Healing Through Tourism At The Garden Plaza

An Empowering Tourism Experience Can Serve To Heal Your Spirit

Healing Through Tourism Is a New Wellness Tourism Initiative

Why The Need For The Healing Through Tourism Discipline?

As we watch the march of tourists across the world, we see a growing division between tourism providers and tourism participants.  As every nation seeks to capitalize on its natural, cultural and other resources, the tourist becomes a commodity to "attract' and milk for the maximum financial benefits.  Many of the countries touting tourism simply have no idea why tourists come. They think they come to see the mountains.  But most tourists come from places with beautiful mountains.  They think they come to see the waterfalls.  But most countries where tourists originate have waterfalls.  Indeed in the USA and Europe, as well as Japan there are probably more scenic sites that you would be able to reach in a country like Honduras. Because you cant get to most of the sites. But in the country of origin of the tourist, the roads are open, clear and easy to travel on. The water runs in the sinks when you turn them on.  Food is clean and safe to eat.  Insects are kept at a minimum.  There are creature comforts, entertainment, fine restaurants, cinemas, opera, symphonies, malls, McDonalds everywhere. Why do tourists come to another country? No one seems to know or even care, only that they have money.

The People In Developing Countries Most In Need Of Tourists Dollars Don't Have  Clue As To How To Treat A Tourist Or Guest

Yet as the tourists pour into countries,  you see the people laughing at them.  You see them stealing from them at every chance they get.  And you even hear them muttering "I hate gringos".  Yet they still want to bring them there.  Because they want the dollars of the tourist. Actually the most of the people in these countries would rather steal than serve the tourist.  That's because they want what the tourist has. But they do not want the tourists.

Tourism Providers Are Not Just Providers - They Are Receiving Gifts

Tourists bring gifts.  They bring money. Many of the millions of volunteer tourists bring donations of money, hospital supplies, sports equipment,  clothing and many other items. Instead of greeting them with the joy that should come from someone bringing a gift, many of the people resent them.  But they are quite willing to steal their goods or beg them to "regalo(give) what they bring. When one person gives everything and the other person gives nothing, it is an "incomplete transaction".  To have a mutually satisfying transaction or complete transaction both parties must give and both must receive.

When The People Take From The Tourist And Give Nothing Back It Is An Incomplete Transaction

The tourists are being cheated by this kind of system. Tourists who come often have a run a gauntlet of abuse, of assaults and even murder.  So tourists are constantly in search of a place where they can be "treated right".  Why are the people not grateful,  the tourists.  We are helping  their economy. But the people are resentful,  not grateful. Many developing countries depend on tourism for their livelihood.  When the tourists stop coming, foreign exchange goes down and the government panics. So they mount a new "Bring the tourists to My Country Campaign" with expensive televisions and media advertising.  Sure enough the tourists come back, but they still get the same treatment. 

Those Who Are Tourism Providers Need To Know What Tourists Are Coming For

What is wrong with this system?  What is wrong is that the people developing tourism in a country do not understand that tourism is of mutual  benefit to be sustainable.  Why are the cruise ships so successful.?  They know how to treat a guest on their ships. On a cruise ship, you are treated like a King or Queen.  People smile, serve you with a happy demeanor.  They treat you like you are royalty.  Everything is just the way you like it. They ask you hw you want your hot chocolate.  They want to know if you want a hard or soft pillow.  Do you have any allergies.  How do you like your eggs?  Can I bring you a hot basin of water to soak your feet?  Would you like croissants or doughnuts with your afternoon tea? You feel like you are the most important person in the world. The cruise ships succeed because they are constantly building the self esteem of their customers.  For many people of ordinary means, the cruise is the highlight of their lives.

