Travel to tomorrow | Thrivable tourism | Michelle Holiday

Michelle Holliday

THRIVABLE TOURISM: WHY, WHAT AND HOW

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MICHELLE HOLLIDAY Michelle Holliday is a consultant, facilitator, researcher and the author of highly acclaimed book The Age of Thrivability: Vital Perspectives and Practices for a Better World, in which she explores the perspectives, intentions and practices that becomes possible when we consider organisations, economies and communities as living systems. Michelle is a master at bringing diverse groups of people together and helping them feel more alive, more meaningfully connected and better able to create the fertile conditions for people, businesses and places to thrive and prosper.

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MACHINE STORY • Productivity • Profitability • Root of major problems

In the past we were guided by a ‘machine’ story that told us that everything in the world operates like a machine, especially our businesses and our economies. It’s a story in which only productivity and profitability matter, and it has led to all manner of problems.

LIVING SYSTEM STORY • Living ecosystems • Thriving We need a shift from the machine story to a living system story in which we see our organisations, our communities, ourselves, and our families as living ecosystems that are capable of thriving.

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THRIVABILITY THREE REQUIREMENTS:

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Be informed What does it take for life to thrive?

What are the conditions we need to cultivate?

THRIVABILITY= the informed intention and practice of creating the fertile conditions for life to thrive.

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Set a clear intention Make ‘thriving’ our goal. If we set our sights on something far less than thriving, we will get something far less.

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Recognise it as an ongoing life practice Thrivability is not a marketing campaign. It’s a continuous deepening into wisdom and compassion so that we can sense what is needed and respond with effective action (both individual and collective).

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FOUR FERTILE CONDITIONS FOR THRIVABILITY 1

There are parts in every living system. • In our communities there are residents, hosts and people in businesses. • The more diverse or divergent those parts are, the more resilient, adaptive and creative the living system will be.

Invite individuals and their initiatives on a local level: they are the parts that make the whole thrive.

2 There are relationships.

• I n thriving living systems, parts come together in patterns and structures of relationship and interaction.

• In our communities, we have the infrastructures of roads, waterways, hotels and so on, that hold us together.

• And we have the pattern of our interactions and our conversations.

• The more stable and dynamic the relationships are, the more resilient, adaptive and creative the living system will be.

Co-create a relationship between them, with enough structure and room for flow and dynamism.

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There is wholeness.

• A ll parts come together in patterns of relationship in a way that creates a new wholeness, an emergent level of life with new capabilities and characteristics you don’t find at the level of the parts. • The more convergent the whole, the more resilient, adaptive and creative the living system will be.

Become clear, together, about the shared story and calling in the community, with regards to hosting visitors.

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There is a self-integrating property that is called ‘Life’.

• When we shift our stance our position and our role from controlling everything to being stewards, self-organisation becomes possible in an effortless, elegant, joyful and creative way.

• This stewardship is a combination of reverence and responsibility that is called for in our communities and in our roles within the tourism business and the world.

Invite life as the driving force in all that you create together, supporting self-organising local initiatives rather than trying to control every detail. Art, beauty, creativity and movement are powerful ways to invite life to thrive in what we create together.

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TOURISM AS A LIVING ECOSYSTEM The trunk represents the supportive, connective infrastructure of a place.

Just under the bark of a tree lies the cambium, a thin layer of living tissue. This is where life flows between the roots and the leaves. The central core of the trunk is dead, but plays a vital role in supporting thrivability by raising the leaves up to the light and life of the sun.

The branches with their leaves and fruits are like the visitor experience, the offering that invites the visitor into the ecosystem.

The people–the residents, hosts and enterprises–are represented by the roots of the tree.

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A GUIDING FRAMEWORK FOR THRIVABLE TOURIS These are the fertile conditions that must be cultivated continuously for a tourism ecosystem to thrive.

WHAT/CRAFT

PURPOSE

(CONVERGENCE: VISITOR EXPERIENCE) Who are we serving?

What is our shared project?

PLACE

CONTRIBUTION

“Your offering is great!”

Delivering your core product or service ever more excellently.

STRUCTURE

(RELATIONSHIP: INFRA­ STRUCTURE & INTERACTIONS)

“We have the support we need to make our offer”

What is our playground?

What is the story?

What are the rules?

Designing physical & conceptual frameworks that support Contribution & Mastery to their work.

PLACEKEEPERS

(DIVERGENCE: HOST EXPERIENCE)

How can we serve the project?

How can the project serve us?

MASTERY

“I am awesome (and getting better!)”

Enabling people to bring the best of their talent, passion & creativity to their work.

STEWARDSHIP: Supporting the fertile conditions for life to thrive at every level.

SM THE DNA OF THRIVABLE TOURISM

HOW/CO-CREATE

COMMUNITY

“Your offering is for people like me” Enabling relationship and responsiveness.

SYSTEMS

WHY/CULTIVATE

HEROIC CAUSE

“I’m so happy you exist!”

Creating something worthy of loyalty and enthusiasm.

STORY

“How we do things flows”

“We reflect & renew”

Designing flow for getting things done, sharing information & making decisions.

Designing strategies & disciplines to ensure coherence, learning & evolution at every level.

MEMBERSHIP “I belong here”

Enabling people to feel connected to work, team, enterprise, visitor & community.

MEANING

“I’m deeply proud of what I do” Enabling people to apply their best talents toward something worthy.

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WHY DO WE WANT THRIVABLE TOURISM? As a species, our only salvation is to get more informed and more intentional about aligning with life, so that: • Hosts, visitors and other individuals experience more aliveness, health, joy, justice, learning, selfexpression and self-awareness.

• Enterprises achieve their intended purpose creatively, gracefully and resiliently, while attracting and cultivating necessary resources.

• The community discovers more connectedness, creativity, resilience and self-reliance.

• The biosphere is supported in its ability to be healthy and regenerative over time.

More information:

www.traveltotomorrow.be