alike can analyse huge amounts of data in lightning speed to accurately reveal previously unseen patterns, sentiments and consumer and market trends. This velocity and veracity of data insight, delivered across any device including computers, smart phones and tablets, means that executives in the travel and tourism industry can make better and faster decisions.

The Six Vs of Big Data
Source: Tourism Intelligence International, 2014
META Group. “3D Data Management: Controlling Data Volume, Velocity, and Variety.” February 2001
The benefits for the consumers are also many, from revolutionizing the information available at their fingertips, to taking back control of their own data to understand behavioural patterns such as energy consumption or spending habits. This in turn gives the consumer greater power in the new paradigm (Tourism Intelligence International, The Paradigm Shift in Travel and Tourism, 2013).  And in this new paradigm data is changing the way we think, feel, behave, conduct business, work and live.

In its easy-to-read, down-to-earth and thoroughly researched report, Big Data — Delivering the Big Picture to Drive Competitiveness, Tourism Intelligence International (TII) has created a comprehensive guide to understanding Big Data and how to use it to drive competitiveness.  This report points out that Big Data can be used as a fundamental tool for greater industry-wide innovation. Big Data demands big ideas and the courage to implement them.  Managing and analysing data is no longer an issue for IT departments alone; instead it is driving the travel and tourism industry’s business agenda.  But while the data is big and many large companies are at the forefront of the trend, it can be adopted by small and medium-sized enterprises as well, and in many cases, with little effort or expense.  So Big Data is not just for the big companies.  Big Data is for all of those companies—micro, small, medium, large and mega—and tourism destinations, that would like to understand their customers better, anticipate their needs and help them to deliver memorable and exceptional services.  In other words, it is for those companies that care about their customers and want to be in business for the long term.

This report, Big Data — Delivering the Big Picture to Drive Competitiveness examines a number of companies both within and outside of the travel and tourism industry that are using Big Data in big ways, for example, British Airways, Kayak, Marriott, Macy’s, UPS, adMarketing and ReviewPro.  These examples deliver important insights into the challenges and opportunities in using Big Data to drive competitiveness.

Tourism Intelligence International (TII), is committed to better understanding the impact of major trends in the travel and tourism industry and to facilitate decision-making in those critical areas most likely to deliver change.  Indeed, TII has been tracking trends in travel and tourism for well over 30 years.  This “new” Big Data trend is one of many that will drive businesses to reinvent themselves, as the tour operators and travel agencies have had to do with the dawn of the Internet.  Some will win, but others will go out of business, if they do not adapt to and adopt Big Data.

Tourism Intelligence International has put together twenty (20) winning strategies that could help any organisation of any size to use and benefit from Big Data analytics.  For these strategies and much more, order your copy of TII's report bl clicking on the image below. 

 Order Your Copy Now



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