Is there a formula for delivering a powerful tourism experience?

Joe Pine thinks there is. An acclaimed business consultant and author of “The Experience Economy,” Joe has developed a framework that helps professionals everywhere leverage the power of experience to cultivate strong customer relationships. He joins this episode of the podcast to discuss how travel businesses can succeed in the experience economy and where the future of business may be headed.

Joe shares five ways travel businesses should optimize their experiences to earn rave customer reviews. Plus, we have news about Google’s foray into AI-based itinerary planning; a road tip about the power of slowing down your tours; and a Hot Minute about whether artificial intelligence is a threat to tour operators.

On leveraging the power of experiences:

“Understand that the experience is the marketing. In today’s experience economy, the experience that is staged out there is going to determine whether people come back again and whether they tell people about it.”

On why great experiences require drama:

“Understand that when you’re staging experiences, work is theater. Your workers are on stage whenever they are in front of guests. You need to direct them to act and help them create that great experience. You need to have dramatic structure that rises up to a climax and comes back down again. If you have a flat experience where not much happens, it’s not very memorable. You need to design the time that customers spend with you.”

On the demand for transformative travel experiences:

“People increasingly desire life-transforming experiences. When we travel is when we’re most open to change. We get out of our daily quotidian lives and open up to new vistas. That’s when we expose ourselves to new ways of thinking and new ways of being. So we can change through the travel that we have.”

“A transformation is when you guide customers in achieving their aspirations. It’s through transformative experiences that we change.”

Follow the development of Joe Pine’s new book “The Transformation Economy” on Substack at transformationsbook.substack.com.

Subscribe to Joe’s Field Notes newsletter at strategichorizons.com/contact.

Follow Joe Pine on LinkedIn.

1:17 — Travel News: Google introduces AI itinerary planning

2:24 — Road Tip: The power of slowing down your trips

14:58 — How Joe Pine became an experiential business guru

19:35 — How experiences took over the economy

22:00 — Keys to competing in the experience economy

29:57 — Why transformation is the next economic frontier

37:51 — How experiences give small businesses a leg up

48:19 — Hot Minute: Should tourism professionals be worried about AI?

Gather and Go with Brian Jewell is a tourism industry podcast that helps group travel leaders plan, promote and lead better trips. There are also tips and insights for destination marketers and others who support the tourism trade. Each episode reaches thousands of professional tour operators, travel agents and the volunteer group leaders they serve. The audience also includes destination museum leaders, church travel leaders and other tourism enthusiasts around the world. Each show includes an interview with a smart travel pro or an insightful person from outside tourism who’s expertise can help make travel businesses better. You’ll also hear travel news, road tips and more. New episodes are released about twice monthly.

You can find Gather and Go wherever your listen to podcasts or subscribe by email.

Have questions, comments or ideas for the show? Send them to us at podcast@grouptravelleader.com.

Thanks for listening!