Tourism - The Elephant Standing on Our Feet.

Tourism Development Strategies - Innovation, Technology, Community Based - Chapter 9 Vision book

Click the following link to download chapters of "Vision - We Are Re-creating the World, a Resource Manual "tool-box" for Revitalization and Empowerment Through Grass-roots Strategies and Environmental Awareness.

Tourism is the largest industry in the world. It is so diversified, and touches so many aspects of our lives and the economies of nations, regions, communities and people. It is seemingly complex because of how we have fragmented the various aspects of the world.

But at its essence tourism is relatively simple. Experience! It is about people providing experiences and opportunities for other people to partake of those experiences. It really isn't rocket science. And the import of this as we work toward Peace and greater understandings between peoples, and to discover more about this wonderful world that we live in, we cannot ignore the imperative to continue the evolution of tourism as an industry. It is critical to move from the competitive mindset and move into creativity and diversification. Tourism can be complimentary to any other development. In fact, tourism done properly is a part of almost all communities that have successful economies, and are nice places to live. And tourism is the number one vehicle for instilling a sense of place and an awareness of our critically important connection to the Earth.

Personally I have worked in the tourism industry at all scales. From taking money from campers in a county park campground, to driving charted tours around the U.S., to teaching windsurfing and leading outdoor recreation trips, to teaching farmers and ranchers how to start nature tourism businesses, to developing the first Wireless Internet and tourism information kiosk, as part of a project to provide travelers information at Dept. of Transportation rest area facilities.

My observations are that we have not been very thoughtful, visionary, or creative as we have been looking at tourism as an "opportunity space", at all scales. Based on these observations, I have dedicated my life to creating a grander and more sustainable vision.

The other aspect of the tourism development side of the equation, is the lack of understanding of how important the Internet is and how we can utilize new technologies. I don't have to look at any statistics to know that practically everyone will go to the Web to do research or gather information before they travel. Many technologies have been developed that enhance the tourism experience, and for providers to enhance their services. But the industry as a whole are very slow at learning how to use these tools, much less lead in their development and utilization.

In Chapter 9--Tourism as a Case Example 3--and In-depth Description of the Development of a Regional and Replicable Initiative of my Vision book, I have gathered together as comprehensive of a presentation as possible, in the shortest amount of space, of what I see as the main emphases and opportunities for developing tourism, both for regions and communities, and also for travelers. When one steps into the Creative Mind, as promulgated by Wallace D. Wattles, the opportunities in the realm of experiential tourism really open up, to be practically unlimited. (Download Wattles Science of Getting Rich, FREE).

Here are two excerpted graphics of concepts described in some detail from this Chapter of the Vision book.


To download this chapter, or any others from my book, follow this link "Vision - We Are Re-creating the World, a Resource Manual "tool-box" for Revitalization and Empowerment Through Grass-roots Strategies and Environmental Awareness.

Hybrid Community Diversified Cooperative

“Hybridizing” the Cooperative Model

This concept is one of my more interesting ideas and describes in some detail the creation of a sort of "regional community center", including the creation of a physical set of facilities to catalyze innovation, entrepreneurship and community empowerment.

This chapter of the Vision book begins a “Master Mind” dialog for evolving the concept of a new type of cooperative. There is something incredibly powerful about the "cooperative". It transformed agriculture. And yet in the U.S. it has really been limited in its utilization and evolution. Also, in my opinion, it tends to have a "corporate" feel. The idea of a "hybrid" would be to adjust the concept of "one vote per member". This concept rings of democracy which may not be the ultimate form of a cooperative venture, because in "a democracy" you could have 49% of the group disgruntled. That to me is not a workable model.

An evolution of the original concept of the cooperative might be derived from Napoleon Hill’s book “Think and Grow Rich” describing the functioning of the Master Mind (see discussion in the book chapter). A process built into the Cooperative could involve assurance of 100% alignment regarding actionable efforts. The key to tapping into incredible powers would be to assure "pure" collaboration. In many historical and contemporary human endeavors small percentages of dissonant opinions and voices resulted in ultimate failure.

