Winning from within: How can travel & tourism stem the brain drain?

Travel & tour­ism is every­one’s busi­ness. It’s all about people. How do we keep people allied and inspired in organ­isa­tions, des­tin­a­tions, and host communities? 

K Michael Hay­wood tackles this prob­lem in his third “Good Tour­ism” Insight.

[You too can write a “GT” Insight.]

“Aston­ish, Smarter Tour­ism by Design” (my new e‑book yet to be pub­lished) opens with the fol­low­ing dedication:

To the indis­pens­able and essen­tial efforts of hun­dreds of thou­sands of hos­pit­able people around the world who, unwit­tingly, go bey­ond the call of duty to wel­come, serve, give, and care for trav­el­ers and vis­it­ors — hosts who are too rarely acknow­ledged or recog­nized as ded­ic­ated and hon­or­able, bring­ing their skills and tal­ent, flair and enthu­si­asm, to travel and tour­ism, our com­munit­ies, and a mul­ti­tude of vis­it­or-serving organ­iz­a­tions — too long deserving of our trib­ute and count­less accol­ades. From the bot­tom of our hearts, thank you.

Who is devel­op­ing, thank­ing, and liven­ing the spir­its of your indis­pens­able hosts; your cit­izens and employees? 

After all, people do the heavy lift­ing required by all com­munit­ies-as-des­tin­a­tions. And they deliv­er the value that vis­it­or-serving organ­isa­tions pride them­selves in offer­ing.

Also see Peter Semone’s “GT” Insight
“What is des­tin­a­tion human cap­it­al? It’s the people!”

And yet, for vari­ous reas­ons, they often lack a sense of con­nec­ted­ness, pur­pose, belong­ing, engage­ment, and mean­ing, which leads me to wonder: 

What would hap­pen if every­one in a com­munity lacked the skills and cap­ab­il­it­ies to excel at relationship-building?

What if people remained defi­cient in their abil­ity to co-cre­ate and deliv­er ser­vices; build endear­ment; strengthen loy­alty to organ­isa­tion and place brands; and reveal ini­ti­at­ive and ingenuity?

What if people were nev­er rewar­ded for being kind and empathetic? 

Asked in a totally dif­fer­ent way: What are your travel & tour­ism organ­isa­tions and com­munit­ies doing to avoid brain drain and ensure brain gain?

From hired hands to change agents

It’s well known that many employ­ers still treat their employ­ees as hired hands. 

They micro-man­age them, inad­equately train them, and reward them only on the basis of the tasks that they do and the hours it takes to do them. 

While many espouse the import­ance of super­i­or employ­er-employ­ee rela­tion­ships, why then then do so many rarely com­mu­nic­ate with their employ­ees face to face? 

Why do so many neg­lect to weave mean­ing­ful exper­i­ences into work, or make decisions that fail to sup­port work­ers and con­trib­ute to job insecurity?

Wit­ness the pri­or­ity giv­en to lur­ing work­ers through per­quis­ites while fail­ing to rein­vent or change the nature of meni­al work; fail­ing to even try to be top employ­ers; fail­ing in their stated com­mit­ment to “build back bet­ter” … all of which are neces­sary for more con­scien­tious and col­lab­or­at­ive com­munity-driv­en approaches to tourism.

Also see Andrew Chan’s “GT” Insight
“Data ana­lyt­ics, fin­an­cial acu­men are keys to a great career in tourism”

At the more macro level, con­sider the nature and extent of involve­ment that res­id­ents of com­munit­ies should have in regard to tour­ism plan­ning and devel­op­ment. For the most part, dis­cus­sion of that is mere lip service.

In light of the need for rec­ti­fic­a­tion, ima­gine the uphill battle as the industry attempts to reboot the cus­tom­er exper­i­ence to bring back the magic of travel and deal with the decline in busi­ness travel.

If amends and atone­ment are to occur, surely power and bur­eau­cracy will have to be replaced with “humano­graphy”.

If not, can regen­er­at­ive forms of tour­ism, which some say will be at the fore­front of recov­ery efforts, be achieved, espe­cially when the pre­vail­ing desire with­in the industry remains fix­ated on a return to solvency and profitability?

With rela­tion­ships remain­ing strained between employ­ers and employ­ees, between organ­isa­tions, gov­ern­ments, and com­munit­ies, it is inev­it­able that trust will evap­or­ate and the impetus for change will stall. 

So, where to look for advice? From a new breed of marketers? 

In this case, yes, as some are striv­ing to gen­er­ate com­munity value through regen­er­at­ive mar­ket­ing and the re-build­ing of trust. 

Also see Bron­wyn Hutchison’s “GT” Insight
“How NZ’s Tiaki Prom­ise advances regen­er­at­ive travel & tourism”

Test your organ­isa­tion and community’s will for doing so: 

Who in the industry, and your com­munity, are the most likely change-makers? 

