What if that remote corner of the world you expect to visit is not out there anymore?
Imagine that a 25-year old woman from a local village in Vietnam could be directly hired from your home to hand-craft a chair for your new sustainable Home & Lifestyle business
Many of the most amazing and remote places on Earth are supported by local people who make a living from handicrafts, the sale of local products and traditional food, or rural activities.
Have you ever found yourself dreaming about visiting any of those places? Were you aiming to experience the local lifestyle and culture in that dream? The answer must be straightforward for travel lovers. Experiencing the ancient Samurai culture in Japan, spending a week among Tibetan monks in the Tibet or doing “island hopping” among the most unknown islands in Indonesia may be the perfect retreat for some but…
…What if that remote and inaccessible place you expect to find is not out there anymore when you visit it? How do the people you expect to find there make a living? Don’t you think they will seek to prosper just like you by leaving those remote places (when possible)?
It’s household economy. “No income, no living”. According to the World Bank, the rural population annual growth (%) has been decreasing since the early 70’s, from a 1,78% (1970) to a 0,072% (2019), down to -1% in Spain or Japan and -2,5% in China. Yet, there are remote places as the aforementioned still alive but trend is to deprive them of their essence by mass-market tourism (there are no enough Tibetan Shrines for everybody).
Don’t panic traveler! What if the solution relies on you?
The solution: Your trip doesn’t start once you get in the plane
It may end there indeed. Reality is that it starts in your day to day.
Through your activities, you can boost the economy of its inhabitants by asking yourself questions like:
- Are you going to buy a new dining table for your living room?
- Do you want to buy your mother a linen t-shirt for her birthday?
- Do you want to learn from a local ancient culture?
It starts there. Imagine that you can directly speak from home with a 25-year old woman from a local village in Vietnam who is able to hand-craft your table or linen t-shirt in a traditional and sustainable way. By doing so, don’t you think that person will be there when you visit her village?
It’s a two-way interaction: Nurture those remote places to enable prosperity so that they can remain remote.
How?: It’s about connectivity and technology enablement
Imagine…
- How revolutionary would it be for Inditex to incorporate those remote villages into their global supply chain.
- How groundbreaking would be for Viajes El Corte Ingles to offer in-sofa experiences such as an online real-time cooking experience taught by a local citizen from a remote village.
- The crucial role Telefonica could play as an enabler of that connectivity between the remote places and the developed world considering its mission of “make our world more human, connecting people’s lives”.
- The huge opportunity for the leading technology firms (FAANG, Accenture, IBM, etc.) to advise, transform and manage this enablement with the above mentioned companies.
- And much more examples.
From a customer perspective, you will be more willing to interact with companies that comply more with the UNs SDGs (Social Development Goals) (you can check the full list of 17 SDGs here) and many of them are indeed related to the aforementioned solution: “Nurture those remote places to enable prosperity so that they can remain remote” (see the image below)
Thinking about the Retail & Travel clients with whom I worked at IBM as a Strategy Consultant, what if IBM could help its clients to develop the aforementioned transformation? Thanks to its technologies (such as blockchain, supply chain solutions or AI) and experience, wouldn’t it be in a leading position to do it?
“The world is no longer how it used to be. It hast lost its essence. I visited Bali in the early 70’s and it has nothing to do with what it is now”, a distant relative told me once.
You should bear in mind that the world won’t remain unique and remote unless we understand the two-way interaction: Nurture the world so that your future travel experiences are nurtured back by it.
Are you interested in sharing your opinion? Please join the conversation and share your comments down below.
Do you want to reflect on your business the same way now? I’ll be happy to join and make it together. Find me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaimecalero/