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statement_on_the_Co-operative_Identity
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business

To download this chapter, or any others from my book, follow this link "Vision - We Are Re-creating the World, a Resource Manual "tool-box" for Revitalization and Empowerment Through Grass-roots Strategies and Environmental Awareness.

Views on Internationalization and Strategic Planning

Recently I applied for a teaching position for International Business English here in Colombia. I was given one hour to write an essay. The following is what I wrote with practically no editing. I feel it adequately captures what I see going on, and the opportunity that lies ahead of us.

Internationalization and Strategic Planning
Internationalization has shown to have both positive and negative impacts. Under the past model (which is currently most people's understanding of current affairs), dominated by corporate interests is not not sustainable. However, at the same time the systems of communication and distribution can be utilized to support the rapidly emerging system that supports international cooperation and collaboration on a more "grass-roots" level.

One only look at the last fifty years of the results of the old paradigm of internationalization to see that it is not viable or sustainable. Numerous cases could be cited of both human and natural environment exploitation. Two glaring cases are China and the conditions of human rights and the second is the rainforests in Brazil.

There is a shift occurring that is not visible to the masses because the mainstream media is controlled by corporate interests. This shift, or total paradigm restructuring, is occurring as the old financial and controlling interests are crumbling in the U.S. (including the Federal Reserve Bank) which has been by far the main proponent of internationalization under the corporate model. What will replace these systems are one that are based upon the support and development of nations, places and people with integrity and recognition of individual and community sovereignty.

The interesting thing that can be seen as one steps back and looks at the larger context, with a systems thinking view, is that these interests that have caused all of these "problems" have done all of the hard work of organizing the channels of distribution and communications. One case in point is Rupert Murdock the Australian media mogul who has brought together at least 25,000 news and media outlets (including TV, radio, newspaper and Internet).

Interestingly enough, Wallace D. Wattles predicted this shift to occur in his book "The Science of Getting Rich" that was written one hundred years ago. This is the book that inspired the international phenomena movie and book "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne.

It is very apparent that the rapidly passing away model of producing and shipping products vast distances is exorbitantly wasteful. And these systems have the most blatant examples of human and environmental exploitation (e.g. food production in California and maquiladoras on the U.S. / Mexico border).

The shift that is occurring and is rapidly expanding is founded upon at least three important principles a) sustainability of economic and social structures, but most importantly the natural environment, b) the phenomena is not blatantly apparent but is what is called "grass-roots" in nature, pockets of people's are coming together in collaboration to essentially, take their lives back, and c) it is apparent that the character of these emerging communities and cooperative efforts are based upon regional models that support revitalization at several scales, and empowerment of people.

Strategic planning, in my view based upon "systems thinking", is an important perspective and approach to bring about these changes with the least amount of systemic disruption. Of course the "powers that were" (I have changed the term "powers that be", because there is incredible power in the words we use), the existing political and financial interests, want us to believe that everything is collapsing. The solutions, in their view, are the ones that they say that they have. But one only needs to look at the performance of these interests, in any country, or the entire world to know they have no solutions.

As it turns out all of the solutions are already with us. Different individuals (and small groups) have shown us that as people get together in the interests of serving people, and to make life more fulfilling that changes can occur - sometimes on a grand scale. (Ghandi, Lincoln, Mother Theresa). I personally interviewed Norman Borlaug who is credited for saving 1 billion people's lives. His simple belief, "people deserve to eat." The Number 1 contributor to his success "young minds".

If we simply follow the guidance of these great teachers, including Jesus, Buddha, and Lao Tsu, we will see! The way is quite apparent that we cannot blindly blaze forward with the past "development models". And our ship captains, essentially self appointed, are crashing the metaphorical boat on the shores of destruction. These "captains" are essentially the dominating financial interests that have had one hundred years at the helm.