Who has the expert­ise and gump­tion to bring about the neces­sary transformations?

Do your answers provide a glim­mer of hope as to how vis­it­or-serving organ­isa­tions and a frag­men­ted industry can break the pat­terns of their per­sist­ent pragmatisms?

Clearly we have an oblig­a­tion to learn how to bet­ter bring about progress. 

Winning from within

We have the smarts to get on with the job, but how long is our col­lect­ive intransigence going to remain in the way?

In a pre­vi­ous “Good Tour­ism Insight I wrote about how travel & tour­ism industry clusters can bring diverse stake­hold­ers togeth­er to real­ise the man­i­fold poten­tials inher­ent in any community-as-destination. 

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

Sim­il­arly, such an approach under­taken with­in an organ­isa­tion prom­ises to bring its people togeth­er to mani­fest great outcomes.

Con­sider, for example, giv­ing employ­ees a sense of pur­pose and com­munity, train­ing for trust, and revis­ing and reshap­ing the dis­tri­bu­tion of power with­in your organisation.

For example, with­in a future-back strategy frame­work, par­ti­cipants par­take in a defin­it­ive call-to-action that provides clar­ity and urgency (which is often under­mined through a crisis of vis­ion) to mobil­ise hearts and minds towards a com­mon goal- or out­come-driv­en ini­ti­at­ive or innovation

Such inclus­ive­ness in prob­lem-solv­ing and decision-mak­ing bol­sters the spir­it of co-oper­a­tion and col­lab­or­a­tion that is essen­tial for aspir­a­tions to be realised.

With the pur­poses and goals of a tour­ism organ­isa­tion cla­ri­fied, and with every­one emo­tion­ally and intel­lec­tu­ally inves­ted in reach­ing them, more pro­gress­ive per­form­ance met­rics such as Bal­anced Score­cards can then be developed.

In anoth­er “Good Tour­ism” Insight, I shared how I think tour­ism des­tin­a­tions-as-com­munit­ies can be bet­ter and smarter by design.

Also see K Michael Hay­wood’s “GT” Insight
“Can des­tin­a­tions-as-com­munit­ies be bet­ter & smarter by design?”

Of course bet­ter and smarter is con­tin­gent on the con­tinu­ous devel­op­ment of the capa­cit­ies of people, which in turn relies on organ­isa­tions enhan­cing peoples’ tal­ent, encour­aging ini­ti­at­ive, and ensur­ing win-win outcomes. 

Thus it is essen­tial that des­tin­a­tions’ tour­ism clusters pri­or­it­ise train­ing. They should col­lab­or­ate with edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions on cur­riculum changes that ensure future-ready skills and cap­ab­il­it­ies, both soft and technical.

Just as the real­isa­tion of an indi­vidu­al’s aspir­a­tions requires com­mit­ment and effort by that indi­vidu­al, so too the real­isa­tion of a col­lect­ive aspir­a­tion requires com­mit­ment and effort on behalf of all who share it. 

Little pro­gress can be made unless “jobs-to-be-done” man­dates are also applied to out­come-driv­en ini­ti­at­ives and innov­a­tions; those that embrace all the life- and com­munity-affirm­ing val­ues import­ant to stake­hold­ers and citizens.

Of course, the neces­sary fin­an­cial and human resources and tools that act as pro­pel­lants for ini­ti­at­ive and innov­a­tion, have to be read­ily avail­able. Space for meet­ings will be required which sug­gests the need for region­al or loc­al des­tin­a­tion innov­a­tion hubs in which dis­cus­sions, col­lab­or­a­tions, and exper­i­ments can take place. 

Also see Kristin Dun­ne’s “GT” Insight
“Plan­ning tour­ism with pur­pose & love in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty”

While money and ded­ic­ated infra­struc­ture can help, ulti­mately it is indi­vidu­als and organ­isa­tions that have to take a lead; even lend­ing their own spaces for the purpose. 

Sim­il­arly, it is indi­vidu­als and organ­isa­tions that must be pre­pared to take a risk on the new ideas and oppor­tun­it­ies that emerge des­pite linger­ing fears.

Determ­ined to stem the brain drain and ensure a brain gain, a smarter tour­ism industry will util­ise the power of clusters to identi­fy and attract smart people. 

And smarter tour­ism organ­isa­tions will do what they can to actu­al­ise the poten­tial of their people across mul­tiple dimensions.

At all levels, a smarter tour­ism will be made pos­sible by smart people enhan­cing the inter-depend­en­cies that serve and embel­lish their rela­tion­ships, organ­isa­tions, and communities-as-destinations.

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

Fea­tured image (top of post): 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.