By Pako Rodríguez, consultant specialised in tourism. (Originally published in Spanish)

The disruption caused by Covid-19 has transformed countless aspects of our daily lives and has put into question the development of tourism on a global scale. However, not everything is grim around us. The current situation also shines some light at the end of the tunnel by proposing a new scenario in which we will have to recombine the institutional guarantee, business initiatives and citizen capabilities to create new critical systems that allow economic and social development.

Now more than ever, it is time to plan destinations that we will offer, focusing on the participation of all stakeholders, health security, sustainability, tourist's deep knowledge and technology as an articulator of all the above. To achieve this, we must be able to provoke a productive conversation between the managers and public of the sector to explore the different opportunities. A dialogue that, at least, should address three great unknowns:

1. How do we want the destinations to be like when this is all over?

Faced with such an uncertain future, projecting what is to come is not an easy task. However, there are some elements in which institutions, experts and business people seem to agree on: post-Covid-19 tourism will be tourism of greater proximity and, above all, health security will be an essential factor.

Much is said about the role of national tourism at a local level as a saviour of the industry. Data coming from China seems to confirm this hypothesis and Spain also validates the trend.

Different territories away from crowds and with tourist potential have a golden opportunity if they decide to take a leap forward and position themselves as a destination in a time of uncertainty. If things are done well from planning and communication, the nearest future will be full of moments of truth in which to make the tourist fall in love and retain him/her so that the relationship lasts even when this all comes to an end.

One thing this situation has made clear is that safety comes first. And it is precisely from security that tourism also lives from. Once the unknowns about controlling the epidemic and tracking new cases are resolved, we must focus on building trust with customers. And, in that, we will have duties such as:

Train personnel in the sector on the use of new technologies and health protocols.
Inform the corresponding administrations and the sector about the demand through the inclusion of intelligent systems such as health passports, temperature control systems, signage and the use of apps with push notifications to keep customers informed about the situation, regulations and protocols.
Transform the environment through the implementation of new technologies that replace processes where there is greater potential contact (check in / check out) and objects (cellphone connected to the hotel to manage doors or lights) or the effective reduction of capacity and systems automated control and management (there are already several on the market).

2. On what to leverage ourselves to create new tourism products?

Beyond defining what these #destinationsthatrock will be, we must be able to design product development strategies that are consistent with these destinations.

It is time to plan the different destinations with a focus on the participation of all interest groups, health security, sustainability, in-depth knowledge of the tourist and technology as the articulator of all the above.

If the seasonal adjustment of tourism was already a challenge, now that the sector needs the demand for travel more than ever and that there are no crowds, this has become one of the most important priorities. At the product level, you have to think about how to attract demand in the different seasons of the year, especially by making use of natural resources (landscape, agricultural activities, sports) and other more traditional ones such as gastronomy and culture. ....

3. How can we increase demand?

Parallel to these measures and the implementation of product development dynamics, our potential demand must also be studied and known. In this new context, the "build and they will come" has ceased to exist, if it ever did. In addition to the product, we must understand who our demand is now and how we are addressing it. The competition will be intense, and the fight for the tourist will force you to refine your shot now more than ever. One of the first questions that different destinations have to ask themselves is "where does my new tourist reside?" The answer to this will come largely from the different agreements reached between the different states for the creation of tourist corridors.

But what if part of the solution was closer than we think? In this new scenario, we must be able to reimagine business models to adapt them to new cases that, far from being the future, have become our present. This answer involves unbundling organisations to value available assets and determine how to combine them to create new value.

Already in 2016, while we all saw 2020 as a horizon of hope, at Ideas for Change we worked with some protagonists of the tourism sector in the creation of that future that rocks. Through the Pentagrowth methodology for the design of disruptive business models, we followed a consulting process with Accor, one of the most important hotel chains globally, in the reinvention of its business model through its own assets.

Accor Case

With the aim of creating value for new clients from underused assets and services, we created AccorLocal, an initiative that aims to make the hotel and all its services available to local citizens seeking a gym, meeting spaces, a place to manage delivery services or hold yoga classes, or other activities. An example that shows how, by changing the perspective and recombining assets in a creative way, new opportunities are born, many of them closer than we could imagine.

Among the most interesting conclusions that were drawn from this experience, two stand out:

There is a reserve of untapped value in the assets and relationship system that hotels already have.
The implementation of the concerted initiatives allows Accor to significantly accelerate its learning in collaborative formulas and adjacent businesses.

Accor remains faithful to this premise and, for example, this 2020 has transformed the rooms of some of its hotels into offices for daytime use. This way, it revalues currently underused assets by making use of the relationships with its ecosystem, in this case the residents. This is a group that has usually been excluded from the tourist ideology. Now, more than ever, it is going to play a relevant role in the sector.

Disruption can come from traditional incumbents, new actors or from the environment, as is the situation in which we have had to live. If you want to know how to apply it in your organisation, let's reflect on how to create your #futurethatrocks.

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