Seasoning the seasons

You have created this new World Tourism Seasonality Summit that will take place this October as part of the World Routes 2024 conference in Bahrain. Why are you so passionate about this topic, about extending the seasons of tourism?
It all begun back when I was 22, fresh out of university and into my job as a travel agent. I decided there and then that I wanted to work in this industry for a long time, partly because I love to travel and to discover how other people live and how other societies operate.

I have been with some of the biggest boys in the industry – Kuoni, MyTravel Group, and TUI. Later, I joined Routes, where I realised I was not an aviation man. I am a tourism man. When I looked at airlines and airport developments for Routes conferences, I saw planes transporting a whole load of people from one market to another and I was interested to know what drove their decision to travel to that destination.

In the early days of Routes, tourism authorities were missing from this conversation. So, I spoke about this to the CEO at that time, and he made me the director of tourism. My job was to go to tourism authorities everywhere and invite them to engage in air service development.

As I went about my job, I started to see tourism as a huge ecosystem. Tracking data from organisations like UN Tourism (previously UNWTO), WTTC and a whole variety of others made a few things jump out at me: since the beginning of tourism in the early 1900s through till today, effectively, with the exception of Covid, tourism has known nothing but growth.

What happens to an industry that knows nothing but growth? You get fat and lazy. And we did.

(At trade shows) were the same exhibitors, doing the same stuff, with the same messaging, selling the same time of the year, selling the same products. There was no creativity, because they didn’t have to be. There was going to be more tourists next year anyway, because more people were travelling and more airlines were getting onto the scene. Low-cost carriers were on the up then.

Then came overtourism.

The overtourism question really challenged me. UN Tourism predicted that there was going to be another 300 million more visitors by 2030. I didn’t believe that because multiple sources were saying that the global middle-class would grow by 1.5 billion in the next 10 years. These people have disposable income and many of them will want to travel.

That information should send a shiver down the spine of anybody in our industry. With that sort of demand against supply, prices would rise and travel could return to the realms of the relatively wealthy. Already, we are seeing tourist taxes and fees being implemented to manage tourists.

I have two daughters, and we aren’t from a wealthy background. They absolutely should have the opportunity to travel. Travel cannot be the preserve of the elite.

It got me thinking about better ways to manage tourist crowds that do not involve raising prices. And it hit me – the best time of the year to travel is during the low season. This is the time when hotels have capacity that’s wide open and the experience is not a negative one.

Overtourism is seasonal. You don’t see Majorca complaining about overtourism in January because there is pretty much no tourist then.

There is a reason for low seasons though. Do you see a challenge in spreading travel demand out across the low seasons?
The challenge that we’ve got is the perception of the low season. We need to change that perception by being more creative about how we market the destination during low seasons.

What traditionally predicted travel seasonality was weather and the school holidays. It is hard to push family travel outside of the school holidays, but perceptions of weather-driven holidays can be changed.

I was just speaking to (PATA Travel Mart exhibitors from) the Maldives, and they told me about their rainy seasons in May and June. Tourism business is very slow during those months. I have been to the Maldives a couple of times during the rainy season, and I found my experiences wonderful. You get the rain, but rain in the tropics is the most fabulous. It rains like it means it, with thunder and all, but then it is quickly done. What an experience! Rain in the tropics is not slow and long-drawn, and the skies are not grey and grizzly.

So, the Maldives marketers have to educate people about the rainy season – tell people that rainy seasons do not bring (a whole) day of rain. Above all, marketers must reach out to people who value more than just the destination’s weather.

Yes, I see that. The Maldives has in recent years been promoting itself among business event planners. Business events can bring arrivals outside of the usual peak months.
Yes, marketers have to identify and go after niches. Besides MICE, destinations can build low season demand through niches like wellness tourism and sports tourism. Wellness tourism, for example, does not require good weather. Travellers can meditate indoors.

Have you seen good examples of a destination that has built its tourism fortunes on weather-related strengths, like sunny summers or dreamy white winters, and is able to successfully diversify tourism footfalls into the low seasons?
There are certainly a few in Europe. Tenerife is well known for year-round sunshine and beaches, but it has so much more than beaches. For anybody who is not familiar with Tenerife, I would describe it as the Hawaii of Europe. It is a group of islands with a big volcano in the middle and subtropical rainforest in the north. It is great for cycling tours.

We worked with Tenerife on a campaign a couple of years ago. When we featured it on the cover of one of our magazines, everybody thought it was Costa Rica.

Tenerife is making inroads to showcasing more of the island than its beaches.

Tahiti is another example. It has a challenge with seasonality. We did some work with Tahiti and were brought over during the rainy season. We were there for five days before we saw a drop of rain.

I think it is risky for a destination to only position itself on its beaches. Europeans will not travel halfway around the world to see a beach; there are good beaches around Europe that are quicker to get to.

Local culture and heritage can make a strong position. As a traveller to Tahiti, I would want to meet a local who can tell me about traditional tattoos. Tahitians have tattoos that tell the full story of their life. You don’t get that in Europe or many other places. I would also want to experience the local cuisine, nature, songs, and dances.

So, for our Tahiti campaign, we filmed so many things but not one beach. There were so many other unique aspects of Tahiti to feature.

I’m seeing a lot more social media content on hidden parts of a destination and different times to visit to avoid crowds. Do you think social media can be a useful avenue to promote low season trends?
I’ve seen similar content, but not so much on low season ideas. Hidden gems, yes. I have a challenge with this though.

Let’s talk about Bali. People say, go to one of the Gili Islands instead of Bali because Bali is too touristy and crowded. While that message may come with good intentions, with the aim of diversifying tourism, the outcome is shifting the problem to somewhere else that may not be built to handle large volumes of people.

Look at Venice. With all of its might and money, it is still unable to stop overtourism. Now, if everybody flocked over to Trieste instead, which is right round the corner, there would be trouble.

Every destination has an element of seasonality. The reality is that destinations have hotels and attractions that are not fully occupied all year round. Yet, tourism players are calling for more capacity to cope with high demand during peak season.

We know that 30 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions are a direct result of the built environment. So, is it right to build hotels to only be fully occupied just six months of the year? I say, absolutely not. The most sustainable approach is to work to fill it year-round.

Can policy help?
I’d like to see destinations take a harder stance on this. Well, I am an idealist. It would be good to see authorities telling developers to demonstrate concerted efforts to fill their property all 12 months before issuing the permission to build. This approach will be good for the economy, local businesses, people, and the environment.

I think governments will eventually have to do this when land space runs out.

Let’s talk about the World Tourism Seasonality Summit. Confirmed speakers are quite diverse, representing destinations like Turks and Caicos and Gauteng. Are these destinations that suffer the most pronounced seasonality issues?
We only started work on this summit less than eight weeks ago. It is a ridiculously short amount of time for this first event, but we are determined to make the best of it and have a good start.

In putting together the panel, I made sure to have a 50 per cent male, 50 per cent female representation and also to have people from different geographical areas to offer unique observations from their region.

My biggest disappointment is not being able to get enough engagement from Asia. We recognised that we have to do a lot more in the Asia-Pacific region. That led to our strategic partnership with PATA.

How do you see PATA supporting your cause?
PATA has such a strong reputation and brand in this region. It is more than an association; it’s a close-knit community. If anybody wants to engage with the tourism industry in Asia-Pacific, he has to go through PATA.

We hope that our strategic relationship will allow us to showcase PATA and what its members in the region are doing to promote their low seasons, and have PATA help to get our messages out there.

Are all speaking slots taken at this point?
They are. We had to try and get them filled up as quickly as possible, because the next thing is, we want people to come along to the event to see them speak.

What representation from Asia would you have wanted in the debut conference?
I would have liked to have somebody from Bali (Indonesia), Thailand, and Malaysia.

We will have more time to work on the second edition. For that, I would like to get speakers representing a land-locked destination and an island destination. It is also valuable to get speakers from India and China, as both are big tourism source markets as well as destinations.

What are your plans for future editions of the summit?
We hope to have a few throughout the year, including regional ones. The first summit in October this year will just be for a day. We hope to have future summits stretching over two or three days.

Have you decided on where the second summit will be?
We’re having discussions at the moment with the team at Routes. My hope is that we can reach an agreement whereby the next edition will be at Routes Asia in Perth.

I am also having conversations with the likes of Sri Lanka and Maldives.