Lifting Samoan Tourism ? 9. Relationships

Guests with a local Matai ? memorable to all. There is commercial potential and social benefit from retaining the relationships.

While there are tourists who prefer to remain aloof, and to see the Samoan people and culture from a distance, most visitors to Samoa wish to engage. Building relationships is central to the Samoan culture and fits naturally with the desires of the market. Building and maintaining relationships needs to be systematised at a country/industry level.

As a rule, Samoans are well skilled at making people feel good. Friendly, smiling, asking questions and showing interest are lovely attributes that open the way for good relationship building. A taxi driver who chats away (even in limited English) will invariably strike up a conversation that has a strong memory for a visitor.

Samoa Tourism does give lip service to one of the most important characteristics of the Samoan culture ? that of the people and relationship building but this is assumed, accepted and in the main left for what it is ? a happy memory.

This though is missed opportunity.

Building and maintaining relationships needs to be systematised at a country/industry level for while a fleeting relationship may bring a smile, it is only when those relationships go deeper and strong ties are developed that the industry can/will capitalise on one of Samoa?s greatest strengths. Hospitality here can be extraordinary; the Samoan smile can be infectious; a experience can be great at one level, but there is a gaping hole in the Samoan Tourism industry that can be filled with a little concerted effort once the importance of systematising relationships is understood.

Many Palagi want to establish and build relationships, from simply knowing the name of a restaurant waitress to engaging more deeply with village people and Samoan life. Systems that increase real relationship building, such as name badges (at the lowest level), through deeper personal relationship building activities, to full deep-immersion Village experiences will help fill the void that exists, as well as build a richness and uniqueness that is sadly missing in the industry.

There are many ways to systemise this relationship building ? capturing contact details; inviting feedback and providing tools to build those relationships; developing fishing techniques for those who want deeper relationships; creating services and products that feed strong relationships (such as the Voluntourism ideas) and the use of Internet based connection tools, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and so on are all little ways to help build relationships.

Our research and my experience tells me that there is i) a great demand for increased intimacy from more than half of our guests, ii) that potential investors struggle to meet, know and break in and iii) that any system that increased relationship building would have a good ROI.

The questions that should be on the mind of every tourism operator are:

How close does a visitor want to get to the people and culture of Samoa?

It may be that a Fiafia night is fine for some guests, but to meet and befriend a local boy/girl/family may increase the value of a tourist experience. A Village experience, be it a Sunday To?onai, or a full Village Stay is appropriate. A long-term relationship involving marriage, business relationships, investment, town-to-village sponsorships and so on could however be suitable for some. Without systems in place to find and capture the facts, this is left to chance and opportunity is often lost. It is said that, ?if you never ask, you?ll never know?.

What business goals can be achieved through deepening the relationships between local and tourist?

Relationship building is a two-way street. Just because a tourist wants to deepen a relationship, this does not mean that a business in Samoa wants to go deeper though, but if a business wants to develop longer-term relationships, they should be thinking through what?s in it for them. Planning should be undertaken to build or tweak a local business to capitalise on relationships with foreigners. Thinking out how to use, or work with ex-pats, offshore based families and friends is an important aspect of professionalism. Any business with a ready-to-roll offering will present to a potential tourist much better than one who develops ideas, products or services on-the-fly. The SWAP Foundation for example has an Ambassador programme with systems in place and is ready at all times for people to step up to the mark. It is flexible enough that potential Ambassadors with interest in the arts, sport, religion, business, nature or ANY area of interest can be involved, but the point is that the systems exist, are well thought through and present professionally. Businesses in Samoa need to think through HOW they will achieve their goals with deeper relationships so that when opportunity does arise, they can roll with it on the spot.

How can a tourist operator (a taxi driver through to a full resort) increase the depth of relationship building that occurs in their business?

SWAP has many ideas on how to do this in various industries and is able to assist businesses capitalise on one of the greatest assets that Samoa has ? its capacity to build relationships easily.

Source: http://www.dennis.co.nz/2013/07/lifting-samoan-tourism-9-relationships/

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