WEB3 in Tourism
I was in a brainstorm session with marketing executives, techies and investors the other day. We were all thinking of a way to launch a successful crypto currency in the city of New Orleans. A goal which obviously beget some novel and interesting questions about our socio-economic structure in reference.
Everyones problem solving hats came on, and began conjuring ideas with perspectives influenced by their respective industries, but the perspective that stood out to me most was the Marketing Executive.
Particularly because of a few reasons,
She understood New Orlean’s market audience, human behavior, and its unique condition as a place-based, experience driven economy. ( And partially because she seemed to understand the value and potential of my documentary work on gentrification in this majority black city ). She also understood the systemic exploitation that has been programmed into corporate tourism infrastructures, and how that combined with New Orleans’ reliance on tourism has created a persistent underclass and ecosystem of perils for our city.
With that being said this article is not a roadmap for creating a crypto-currency for New Orleans, but rather my goal here is to answer important questions regarding our unique economy in reverence to blockchain technology, and potentially give ideas to add value to our ecosystem in New Orleans using web3 solutions.
The Big Easy
New Orleans is a southern subtropical urban metropolis with a population of 387,000 citizens most of whom are black.
New Orleans is a predominately serviced based economy, driven by a billion dollar tourism industry. placed-based consumption drive much of the city’s revenue. NFL and NBA games, over 130 festivals with lagniappe and concessions, bars, lounges and restaurants, gaming venues, historic corridors, museums and galleries all contribute to a network that is the underlying infrastructure behind New Orlean’s economy.
Albeit New Orleans seems like a never ending vacation, with all the festivities and fun times, the city has many disadvantages by being a primarily Tourism Based economy.
Drastic fluctuations in demand for cultural experiences provided by our service economy.
Low wage jobs and Lack of upward mobility, a large population of uneducated unskilled workforce working in service jobs.
Staggering income inequality leading to huge racial and geographic disparities in violent crime, public health conditions, education/literacy levels and gentrification/displacement of the work force.
Lack of transparency and trust for political processes as a result of corruption and clientelism favoring tourism and media conglomerates chipping away at the legitimacy of New Orleans role in stewarding a sustainable and forward-thinking city.
To claim that all of these real world problems can be solved by using technology is gaudy itself, but web3 and blockchain offers a sense of humanity at its essence which makes me hopeful that its implementation can guide us to a more equitable and sustainable tourism industry.
Before we get started on our journey for creating a more equitable tourism industry, there are some excellent question https://www.oregon.gov/das/Facilities/Documents/TravelORSustPlan.pdf has asked, that greatly contribute to our discussion.
To achieve the vision and outcomes set forth, we must not only deploy efficient and well-designed internal structures and processes, but we must also grow and evolve our relationships with residents, the industry and visitors.
Is there equity exists in contracting, hiring, retention, and promotion?
NO
Does this work balance and meet the economic, environmental and social/cultural needs of a destination, focusing on long-term livability and well-being?
NO
What are the consequences of this work for the people living seven generations into the future?
NO
Have the decisions been made after weighing those consequences?
NO
Have residents and stakeholder been involved in an inclusive way — informing, validating and co-creating the management of the destination, including promotional efforts, accommodations, transportation and more.
NOT AT SCALE
What is Equity ?
Equity: Fairness and equality in outcomes, not just in resources and opportunity. We recognize that each person needs something different to succeed and; to reach their own purpose, values, and goals.
A greater interconnectedness and equality in the value chain enabling workers at the lowest rungs of the hierarchy to sustain a lifestyle that enables the to continue good hospitable work. (No one wants shitty service, so treat your workers well!).
Equity goes hand in hand with sustainability.
New Orleans tourism is based upon place based consumption that is fueled by ideas and experiences that our natives create. The value is in the authenticity and culture conjured by the people whose history is coupled with the city. The history, museums, art gallery, historic corridors and neighborhoods are all value adds that bring people to New Orleans. When we forget and forsake what actually is the foundation bringing people to New Orleans, which is our native people and culture, we lose our selling point, value propositions and ultimately revenue streams.
It will not take long before people realize the staged authenticity that corporate bodies try to pull off because of the lack of true New Orleans flavor in the enclaves that once made New Orleans New Orleans.
I GIVE IT 20 YEARS PERSONALLY.
People will start saying they are ashamed to even be affiliated with a city that no longer lives up to the values it once stood for. Genuine people, charm and hospitality that natives give with the story they tell that is there existence itself.
Below are pivotal points some of which don’t neccesarily incorporate blockchain and web3, but just parts of human decency.
- A living wage helping workers to have a reasonable proximity to their work place for obvious reasons. (Gas prices, soaring rent, general cost of living and inflation etc.)
