Posts Tagged ‘social license to operate’
NZx – October 31st : delivering on the promise
Naumai
It’s that time of the year again.Hopefully you have your team in place, well trained and ready to go!
Recently we took part in a discussion with Tai Poutini Polytechnic, employers and others associated with tourism on the West Coast. We discussed the opportunities and issues that involve training those involved in tourism.
Much of the discussion was based on the qualities of a guide. How do you take someone that may have all the necessary technical skill (i.e. hard) but needs coaching on the (so called “softer”) skills of guiding i.e. people management ? I think there was general agreement in the group that the biggest need was in the latter. For example how do you mentor an eighteen year old to lead, inspire, entertain and enlighten a 60 year old visitor from another country?
In this blog we look at some some of the qualities we should be training just about anyone involved in tourism, but particularly guides.
Charm / ātahu
Every person in your group is looking for information and more importantly, entertainment, from their guide. Remember we are now an entertainment centric society. A guide should always be constantly looking for opportunities to charm and involve your group in doing things, rather than just listening.
An active C drive / mātau
You may of course be a very charming person but if you don’t have the mātau then your’e on the back foot from the start. Yes you need to know facts, figures and anything else somebody on a tour might ask you. You also need to be prepared to find an answer and get back to people. Make sure you engage with everyone in the group and facilitate discussion between the group.
Stories / tito
Visitors (some) love hearing facts behind the topic of interest e.g. Tane Mahuta, but above all visitors love their guide to share a personal story about the topic. Stories engage people’s minds and more importantly hearts. Facts alone do not.
Organisation and flexibility / nahanaha
You need to be super organised and flexible if you want to be a great guide. The group will have certain expectations about what the are expecting to see. You need to deliver on those, and make sure your timing for pre-booked events is perfect. At the same time you need to be flexible. If an attraction is suddenly closed you need to find an alternative!
Humour / whakataka
Your visitors are on holiday; they want to be entertained. That includes the use of humour. It’s a skill to be developed but can ease a difficult situation, reassure visitors, make them laugh and add real value to a situation. While jokes are part of this, the most important part is you as the leader facilitating the humour in an appropriate way.
Empathy / aroha
You can be assured that somewhere, sometime, when you have a group something will happen to someone in the group. It may be lost luggage, bad news from back home, a cultural issue,or any myriad of issues. In this situation aroha will get you a long way, make your guests feel valued and can assist in solving the issue.
You can read some other interesting views of the qualities that make a great guide, and a tourism host, here and here!
Ka kite ano
Malcolm
Guiding at Maungatautari
NZx – September 30th : how to boost your social license to operate
Naumai
Last month we looked at some views on why NZ tourism needs to develop it’s social license to operate.
As previously noted, there are many definitions of how to obtain and maintain a social license to operate. At the micro level it’s about the concept of a project achieving ongoing approval of the local community and other stakeholders. That may be formal through processes such as the RMA or the DOC concession process or informal such as access agreements.
At the macro level it is how industry sectors work at a national level along similar lines, and particularly how they influence government.
The opportunity to achieve a social license to operate can be seen as an overall outcome. There is no rule book which defines the process, a method, tools or ways to achieve such an outcome.That is both an advantage and disadvantage.
Gavin Shepherd in the Te Awamutu Courier argues, that for the farming sector, “long-term profits on farm are more linked to these social perceptions than efficiency in production or scale at all costs”.
Dan Ormond, formerly partner at Ideas Shop, notes that, along with knowledge of who your market is and its size, “all aspects of engaging with stakeholders and developing sustainable business practices need to be communicated well in order to keep your business’s social license to operate”.
So how do we achieve such a license?
There seems to be general agreement on the following processes:
- identify key stakeholders (people affected by the project/sector) and continue to review these
- gain social acceptance based around legal, social,and cultural norms – both formal and informal
- gain credibility based on accurate and transparent information and importantly delivering on promises and representations that have been given
- gain trust from the local or national community based on being accountable, collaborative and sharing experiences
- deliver extensive and wide ranging communications across all channels that integrate all of the above.
In terms of a tourism perspective we note Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General, World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) comments that “globally tourism is today the 3rd largest export industry in the world after chemicals and fuels. Last year alone, 1.235 million travellers crossed international borders in one single year. By 2030, this 1.2 billion will become 1.8 billion”. Globally tourism has sustainable development as a key plank in all its 5 pillars:
- Economic: yielding inclusive growth;
- Social: bringing decent jobs and empowering communities;
- Environmental: preserving and enriching the environment and addressing climate change;
- Cultural: celebrating and preserving diversity, identity, and tangible and intangible culture, and
- Peace: as an essential prerequisite for development and progress.
As an aside the UN General Assembly declared 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. Who knew?
In NZ tourism faces some political issues and community fears. As Professor Chris Ryan noted immediately after the election, all major parties played lip service to developing integrated tourism policy. This remains an ongoing challenge for the industry but should not deter Tourism Aotearoa , Tourism New Zealand local Regional Tourism Organizations and tourism operators doing more in this space.
Regular snapshots of how NZ communities view tourism show a trend towards less acceptance at the current and particularly the projected levels of international tourism.
In summary, achieving and maintaining a social license to operate is a dynamic, long-term, holistic and vitally important process for both key industry sectors and individual operators. The difference being primarily the scale of the input.
As social scientist Kate Brooks states “Any industry, that operates, particularly using common resources like water or land, forests, has to concern themselves with social license to operate issues. It’s like somebody saying I want to come in and use your front yard (for my own profit).”
Ka kite ano
Cruise ship passengers Whangara Marae
NZx – June 29th: water, water everywhere…..
Naumai
Water, water everywhere so whats the issue…….?
A recent visit to Waireinga/Bridal Veil Falls, revealed a deeply discoloured waterway, with warning signs about the quality of the water, and danger to swimmers. Standing in the midst of 217 ha Wairēinga Scenic Reserve, surrounded by tawa-dominated forest, watching the water flow over 55 metres basalt cliffs, one wonders how this could happen in New Zealand.
There is good work being done in parts of the catchment. Over 8kms of native planting in an area upstream of the waterfall has been completed as part of a local initiative coordinated by Whaingaroa Harbour Care.
Water is already to be established as a key component of this years elections. A recent survey by Lincoln University (8th Public Perceptions of New Zealand’s Environment) canvassed New Zealander’s views about aspects of the environment .
The worst managed environments were perceived to be rivers, lakes, and groundwater, largely on account of very negative perceptions concerning the management of farm effluent and runoff. In fact, nearly 60 percent of respondents deemed farming to be one of the three main causes of damage to freshwater.
In a separate report, Our fresh water environment 2017, found nearly three quarters of native freshwater fish species are threatened by or at risk of extinction, as well as a third of native freshwater invertebrates and a third of native freshwater plants.
All of these reports raise the current issues, but also note the lack of data, and that the snapshot doesn’t take into account the slow movement through aquifers – such as those in Canterbury. The real impact on communities in these area may take many years to surface.
Both New Zealand’s leading export industries, tourism and farming, need to better manage their social license to operate in the environmental space. Water quality, the wider environment and sustainability are discussions (and subsequent actions) that need to form a key part of the this years conversations.
Ka kite ano
Waireinga/Bridal Veil Falls