Conscious travel advocates for a new tourism model that prioritizes local communities, environmental sustainability, and authentic visitor experiences, moving away from traditional mass tourism practices that commoditize unique destinations. It aims to empower individual hosts to become agents of change and renewal, focusing on higher yields and well-being for both visitors and hosts. The initiative emphasizes collaborative learning and practical action to foster transformation in tourism economies, ultimately promoting healthier and more resilient communities.

1. Conscious Travel
not more, but better,
better for more
SUMMARY
Anna Pollock
Founder, Conscious Travel
22.03.2014

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WHY?
Conscious Travel is based on the belief that, mass international tourism, based on an industrial operating
model, is falling far short of its promise and, as it continues to grow, is at risk of doing more harm than
good.
While this model has been successful and supported amazing growth, it is now producing diminishing
returns for providers and host communities; placing excessive pressure on scarce resources of land,
water and energy; failing to take sufficient responsibility for managing and minimizing its waste; or
preserving the environmental and cultural resources on which it depends. Its application of industrial
practices has commoditized unique places into similar products and viewed guests as targets to be
exploited.
Because industrial tourism depends on price-led volume growth, it is on a collision course with the rising
costs associated with fossil fuel, food, infrastructure and ecosystem services that will undermine its
viability. Critical to the future sustainability of tourism is the need to generate higher yields, more
stability and resilience - in short, develop an antidote to commodification.
Change cannot occur from centralized agencies (political, social, media) entranced by the old materialist
growth model and who are distanced from the unique people and places that extend hospitality.
Real, pervasive change can only occur one community at a time when individual hosts providers wake up
and revere the sacred qualities of the place they represent; grow up by taking responsibilities for
themselves and the whole; and step up and forward by becoming agents of change and regeneration.
WHAT?
Conscious Travel has three aspects:
1. It offers a new model or approach to destination and business development based on the
understanding of tourism as a human, social and economic system operating within a fragile
biosphere.
2. The principles and practices associated with this new model are shared through a community-
based, collaborative action-learning program designed to create conscious hosts who act as
regenerative change agents in their community.
3. Conscious Travel is designed to grow into a global, diverse network of self-determining
destination communities capable of transforming their tourism economies into positive
contributors of stability, plenty and sustained well-being.
HOW?
Conscious Travel is developing the framework and curriculum for a unique active learning program that
evokes and nourishes the innate problem-solving, creative capacities of hosts and enables them to
express their desire to provide hospitality in a manner that reflects the unique essence of their place and
the values of its residents.
Conscious Travel is an aspiration and a work in progress. The past two years have been spent travelling
and speaking with many destination communities to test validity of the concept and approach.
Now is the time to build. I am actively seeking:
1. Mentors to serve on the Advisory Board who wish to see their contributions applied to the
travel and hospitality domain
2. Specialist co-creators of the 12 elements of the transformation program,
3. Pilot destinations to test out learning materials as they are developed
4. Sponsor or sponsors willing to help build the network and realize the vision
A longer version of this introduction with more information regarding the rationale plus all relevant
papers and presentations can be obtained here.

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WHAT WILL A CONSCIOUS TRAVEL DESTINATION LOOK AND
ACT LIKE?
A “conscious travel destination” will comprise a core community of hosts (providers of a cross section
of tourism-related service providers) committed to learning, collaboration, leadership and to becoming
agents of change and renewal.
Their focus will be to nurture the emergence of a visitor economy that produces higher net benefits for
all stakeholders; operates in harmony with nature and does so in a way that expresses and respects the
unique cultural and spiritual values of a specific place.
As "No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it." conscious hosts
acknowledge that for tourism to flourish, they must SEE, BE and DO tourism differently.
As a result of participating in a 12 Step Transformation Program, hosts take responsibility for both
themselves and the whole and emerge as active change agents leading local renewal and regeneration.
Being involves becoming conscious of one’s personal values,
assumptions, beliefs, strengths and weaknesses; making mindful
choices / decisions; and getting clear about purpose. As existing or
future leaders, conscious hosts must “walk their talk”
Seeing means waking up, becoming aware of the context in which
tourism operates and perceiving/conceiving tourism differently – not
as a machine that utilizes resources for the profit of a few but as a living
system nested in a broader human community and natural ecosystem.
Conscious hosts will need to become both ecologically and digitally
literate. Seeing enables us to choose how we wish to be in the world.
Doing means ensuring that both their individual enterprise and their
tourism community make a positive net contribution to the health of
their community through converting the Conscious Travel Principles
into impactful Conscious Travel practices.
CONSCIOUS TRAVEL PRINCIPLES
Seven principles are put forward as signposts and pointers to the types of behavior stemming from a
systems way of seeing, being and doing.
They were designed to contrast with the
established five “Ps” of traditional marketing that
have shaped industrial tourism namely Profit,
Product, Price, Placement & Promotion.
Hosts will learn to explore the meaning and
implications of these principles but be allowed to
express their implementation in a way that reflects
and expresses the uniqueness of their place.
These principles inform and shape the
Transformation Program and through action
learning will lead to a set of practices.