The time has arrived for the people's of the world to come together with one heart and know that we have the true power, we always have. What is that power? It's Love! The tools are scattered on the ground at our feet (creativity, cooperation, technology, innovation, Internet, etc.). We need only pick them up and start working together to create the world we all have in our dreams. Of course we need to quit paying attention to the "horror movie" being shown in the mass media. And know that the power system, based upon fear, is absolutely insubstantial compared to the real power - Love!

Regional Revitalization and Empowerment Stategies (RRES)

2011 is the year for Regional Revitalization and Empowerment Strategies.

Empowerment involves helping people to realize their own abilities to be the masters of their own destiny, to make dreams come true. The best toolset I have found so far is Desmond Green's The Practice. It is the first of two books in this book The Global Citizenship Passport. Download it for FREE!

http://jamaicaselfmanagementinstitute.yolasite.com/resources/GlobalPassportDesmondDGreen002.pdf

From the Jamaica Self Management Institute

The Regional and Community Empowerment Project – Colombia

The Regional and Community Empowerment Project – Colombia
By Andrew N. Skadberg, Ph.D.

This abstract was recently accepted for the conference Tourism Progress and Peace. I see the pieces of this puzzle coming together very nicely, as this has been a dedicated effort to develop over the last 22 years. So, in the interests of gaining supporting energies, I am posting this description here to make it known to the world, so to speak. There is much more already written about the details, and the various components are being built and could become a very lengthy blog, but this will provide a nice summary for those who might be curious about what I have been working on for the last 3 years.

No matter what happens I am grateful to Sandy Dhuyvetter of TravelTalkMedia for "lighting this fire". Also, to my friend Desmond Green who is my co-creator of some beautiful opportunities brewing in Jamaica. There are many more to thank, but for the time being this will suffice.

Abstract
Tourism in Colombia has vast potentials. However, one of the most significant challenges is the stigma of Colombia being a risky place to travel that has been created via mainstream media. Another challenge is shifting the Colombia people’s mindset as they too have been influenced by what some have called a “culture of violence”. The aim of the project currently underway in Colombia is to develop strategies to grow tourism and economic opportunities via what we term “revitalization and empowerment”, which involves diversification and strengthening of regional and community economies. Currently underway is a grass-roots strategy for empowering regions and people to develop tourism and other complimentary industries (e.g. agriculture, arts and music, entrepreneurship). Foundational principles build on creating educational platforms and utilizing individual and community empowerment strategies. An additional imperative is a strong foundation on environmental awareness and protection. To accomplish this multi-faceted approach involves educating people about the criticality of the human-nature relationship, and the utilization of remote-sensing sciences for identifying and ameliorating environmental challenges and threats.

The Regional and Community Empowerment Project (RCEP) is comprised of three primary “Initiatives” 1) Education, 2) Branding/Marketing, and 3) Developing New Technologies.

Initiative I – Education: Creating the Tourism, Agricultural and Community Economic Diversification Institute—the “TACED Institute” for tourism and value-added agricultural technical assistance.

The TACED Institute provides access to information and technical assistance with an entrepreneurial focus. The TACED Institute supports holistic economic development strategies focused on tourism, innovation in agriculture and small business development. Additionally the TACED Institute provides on-site, hands-on training seminars to local “trainers” to create a network of “tech-transfer associates” throughout regions. The initiative partners with regional organizations and businesses to develop educational outreach programs.

Initiative II – Branding/Marketing: “Experience Your Region” regional tourism destination branding (national and internationally marketed). – the actual “brand/trademark” will be developed from the initiative itself.

Regional branding is marketed both nationally and internationally as “Experience Your Region”, as experiential tourism destination(s). The purpose of this initiative is to expand experiential tourism in the region based on existing tourism attractions and those developing, in addition to the existing and developing infrastructure.

Initiative III Developing New Technologies: Supporting both the Education and Marketing aspects of the RCEP are access portals for people and communities in Colombia, and for international travelers to find travel opportunities.

The purpose of these new technologies is to provide: 1) a complete “package” of answers to questions that traveler’s might have, 2) customized information about the places they are/will be traveling, and 3) support for rural communities and small businesses to market themselves. Additional technologies support the creation of a “virtual” university providing practical education tools, including, initially 1) English, 2) tourism, and 3) entrepreneurship. The final element of technology development is the utilization of remote-sensing, and spatial sciences for more effective planning and for creating viable solutions for environmental impacts that are ubiquitous in nearly all places where development has occurred.

I Am Sharing Ning Site

Hi Friends, I have continued to post stuff at the I Am Sharing Ning site. I don´t know if anyone finds any of this stuff, but I continue to just pour it out. I figure at least I tried.

There are so many channelings going on these days, talk about space visitors, angels and spirits that are waiting to help us, but I think the way that we really show that we are ready, is by our actions. The best way to prove that we are ready for assistance, if it is true that the help is waiting, is for us to work to change our world toward love and peace. To this end I continue to work on those things that I feel inspired to share. Free Energy, ways to work from the existing situations in rural places into new was of sustainable development, poetry, inspirational writings, and messages that I am receiving, etc.

If anyone finds this site, I invite them to join me at I Am Sharing and share whatever it is that you feel like Sharing. I think this is the key. For us to mimic the way Love is expressed by the One, the Sun, and Mother Earth. They never ask for payback. And if we at least try our best to Share, we might actually be very surprised at the results. If the help doesn´t arrive as soon as we wish, we will already be in the process of making the new world, and we will be in a better position to receive the assistance when it arrives.

Later I will sharing the links to some of the Web sites and networks that I have found that are providing very inspiring messages about the coming changes. I only pray, and trust that the Love of the One, as I have experienced in such abundance in just this short life, is as spectacularly large and available as I can ever imagine.

All the Best,
Andy

I Am Sharing - Thoughts, Experiences and Learning About Love and Service

Hi Folks, I am proud to present my second book. Here is an excerpt from the introduction

Follow this Link, or just click on the Book cover

The Love Comprehension Experience!
December 24, 2008

When my brother Mark learned of my finding my soul-mate he said "Andy, focus on the Love and everything else will fall in place". I believe this is one of the most profound and impact-full things we can do.

The other day I did an exercise. I began thinking about how much love I have for one person. Then I thought about another, and another, and another. At the same time I brought the feeling I have for the person into my experience. That feeling from my heart. I even thought about those people who are not in my life that I still love deeply and profoundly. In fact, as I felt the love, I realized that for each person the breadth and depth of the love I felt to be boundless. Then I expanded the exercise as I thought about people whom I haven't met that I want to share in the peace and joy and abundance that I experience. Those people whom might be suffering in whatever form.

I have learned suffering is transitory and not ultimately necessary, except to push me toward Love. So it too is good!

Then I expanded my "Love Comprehension Experience" to all the living things that make my experience here on the planet so incredible: the air, wind, birds, insects, flowers, rocks, water, the planet, the cosmos, etc, etc., etc. It helped me realize that the capacity I have for Love is boundless. And, if I send boundless love out, by Law, it is reflected back. So I really am absolutely, beyond comprehension, immersed and supported by infinite Love. WOW! If that is the case, why would I be afraid? Silly Andy! Just focus on the Love and everything will be perfect, as it already was until I began to think differently. Imagine if a whole bunch of people began "paying attention" like this?

Release of 1st Book - When Love Guides Your Thoughts

Dear Friends,

This is an exciting day!!! We've have officially released our first book "When Love Guides Your Thoughts".

The book lays down some basic principles, "rules" for thinking, and invites us, humanity, to create a new foundation for life on seeking the "truth" and on Love. No words here in this blog can do it service.

The book, and the new team members coming online is like a super-charge of new energy to Solomon Source. Look for a newly launched Web site in the near future. Also, Join us at our Collaborative Network, and follow us at Twitter for updates.

ALL proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to Solomons Source for efforts to assist humanity. So to purchase this book is like a donation to humanity.

Here is a snapshot of the "tentative" new Web design.