A 3-MONTH MENTORING PROGRAM FOR A GROUP OF TOURISM BUSINESSES IN A SPECIFIC DESTINATION OR SECTOR
As we emerge from one of the most complex eras of our time, the value and privilege of travel have never felt greater.
The demand for travel is bouncing back strongly, with many parts of Australia close to, if not already, eclipsing 2019 visitation levels. But what people want from travel is changing.
Travelers are increasingly seeking meaningful interactions with people and places, aligning with their heightened values around sustainability, inclusivity, and connection. Destination choice, and choice of operator is made with this lens, and this values-alignment is the determining factor, rather than price.
Delivering meaningful experiences though, has never been more challenging.
Post-pandemic, our industry is now challenged to operate within crippling economic conditions, systemic post-pandemic workforce and housing issues, and overall productivity levels continue to plague progress.
The reality is we are living through uncertain times; where standing still is the equivalent of going backwards; where business resilience is enabled by informed and dynamic decision-making; and working in collaboration with community is an imperative.
Why we've created
this program
As modern-day pioneers of capability training providers for our industry, our ongoing challenge is to determine what knowledge and inspiration businesses need to build resilient businesses that can thrive in our ever-changing, and complex operating environment.
We pride ourselves on delivering education programs based on contemporary thinking and we constantly challenge ourselves through our own learnings, to distil complex information into insights that are meaningful for businesses.
We strive to deliver insights and guidance that will 'lift the bar', and inspire businesses to make positive change for them and their special places.
Our intention for this Program is to support businesses to reimagine their business.
Our industry has endured a lot in the past couple of years, and through pure grit, have pivoted, and transformed their business models and visitor experiences to remain relevant and profitable.
In this Program we aim to support businesses in their next challenge, post COVID. We want them to not just survive, but thrive.
So, working in partnership with destination organisations (regional/local tourism organisations, regional development organisations, local government) we will inspire and enable a group of tourism businesses in the same destination to:
- Adjust their mindset to and gain a fresh perspective of their business and the opportunities it presents
- Align their offering to meet the market, leaning into reliable data and insights to inform decision making
- Support their business to be sustainable to be climate active, and to support their financial goals.
Our engaged group of operators came away feeling inspired to take positive action and were more confident in setting both short and long-term sustainability goals.
As part of our industry training activity to build business capabilities, it was fantastic to have The Tourism Collective team deliver our Sustainable Tourism Program – which aligns with and supports our vision to be recognised as one of the world’s great sustainable nature-based tourism destinations. From the workshop collaboration and engagement with Bec and Nic to the individual mentoring sessions, all components of the program were well delivered providing our operators with invaluable insights, knowledge and resources. Our participants rated the program and online platform highly and felt the content was extremely relevant. We thank the team for sharing all of their expertise in this space and helping to facilitate more meaningful and regenerative visitor experiences and partnerships
how does the
programwork?
This Program is a holistic, 3-month tourism mentoring program delivered through live workshops, webinars, and group and individual mentoring.
5 x learning modules
The Program is built around 5 core Learning Modules.
We lean into the collective skills and knowledge of our whole team, to deliver a comprehensive suite of learning outcomes across sustainable business development, experience development and design, storytelling, and partnerships.
The Learning Modules (outlined below) are facilitated as a combination of live workshops, live webinars and/or self-paced webinars.
1:1 Mentoring
Participants will receive individual mentoring as part of the Program.
These sessions will be facilitated through Zoom, where our team members work collaboratively with participants to uppack their learnings, and support them to achieve the tangible outcomes for the Program (see below outcomes).
Group Mentoring
We know the value of connection and collaboration (it's a core part of our values here at The Tourism Collective). And so, we wanted to make sure everyone in this Program has the opportunity to work collaboratively to co-create solutions to common challenges.
Participants can join our team in two Group Brainstorming and Networking Sessions via Zoom to discuss the insights, and challenges and to collaborate on creating solutions.
We also use this time with participants to unpack these consistent challenges, and address the challenges in the upcoming Learning Modules.