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PURPOSE
Conscious Hosts will share a deeper, higher sense of purpose that expresses who they are and what
they value. They understand that: “Profit follows the passionate pursuit of purpose.” The ultimate purpose
is the health and well-being – the flourishing - of the systems of which they are part. They will develop a
set of performance measures that work for their community and that track effective expression of the
conscious travel principles.
PEOPLE
The value generated by the visitor economy rests on a successful, mutually beneficial encounter between
people: the guest and host. Encounters that enable the system to flourish involve:
• Happy, fulfilled guests who rave about their experience, refer others, and return over time; and
• Happy fulfilled hosts (owners, managers, employees) enthusiastically encouraging and enabling
their guests to explore more, stay longer, value more and care more.
Implication: the provision of place-specific, professional and authentic hospitality (i.e., customer service)
assumes primary importance as a method of attracting and taking care of guests.
The traditional boundaries between marketing, sales and customer service blur within the individual
business and the group of businesses in the destination.
Hosts prioritize the development, motivation and creativity of their employees to maximize engagement
and high levels of service/hospitality.
Newer simpler methods of measuring success are implemented. The role of management is to create the
conditions in which those encounters can be successful – i.e., less scripting and more enabling. Thus new
approaches to leadership are also needed.
PLACE
The value generated by the visitor economy can rise when each place is recognized as unique, special,
precious and vulnerable. Then both guests and hosts will show they care. This means all participants will
fully understand, appreciate and be able to express the factors that make a destination unique and which
shape its personality – the mix of culture, history, geography, landscape, ecology. Hosts will know who
they are because they will know where they are.
Implications: “place branding” will become a shared activity with the personality of the place emerging as
a result of enabling local expertise and passion to be expressed. It will not be left to external agents or
superimposed.
Time will be invested in enabling a cross section of community residents to learn how to design, market
and deliver a diversity of rich Place-based experiences that delight guests and generate tangible value to
hosts and the host community.
PROTECTION
Successful businesses and destinations will show that they care about the places, environment and people
on which they depend. The P of Protection has been used for alliterative purposes and includes:
operational practices that limit waste and pollution; reduced dependency on fossil fuels and scarce
minerals; the re-generation and revitalization of damaged cultures and ecosystems; ensuring quality
livelihoods and fair labour practices, sustaining quality working conditions and ensuring personal safety
for guest and hosts. Again, it will be for each host community to determine local need, priorities and
action steps that reflect who they are and where they are.
Implication; conscious travel destinations go way beyond CSR as a compliance issue to embedding
ecological principle of balance, limits, vitality, resilience, adapatability and sustainability into their DNA.
PULL
Conscious Travel turns traditional push-promotional approaches on their head and assumes that a place,
whose hosts are expressing a strong, clear sense of identity and welcome, will attract the right customer
for the type, scale and nature of experience on offer. All business is now social – and that includes the
marketing function.

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Implication: an investment in digital literacy and infrastructure is crucial to the success of a conscious
travel destination. Hosts must be comfortable acting in two spaces: the analogue space of inter-personal
encounters and the virtual, digital space where people also encounter host and guests at every stage of
their journey.
PACE & PROXIMITY
These are “P” words for SLOW and LOCAL. Conscious hosts will endeavor to slow down the visitor
experience in order to activate both all senses, and all faculties (body, mind, heart and soul) in order to
better appreciate what is proximate (local and nearby) and present in the moment. A focus on pace
provides the means whereby visitors stay longer, derive greater satisfaction, and generate deeper, more
immediate benefit to the host community. Finally it is the means whereby wonder and awe can be
evoked – two necessary conditions for loving and caring.
PERFORMANCE
How will we know when a destination is acting consciously according to the aspirations has identified for
itself? While it is important that the hosts set their own operational goals based on their local needs,
they will all subscribe to
• Measuring impact not by volume growth, revenues and jobs created but the net impact (ie net
revenue less costs of attracting visitors and providing support) and net benefit In terms of
community health and well-being
• Measuring growth not in terms of more visitors (quantity) but higher yield (spend per visitor)
• Measuring propensity of visitors to rave, refer and return
• Measuring the overall ecological footprint of the visitor economy and movement towards
achieving zero waste
• Measuring the sense of welcome and enthusiasm extended by the host community
SUMMARY OF PRACTICES & PROGRAM ELEMENTS
Principles need to guide practice or they have no impact or value. But action must emanate from a
realistic and accurate perception of the context that currently allows neither drift, paralysis nor stubborn
continuation of “business as normal.”
The core value contributed by the Conscious Travel initiative is the collaborative, action learning
program:
• Collaborative because no enterprise can go it alone – especially in tourism and because creativity
flourishes when diverse perspectives and skills are brought to bear.
• Learning because unless hosts understand why they need to change and how they can adjust to a
rapidly changing, uncertain and chaotic world, action may be mis-directed or ineffective.
• Action because learning is best done by doing – trying, testing, and learning from both successes
and what may seem like failures.
Each of the 12 Steps of the Transformation Program (see page 6) is designed to develop
Practices that emanate from the Principles of the new model as illustrated below.

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PRINCIPLES, PRACTICES & PROGRAM ELEMENTS
PRINCIPLE PRACTICE PROGRAM ELEMENTS
PURPOSE
Seeing differently – systems thinking
Understanding consequences
Communicating a different vision of
health & value
FACING REALITY (1)
SEEING (2)
PEOPLE Identifying shareholders and bringing
into alignment
Creating high levels of employee
engagement, motivation and competence
Developing authentic, place-based
hospitality that cause guests to rave,
refer and return
Exercising shared responsibility to
regenerate & respect culture &
environment
VALUES, PURPOSE & CULTURE (3)
IDENTIFYING, ATTRACTING &
ENGAGING EMPLOYEES (6)
BECOMING A PLACE THAT CARES (7)
PLACE
Identifying and expressing unique
attributes of a place
Expressing hospitality in a way that
reflects place
Experiencing and expressing a sense of
connection with and wonder for nature
POWER OF PLACE & STAKEHOLDER
ALIGNMENT (4)
BECOMING A PLACE THAT CARES (7)
DESIGNING EXPERIENCES THAT
TRANSFORM (8)
PROTECTION Identifying the environmental /cultural
fragilities in the destination
Identifying and implementing ways of
reducing tourism footprint & minimizing
waste of the business & community
BECOMING A PLACE THAT CARES (7)
PULL Identifying the right customer
Designing experiences that will attract
the right customer
Enabling guests to use social media to
rave and refer
Give multiple reasons for guest to
return
DESIGNING EXPERIENCES THAT
TRANSFORM (8)
ATTRACTING & ENGAGING THE
CONSCIOUS TRAVELLER (9)
USING SOCIAL MEDIA AS THE
PRIMARY MARKETING TOOL (9)
PACE &
PROXIMITY
(LOCAL & SLOW)
Providing more local experiences that
require the guest to slow & savour
Using and presenting local suppliers –
guides, food, transport etc.
Creating experiences that engender
wonder, awe and affection for nature
Mix nature with theatre, food,
performing arts, local poetry etc.
DESIGNING EXPERIENCES THAT
TRANSFORM (8)
PERFORMANCE Developing & applying new performance
measures
MEASURING WHAT MATTERS (11)
GENERAL Conscious leadership and conscious
culture
HOST AS CHANGE AGENT (12)

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Elements of The Conscious Host Transformation Program
STEP CONTENT OUTCOME
1. FACING REALITY Global and national content; change
forces, issues, challenges, sources of
hope and inspiration. Key strategic and
local tourism facts and issues
Industrial versus Conscious Travel
model
Informed awareness of context;
motivation to learn; commitment to
become active, aware, awake & alert.
Awareness of stakeholder
interdependence
2. SEEING
(PERCEPTION)
Investigation into individual and shared
but rarely examined assumptions beliefs
and world views and their impact on
values, choices, actions. Examine
alternative worldviews & their impact.
Ability to self reflect; look at a world
through fresh eyes; see from a different
perspective, exercise curiosity and
judgment i.e., wake up
3. VALUES, PURPOSE
and CULTURE
(BEING)
Identify the core values underpinning
the actions of the individual and their
business; their higher purpose and
aspirations for their business and the
community.
* Who am I?
* What do I care about?
* Why am I in business?
* What difference do I wish to make?
* What are my strengths and
* What are my weaknesses?
Examine new objectives of business and
society (plenitude, happiness, well
being)
A clarity around the why of the business
and the kind of customers, employees,
suppliers they wish to attract and the
nature of their contribution to the
community.
Re-think measures of success
A recognition of community capacity
4. POWER OF PLACE
and STAKEHOLDER
ALIGNMENT
Who are we? Whom do we serve? What
are the needs and expectations of all our
stakeholders?
Where are we? What is this place all
about? What is its essence or
personality? Sacred Ecology. An in-
depth investigation by participants into
what makes their place different and
unique – an experience of and
connection with the land, its culture,
stories. How does my business reflect,
and amplify the spirit of this place. The
sacredness of place and the power of
wonder and reverence to transform.
What is our collective vision for this
place – what needs to be healed? What
kind of tourism do we want, can we
handle? How fast do we wish to grow?
Idenification of stakeholders, impacts of
business decisions on stakeholders and
need for multi stakeholder alignment.
Developing a shared understanding of
who we are in terms of place is vital to
developing community and being able to
provide guest with a sense of difference,
wonder
Note: items 2,3 and 4 contribute to an
authentic, shared and experienced sense
of brand – as in emergent personality
5. IDENTIFYING
IDEAL GUESTS
Whom do we wish to attract based on
what we now know about ourselves, the
market; the competition
Learning different ways of attracting
guests (PULL)
Understanding of practical possibilities
and a prioritization plus confidence in the
ability to attract the guest who will value
what the community values.

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6. IDENTIFYING,
ATTRACTING and
MOTIVATING IDEAL
EMPLOYEES
Only when the business is clear about its
values, its personality and those of the
place, and the kind of customer they
wish to serve; can they attract and
motivate the right employee who will
best express those characteristics in an
authentic and empowered way.
An approach to people “management”
that engages, inspires and empowers and
has the capacity to deliver highest service
levels but which are expressed
consistently in accordance with values
and place.
7. BECOMING A
PLACE THAT CARES
(PROTECTION)
Host as Steward / Protector
What are the environmental/cultural
fragilities in the destination? What can
the individual business do to minimize
individual footprint? What can the
community of hosts do to create
awareness and change behaviour in their
community?
Commitment to leading several
community and business based projects –
with tangible and measurable outcomes –
that regenerate and support both
biophysical and local ecosystems
8. DESIGNING
EXPERIENCES THAT
TRANSFORM (PULL)
How can hosts work together to create
compelling and transformative
experiences for their guest that reflect
the uniqueness of each place
A range of unique experiences that reflect
the place and enable the guest to see their
world differently, return home
rejuvenated, transformed.
9. ATTRACTING AND
ENGAGING
THE CONSCIOUS
TRAVELLER (PULL)
An inside-out approach to marketing,
selling, cross seliing and up selling
Based on identification of the ideal
customer, learning how to develop the
conversation, use new media channels,
to attract, sell and serve guests in ways
that lengthen stay and increase yield.
Higher yields; referrals, more net benefit
to host community
10. CREATING
CONSCIOUS
TRAVELLERS
Host as Advocate, Teacher. Leader
Exploring ways in which hosts show
their guests how to become a more
discerning, mindful travelers. Creating
opportunities for two way learning
between guest and host.
Guest will return home with a different
approach to travel; share with peers and
apply when considering other
destinations.
11. CONSCIOUS
LEADERSHIP
While the principles and practices of
conscious leadership will have been
introduced throughout the program, this
element will enable participants to step
back and reflect on their learning; their
shift in perspective and assess the extent
to which they are applying them.
Awareness that leadership responsibilities
cannot be confined either to the business
or the tourism domain but that hosts can
and should make great community leaders
12. HOST AS CHANGE
AGENT
COMMUNITY
LEADERSHIP
Preparation for the community role of
“leader as host”. Identification of key
projects and roles needed to ensure the
host community is viable, healthy and
resilient.
Identification of local projects that need
leadership and action with Hosts playing
a key role in affecting change.
Lesson learned from Sacred activism