Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Friday, June 22, 2007
If I were a Caribbean Tourism or Development Minister
Many years ago, in the Caribbean, I saw a bottle that though it contained a liquid of a quite dubious quality, with unashamed pride blasted out on the label a “Guaranteed 100% Artificial”, and ever since I have considered the aggressive framing of something that could be negative in overly positive terms as a marketing masterpiece; and I therefore immediately had visions of concepts such as a “Guaranteed 100% car free island”. Careful though, there are very clear and present dangers in having authorities fall into the temptation of imposing or overly supporting a vision.
Since the prices of environmental and energy limitations are in the short term most certainly below their long term cost, what the Caribbean needs is a framework that emits clearer and more sustainable signals to the market. In this respect, and as a professional experienced in strategic studies, such as of the tourism sector, I summarize below what I jolted down on a paper during the conference about what I would do if I were a Caribbean Tourist Minister
1. Given that there is an environmental (and energy) limit of how many rooms any island can sustain, I would at any cost avoid the temptations of building rooms just for building, and instead assure a system that maximizes the benefit per room obtained for the whole island. There are many ways of measuring island benefits per room but the clearest approximation must be the salaries that a room generates for the local people employed in the tourism sector.
2. To achieve the previous there is a need to impose a strict limit on the number of hotel rooms allowed on each island, and a mechanism that guarantees that those rooms that do not meet a specified and over time increasing island benefit target are closed down through legal expropriation procedure that guarantees of course the payment of reasonable indemnities.
3. Projects for the new rooms to substitute for those closed should be submitted for approval to a Committee with an ample societal representation and where the individual votes of its members are made public. The selection criteria for the approval is how well a project is able to demonstrate that it will be able to meet the current minimum level of island benefit, and thereafter how much it could help the rest of the tourism sector. All the approved projects would count with a minimum period before their results are competitively measured, for instance construction plus three years.
4. The owners of the physical installations are of course the prime beneficiaries of the investment returns but since the objective is to maximize island benefit per room, the Ministry also needs to support the efforts of the local tourism promoters in developing special market niches, by for instance encouraging and supervising a system of revenue sharing.
5. Given the room scarcity concept imposed, the marketing efforts, instead of a wide and general should be much more focused so as to obtain the best possible result, for each week of the year. Modern technology allows for this kind of micro-niche marketing and the government should support it. For instance selling a hotel to just one city in England during a specific month of the year, instead to the whole England all of the year, could help to create that added exclusivity value that maximizes the island benefit per room.
Friends, while trying to make our lives more liveable, let us also try to make them more sustainable… in fact that is also “Guaranteed, 100% fun”.
Thursday, June 1, 2006
A niche in crookedness?
Sir, in your series about reforming Europe you refer to Pisa’s medieval tower as a “spectacular example of a grand architectural project gone awry: beautiful, still in existence, but wrong nonetheless,” and you got it all wrong. It is just because the tower is leaning that it has turned into one of the most outstanding commercial successes. What would a straight tower have meant to Pisa?
I wish to make this point since when trying to pursue an “antidote to decline” in today’s difficult environment, trying to straighten out Italy in too many aspects might actually break it. There might very well be interesting little niches in crookedness to pursue, and, besides, without some of it, the world would be an unbearably boring place.
Extracted from my Voice and Noise, June 2006
Dead and Useful
Would my friend have suggested seeing RLS’ grave, were he buried in London? Of course not! The fact that he is buried on an island without an excessive abundance of so-called big tourist sights presents a win-win situation in terms of development strategies. For instance, if Mick and Keith, on account of their Voodoo LP, were to be buried in Haiti, they still might provide a much-needed and useful boost to the island.
But that’s not all. We all know that “location, location, location” is the mantra for any real-estate affair, and this burial site alternative has the potential to create its own location value, since many Mick and Keith fans could find merit in having their own graves located next to them. As most of the gravesites for these graveyards could be negotiated on a pre-burial basis, and as the state of the clientele permits overcrowding the venues with little added risk, the business opportunities are immense. This goes not only for the initial ticket offering (nothing to do with offerings) but also for the secondary market where scalpers (nothing to do with scalping) should be able to enjoy a strong and renewable support level, provided mainly by visiting family members.
The constraints are few, and the potential huge. You need not locate Mick and Keith in the same spot—you could rotate them from graveyard to graveyard, giving a fresh meaning to a Farewell Tour. Flexibility in product design could also allow marketing the graveyard as timeshare units, providing the possibility for an exchange of a week or two, perhaps even with Eleanor Rigby’s Resort-yard.
But, of course, it’s not only about rock and roll. Just think of all the very powerful and attractive burial arrangements you could achieve by mixing yesterday’s and tomorrow’s lovers, friends, or foes. Personally I find the foe niche especially interesting, since it would give a much more profound and proactive significance to the whole concept of a peaceful rest.