Learning modules
Our learning modules are underpinned by a values-driven approach to business operations; marketing, experience design, collaboration and partnerships.
We've dedicated considerable resources to crafting and continually refining leading-edge content to engage businesses in new ideas and concepts to 'shift the dial' for our industry.
The content that we develop is not cookie-cutter.
Each time we facilitate these topics, we challenge ourselves to think deeply about the content and activities to ensure maximum engagement in learning; and we tailor the content with the most recent data and evidence along with specific destination nuances, to ensure up-to-the-minute relevancy of the content for participants.
We also probe our participants as we move throughout the Program, to uncover specific common challenges and seek to address these challenges through the Program.
Below are the core learning modules for the Program:
The enthusiasm and energy that the team bought to the sessions was powerful, and their own lived experience and compassion allowed their key messages to be conveyed in a way that was both relatable and aspirational.
The Tourism Collective team were able to craft a program that helped small and medium businesses really get to the crux of their values, understanding their audience and how to align both of these to achieve a more sustainable and resilient business.
Tangible outcomes for tourismoperators
Each Module in this Program works towards the achievement of tangible and useful outputs, and to enable these outputs, we've developed tailored planning scaffolds and tools to help them plan and execute their learnings.
Throughout the Program we structure our learning and mentoring so that each participant walks away with practical, and tactical outcomes, that help them to run their business, including:
-
Values Set, Decision Making Framework & Goal Setting
To ensure all future decisions are made strategically, participants will develop:
- Organisational values - that help to determine the 'purpose' of the business
- An agile decision-making framework - to support ongoing and dynamic decision-making
- Short and medium-term goals and measurement framework - to stay focussed and in alignment with organisational values
-
Impact Plan & Promise
Participants will have prepared a Positive Impact Plan and Promise, which is their commitment to sustainable and regenerative practice for their business.
This will align with personal and business values and those of their values-aligned guests.
-
Values-Aligned Guest Personas
Participants will have interrogated the most relevant data and insights to determine their values-aligned guest personas, of which they will align all future experience development and storytelling initiatives.
-
Experience Design & Brand Storytelling Frameworks
A Brand Storytelling Framework will ensure they understand their ley messages across people, place, product and purpose.
Experience Design and Cx Frameworks will support the optimisation of visitor experiences, and guest experiences to attract values-aligned Personas and drive positive advocacy.
-
New Positive Impact Experience & Giving Back Partnership
Participants will have a positive impact experience, or local 'giving back' partnership initiated and in-train, to be up and running in the forthcoming 12 months.
As facilitators, we will also be looking for other signs of success, including:
- Evidence of understanding the Regenerative mindset and understanding of the concepts presented
- Participants engaging in meaningful and collaborative discussions throughout the Program (with some early discussions around partnerships)
- Evidence of participants working collaboratively in small groups outside of the structured facilitation sessions
- Participants contributing strongly in Group and Individual mentoring sessions
- Mentors hearing participants are feeling energised
- Mentors seeing evidence of them putting their learnings into action, both short and long-term (through individual mentoring)
Paige, Rebecca and Jaclyn were an absolute pleasure to work with, and went out of their way to ensure that our program was suited to the needs of our region and tourism operators.
We engaged the team at The Tourism Collective to create a bespoke tourism mentoring program for our members, specifically designed to target the areas that our tourism operators felt were the most needed. As a destination that relies heavily on tourism, the program was a way for our members to gain an insight into how to enable their small businesses to become more resilient and future-focused, creating experiences that will evolve with the ever-changing tourism landscape, and best practice collaboration with neighbouring businesses. Paige, Rebecca and Jaclyn were an absolute pleasure to work with, and are clearly passionate about what they do, and experienced in their individual fields, which made the experience of our participants a positive one.
Interested in facilitating this program
in your destination?
There's quite a bit of information to take in on this webpage, so if you'd like to explore the possibility of activating this Program in your destination, or your sector within the tourism industry, we'd love to hear from you and tee up a time to see if what we offer is in alignment with your aspirations for your industry.