- More equity in decision making, (sometimes decisions are made, some poorly on what should be done with an organization. Resources, time, wealth, expansion, hiring decision, all of the like are made without consideration for what teams need to deliver excellent service. What money is spent where, supporting local businesses ) Can we get insight to restaurant turnover ?
- Accountability in the service delivery. Empowering service workers not to just stand for bullshit.
- Addressing unsafe work environments through open source auditing using blockchain technology for the world to analyze the working conditions for business and venues they patronize.
- Bridging the asymmetry of care between tourist, natives and service workers. (We care for tourist and forget about New Orleans in the process)
- Even from a top down perspective making sure brand identity and city imaging is social responsible and has a positive impact on certain communities. Ensuring that communities are not exploited for their cultural resources. Katrina is a great example of how marketers turn New Orleans into a playground for advertiser and other people with disaster porn. This is in fact in part why communities gentrified over the last decade heavily.
What if there were Community Benefit Agreements written as a smart contracts for large corporate entities in municipal areas, that could be transparently analyzed on a blockchain by the surrounding community ?
- Giving more transparency to residents on how their milages are affecting budgets approved by council members on where their funds are going for certain projects, (this can be applied for anything)
- Dollars to spend for Tourism and conventions could even be apart of this. The convention bureaus get fiscal stimulation form the city of new Orleans that is tax payer dollars, tax payers deserve to know what their money is being spent on, how it is affecting their cities and communities. In a number of ways. We can choose where money is being spent, we can decide what kind of corporate stewardship we want to incentive as a community to create a sustainable relationship based on symbiosis and creation.
- Can we develop an automated model to incentivize a tax effective way of giving back just like Jasmine Crowe of Atlanta has done with smart contracts and analytics?
- Tourism is evolving and seeking more avant-garde ways to engage millennial generations. That is with social media influencers and creators. The experiences these people create often bring in way more than they are given, and in a sense they are not reciprocated proportionally for their work. What if impact based commission smart contracts were developed for creators, using tickets created for certain experiences?
Sustainability
- Can we create accountability systems using blockchain to ensure we have sustainable practices from corporate entities?
There is a lot that blockchain has to offer when it comes to operational sustainability. Transparency, decision making and automating equity flows is an opportunity waiting to be taken advantage of. Especially when talking about symbiotic organizations like tourism bureau municipalities and mutual aid corporation. All of them have stake in the outcomes in their territory, there should be a structure interactive ecosystem that allows for decisions to be made.
City government, corporate entities like non profits and social enterprises have a fiduciary responsibility to have their constituents interest at heart. But unfortunately corruption and lack of transparency have put a wrench in the relationships between large corporations and individuals that make up vulnerable communities.
With blockchain we can automate and democratize decision making, especially (millage voting ) to repair relationships and trust with decision makers and their constituents.
Internal operations of large entities can also benefit from automating logistical operations capital flows, information flows and resources using the blockchain to interact with the entities internal parts. Blockchain and oracles further can further connect executive decision makers with data to inform their decision.
- Can blockchain enable corporate entities to improve their supply chains ?
The internet of things is a prime example of how blockchain can be used to gather information about supply chains, and optimize cash flows concerning supply chain operation.
Diagram
- Is there residual data that can be used to garner information about tourist behavior in our city ?
Where is a tourist most likely to shop?
How do tourist want to remember their trip?
What makes a tourist want to return?
What makes a tourist want to stay ?
What bars do they frequent and why ?
Tourist demographics.
What does a tourist’s day look like ?
Who is a tourist likely to share their experiences about New Orleans with ?
- Is there a way corporations can improve their internal operations by integrating blockchain solutions into their core logistics
- Can we create a better ecosystem for communication and collaboration between teams in the hospitality industry, using blockchain solutions?
Examples of people doing this ?
Jasmine Crowe, humanitarian and social entrepreneur is a great example of excellent corporate stewardship and forward thinking problem solving using blockchain technology to solve waste management issues and feed hungry people in her community while preventing food from ending up in landfills to produce methane. As CEO and Founder of Goodr, a blockchain enabled entity that feeds the homeless with leftovers from restaurants by helping corporations realize tax rewards for allocation their leftover food to good causes and deserving people, Mrs. Crowe has impacted the Atlanta community in a meaningful way, and inspires innovation and creative thinking in regards to solving critical humanitarian issues.
Goodr, an Atlanta based startup uses blockchain technology to provide a ledger to track an organization’s surplus food waste from pickup to donation and offering real-time social impact reporting analytics
My question is that in a city praised for its gastronomy and culturally rich foods, what is stopping us from building the same system in the Crescent City? Why stop at foods? Why not recycle resources from entities that dispose of waste that could help the less fortunate. What about books, clothing, home decor materials, canvases old tech. Blockchain could offer an architecture that enables us to build a more equitable world.