P.S. I finally went to visit RLS’ grave in Samoa and although I never made it up to the mountaintop, I must confess that it was much more than a grave. His former residence houses a splendid museum where, guided by a classy and knowledgeable local girl, we were shown interesting glimpses of the five final years of this famous Scottish author. I submit that this little detail does not invalidate the general dead-and-useful proposal.
Extracted from Voice and Noise, June 2006
Thursday, April 10, 2003
The Contest!
What an inheritance the Medicis left to their city! The Florentine economy will always be easy to manage, since the only thing that their Paperon de Paperoni (Scrooge McDuck) has to do is fix admissions prices. The one little cloud on the horizon could be the quantity of English, Venezuelan, German, and other immigrants who try to take advantage of the infrastructure. What would Machiavelli have thought about entering the European Union?
We know that despite all its possibilities, Venezuela, in a local saying, still has not managed to connect the foot to the ball when it comes to developing its tourism industry. This will never be resolved by naming ministers who spend their time conducting publicity campaigns, or visiting Orlando and Florence. We are not proposing that other Medicis substitute for those who govern us—we can discuss this on another day. But in the meantime, we could emulate the experts.
In Florence 500 years ago, the contest system was used to assure that the best artistic proposals were utilized to adorn the city. So let’s organize a grand contest.
It will be a grand contest to choose a grand team and a grand plan for the strategic development and management of the tourism sector for the next 30 years, with an estimate of costs and results.
A qualified panel of judges should choose the best three proposals, and the proposals should be publicly debated on television. The losers will receive an important prize, and the winners will be commissioned to execute their proposal during thirty years, with a significant fixed, indexed and guaranteed annual budget.
Since televised public contests enjoy high ratings, this contest could also be a way to build pontes novos, new bridges, in our divided society.
The Santa María del Fiore Cathedral took more than 100 years to construct, and for a long time everyone thought its dome would be impossible to build. And so, friends, let’s not lose the hope of finding a local genius like Brunelleschi for our Helicoide (a local 45-year-old monstrous white elephant).
Translated from El Universal, Caracas, April 10, 2003
Tuesday, August 15, 2000
Isla de Margarita
Kurowski’s dream for prosperity on
Isla de Margarita
Report © by VHeadline.com News Editor
VHeadline.com: August 15, 2000 --- Guest editor Per Kurowski has been describing the future Isla de Margarita he would like to see… “I’m a firm believer that the only relevant economic model for Venezuela is the one that recognizes that the country will continue to receive considerable income from oil revenues for many decades to come, making Venezuela relatively expensive and Isla de Margarita an island with class and category.”
The future Margarita he dreams of has the following characteristics:
1. A high category tourist industry leaving cheap tours to other venues.
2. Enough lure to demand top services from the world’s top airlines, offering perks like tax free and cost price jet fuel for every plane that lands here or stopping any line that doesn’t stop here from landing in Caracas.
3. Recognition that non-specialized tourism doesn’t render benefits…targeting market segments that have comparative advantages like wind-surfing in El Yaque Beach.
4. Make use of assets like the Nueva Esparta Medical Center for third age persons by securing agreements with universities and specialized companies. Six winter months holidays for old age pensioners from the developed world.
5. Get upset on learning that in January 2000 54 cruise ships weighed anchor in Saint Martin, bringing 95,000 passengers and 39,000 crew members ashore to spend money, placing a less worthy island than Margarita on the map.
6. Not to allow Venezuela to associate itself with Caricom when those countries refuse to put Margarita on their Caribbean tourist maps.
7. Not to remain smug with official government support… send officials to international fairs to promote the island with creative packets, like setting up top quality recording studios that would attract world class performers and much media coverage.
8. A leadership that would halt privatization of the island’s electricity sector favoring only the central government and causing islander’s a notable hike, since Margarita can enjoy electricity supplied from Guri, like the Brazilians will next year.
9. Our children’s future will depend on a joint effort… a tourist code that fixes severe penalties for every infraction.
10. Free language courses for every resident.
11. Apply the Environmental Law to demolish works or uncompleted projects that are an eyesore to visitors.
12. Get rid of cigarette company sponsored billboards that litter the road to the airport.
13. No more taxes, except to award tax-dodging certificates to tired Europeans , who can but gasoline at its real price, without paying the 400% tax they have grown accustomed to.
14. Isla de Margarita should become the entry port for all tourist offers in Venezuela and should convince fellow countrymen that their development depends on Margarita’s success and at the same time “convince islanders that their development depends on their own efforts.”
In other news, Venezuelan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Fedecamaras) director and Economic Constituent Committee member Guillermo Velutini reports that hotel reservations have only filled 20% of their capacity and 18 hotels have been forced to close down in the last couple of months … Velutini has failed to explain possible motives behind the demise of the hotel industry on Isla de Margarita … Kurowski’s 14 wishes, on the contrary, drop several hints
Friday, October 29, 1999
Vanity tourism
Friday, June 25, 1999
A true fountain of inspiration
The Daily Journal June 25, 1999