But most tourism providers in countries needing tourism to survive do not understand . They do not understand that tourists could go to another country just as easy as coming to theirs or even see the natural wonders in their own land. Tourists have more flexibility, more options, more resources.  The person who has  a waterfall thinks people will flock to see that wonderful place.  But their place is not more wonderful than Niagara Falls.  Or Silver Falls in Oregon.  These countries and these providers do not understand the almost unlimited options and choices a tourist have.  They need to understand they have to please  because the tourist has many many options.  If they want the tourist dollars, it is vital to please them.

Tourists come because they are seeking a change of pace, an experience that rests their mind from the fast pace they have lived for a year. They want to find a place that is a bit slower paced, or offers more comforts, or provides them with an environment where they can be healed.

How Would You Treat A Guest In Your Home?

Unless tourism providers and even countries developing tourism as their economic development method comes to understand why tourists come and set out to educate their people on how to treat these "guests in their homes"  tourists will continue to circulate form country to country seeking to have their needs met. And each time they do not return to a country, a state, a community or a tourism site, their is a loss of revenue.  And the chance to make a friend for your country or project is lost.

In developed countries, ordinary citizens are organized and can through their organizations affect foreign policy that affects a country.  In the US there are many organizations designed to create friendships between cities and countries.  The fact is, each time you have to bring a new person to your tourism site, it costs 7 times as much as bringing a satisfied customers back to your tourism site.  And the fact is, a satisfied customer can become a nexus offering you free word of mouth marketing.

This kind of tourism development is destructive not only to the tourist but to the country developing it. I have gone to some tourism workshops in developing countries that completely ignore the needs of the customer.  It is all about destination marketing, branding the country.  Nobody see the tourist as a  person but as a commodity to be brought in, given the minimum services and then sent on his or her way, with their pocket books noticeably lighter. " Mission accomplished. Got his money". Let's make sure he only stays a limited time by making an extended visa all but impossible. This kind of treatment lowers the self esteem of the tourists and makes the people in the country no more than thieves and robbers.

Healing Through Tourism Is a New Initiative

That is why we at AIC are developing a new initiative for tourism development.  We are those who seek to create a place of healing in our tourism projects. We understand that tourists are seeking a place called home. The want to feel like your best friend.  They want the welcome you got when you went to your grandmother's house in the woods on a horse pulled sleigh.  Maybe they never went in a  sleigh.  Maybe they didnt get the welcome they needed.  That is where you come in.  They are paying you for a fantasy and a reality at the same time.   They want every day at your tourism site to be "Friend Day".

Tourists Want To Belong

They want to belong. When they come to your tourism place they want and need to be welcomed, to be brought into a caring group, to be made to feel special, to belong just like in the movies when they came on a sleigh to Grandmothers house in the woods. This group is for those tourism providers who are willing to build a new self esteem building, people potentiating tourism site that is a place of healing. Are you capable of giving this to the tourists who come to your place? Can you put up with their inner anger, their hidden frustrations, their need to be soothed, their demands for special treatment?

If You Want To Be A Tourism Healer You Must Be Happy To See The People Come

If you want to be a Tourism Healer you have to be happy to see people come.  They are not interfering with your important work. Greeting them, making them feel welcome is your work.  They will beat a path to your door if the welcome mat is out.   If you are willing to do this you can become a Tourism Healer.  Can you build their self esteem with empowering words.  Can you with your body language let them know you are glad they came?  Are you willing to spend your nights thinking up new ways to make people feel welcome in your place. Would you like to make them feel that your tourism site is their place?  Are you willing to develop the marketing materials to turn them into Word of Mouth Ambassadors?

If you are willing to do these things to create a healing place for your customers, then this group is for you.  Here you can share ideas that you have developed to make people more comfortable.  Here you'll receive resources for new ways of sharing yourself with those who are led by Spirit to come to your place

Why Does A Tourist Need A Healing Tourism Experience?

Tourists who come to your tourism project have needs to be healed.  That is because their lives in their countries are hurried, high stress, filled with deadlines and demanding situations and persons. Their lives are difficult and filled with situations like: