Noche de San Juan

Tonight is 'Noche de San Juan' - the night to celebrate the patron saint of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Traditionally, the 23rd of June is when the citizens of San Juan go to the beach and wade into the ocean at midnight to celebrate St. John the Baptist (San Juan Bautista).
The tradition started in Spain, where they have bonfires at midnight to cast off witches spells. Here in San Juan, the use of bonfires has declined due to beach regulations - but a beach party scene has developed starting at about 9pm and running until late at night.
At midnight, local tradition dictates that you wade into the sea and throw yourself backwards into the surf in order to guarantee good luck for the coming year.
Opinions differ as to the number of times you should repeat the ritual for best results. Some say that three times is sufficient, others say seven times and serious devotees insist that twelve is the key to success in order to make sure all evidence of last year's bad luck is cast to the waves.
In the past couple of years, the event has started to be more organized - with the city of San Juan sponsoring activities and entertainment at the 'Ultimo Trolley' beach where Ocean Park meets Punta las Marias.
Local residents are annoyed by the rush of Puerto Ricans from surrounding towns that have started to overflow these normally quiet gated residential neighborhoods where parking is at a premium and beaches are normally empty at night.
I've never gone before, but 'word-of-mouth' this year is that everyone MUST go to the beach tonight.... Not only in San Juan, but now the tradition has taken hold all over the island - especially in Bouqueron on the west coast.
Is this the grass-roots beginning of a major international tourism event?
It seems like a perfect opportunity to promote a unique Caribbean tradition.
It also comes in low season for hotels - since June is almost always slow before all of Puerto Rico goes on vacation in July. It would extend the July high season by a few weeks.
I'll give a report after I attend the festivities tonight - since I can walk from my house in Santurce to the border between Condado and Ocean Park in about 15 minutes.
I was in Rio de Janerio a few years ago for New Years Eve which is now a major international tourism event - with fireworks along the beach and everyone dressed in white casting flowers into the sea while spiritualist provide offerings of flowers and fruit on the beach as they perform rituals to eliminate evil spirits from their devotees to the beat of afro-Brazilian music.
Apparently this was only a small local tradition in Rio until recently - but you now have to reserve your rooms a year in advance as New Years Eve in Rio is second only to Carnival as a source of international tourism.
Does 'Noche de San Juan' have to potential to elevate Puerto Rico's 'Noche de San Juan' into an international tourism event? Will this become of celebration of local culture, afro-Caribbean influence and the Salsa and Regaetton music that the world has embraced. Is this a chance for San Juan rediscover its pride and soul that has lately been covered over by too much concrete, international-brands and luxury condos wherever you turn?
The buzz on the street suggests we may be in for a fabulous night....
I'll update on 'Expectation vs. Reality' next.....

The 'right set of eyes'... part III

I just went to sign up for a new e-newsletter from Travolution about the online travel industry. After filling out all the required forms - there were some check-boxes to 'opt-out' of promo offers.
I checked a couple of them from 'partner offers' - but figured I'd welcome offers from Travolution so I left that one unchecked.
Well, when I submitted, I kept getting ERROR until I was forced to 'opt-out' of all items. Why offer them if you are forced to refuse them to continue. When the page finally let me submit, I got another error page with even more ominous errors (see below).
I guess I'm not going to get the email newsletter or the special offers.
Maybe this is temporary.
Maybe this has been a problem and no one ever tested or was advised of errors.
I sent an email to the editor, he replied right away and sent it on to someone else.
Nice response from Travolution - but your client's eyes are never 'the right set of eyes' to see errors like this.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Server Error in '/' Application.

---

Value cannot be null. Parameter name: url

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null. Parameter name: url

The 'right set of eyes'... part II

Speaking of getting the right set of eyes to look at a project....

I was browsing through the travel section of the Sunday 'El Nuevo Dia' - San Juan's largest paper yesterday and came across an ad for Martinique - el toque frances del Caribe...

This was fantastic, since Caribbean Consulting has been advocating looking to Puerto Rico as a primary market for years... especially islands which have direct service (AA Eagle) and want to fill empty rooms during July when all of Puerto Rico goes on vacation.

Several years ago we worked with the BVI Tourist Board to broaden their horizons and look to 'intra-Caribbean' markets. The BVI now has a full-time sales office in San Juan and a very successful series of ads that are getting lots of attention among San Juan residents who are tired of the high taxes in the Dominican Republic and the legendary traffic jams or 'tapons' to get our to the west coast resorts of Puerto Rico. Its much easier to just hop on a plane to The BVI and discover Anegada, Jost van Dyke, Peter Island, Virgin Gorda and Tortola.

Back to the advertising for Martinique....
Besides the words in French - the was nothing in the rather large display ad that would possibly motivate most travelers to discover 'France in the Caribbean'.

The lead photo showed a bed with folded towels, bench, wardrobe, credenza, flat-panel TV and drapes. While this might lead me to a furniture sale if I needed a bedroom set - it didn't create an 'I gotta go there reaction' for vacation.

The ad listed a 'Plein Soleil' for $299 but didn't list what hotel I would be staying in if I was motivated to spend two nights with the furniture featured in the ad.

The next photo was hard to place, but was either a hotel lobby or a very large suite or condo with lots of chairs, ottomans, tables and plants. No people, no scenery, just impersonal, 'contract' furniture.

Photo three was the backside of an Adirondack chair with a Mr. Coffee machine on a counter and a glimpse of balcony railings against a green planty backdrop. This easily could have been a hotel in upstate New York, Canada, or Wisconsin. When I think of 'France in the Caribbean' I fantasize about espresso in a chic sidewalk cafe - not a 'Mr. Coffee' next to an Adirondack chair.
Besides - we have world-class coffee and nice chairs in Puerto Rico.

The final photo shows the corner of a pool, a 'tiki unbrella' and three empty lounge chairs against a railing with a scrubby green mass beyond that stretches to an ambiguous blue line that could be water or sky. Again, great ad if I'm selling pool furniture for the thousands of upscale Puerto Rican homes which have this scene in their back yard or condo.

The message seems to be 'Come to Martinique - we have lots of furniture'. I'm sure this isn't the message that the Tourist Board wanted to get across. There probably won't be much reaction to this ad - so Martinique might well decide 'there is no market in Puerto Rico'. This would be a mistake.

If the 'right set of eyes' had taken a fast look at this ad before it was printed - Martinique might have been portrayed as a fascinating and exotic melding of Franco-Caribbean culture, cuisine and cache only a short flight from San Juan. That combination should be irresistible for upscale Puerto Rican's who love to be the first to experience anything new, chic and European.

Its nice to see the French Caribbean starting to approach the 'intra-Caribbean' market...
but if this ad flops - blame the ad, not the destination or the market....

And please, por favor, s'il vous plaît!
Don't show me furniture - I have that at home...
Show me a vacation EXPERIENCE I can't have anywhere other than Martinique!

Is 'the right set of eyes' the key to success?

Caribbean Consulting is getting ready to do an online marketing campaign for ourselves - and its taken us several months to look at our own business and do the type of business analysis that we do every day for our clients. We just couldn't seem to get to the 'essential service' that we've provided to our clients for years.

We either tried to over-simplify it, or tried to convey the hundreds of steps we go through and got lost in the process....

We started asking clients for suggestions. They used terms like 'Problem Solvers' or 'Magicians' or 'Lifesavers' - but didn't really have an idea of how to explain just what it was that we did other than increase bookings, reduce costs and make running a hotel a lot more satisfying and profitable. That's not bad, but wasn't really the whole picture.

Finally, we relied on other consultants who helped us organize our services into four or five logical steps that we tend to loose sight of since we multi-task so much in our comprehensive approach to consulting. Once they pointed out that we were different from most consultants - since we approach hotel marketing through 'merchandising', things started falling into place. Since we've been doing this so long, we lost sight of the way we 'create a product' that can be easily presented, understood and purchased through the internet.

This is something we fought for in the early years of internet/online services when we worked with IBM/Prodigy and American Airlines/SABRE to develop EAASY SABRE as it evolved into Travelocity. Treating travel as a differentiated product is so critical to our methodology that we took it for granted and didn't include it in the equation....

Which just goes to show - a second pair of eyes can often put things into perspective - if its the right set of eyes...

Merchandising - what a difference a name makes.

I was at the local 'Plaza del Mercado' yesterday to buy ingredients for 'Sofrito' - the basic seasoning 'salsa' of all Puerto Rican cooking. After finding the perfect garlic, cilantro, recao (wild cilantro), onion, green pepper, tomato, salt and lots of colorful 'aji dulce' which look like scotch bonnet peppers without the fire - I noticed a new selection of Creole spices.

What really caught my eye was a spice called Malagueta - which I recognized as the mystery spice I had found in a friend's kitchen when I was looking for nutmeg and had assumed was all-spice or cardamon since the jar didn't have a label. At 69 cents a package - I bought a pack and figured that I couldn't go wrong even if I didn't use it.

When I got back home, I got online and did some research.

The spice is actually a fragrant form of pepper which is native to Africa, but is used extensively throughout the Caribbean. It is also known as: Alligator Pepper, Ginny Grains, Ginny Papper, Graines, Greater Cardamom, Grenes, Guinea Grains, Guinea Pepper, Guinea Seeds, Maniguetta, Maniguette, Melaguata, Meligetta Pepper, Paradise Grains, Paradise Nuts and GRAINS OF PARADISE.

GRAINS OF PARADISE - what a wonderful name!

Doing a search on 'Grains of Paradise' - I found that my 69 cent quantity of Malagueta was being sold in a fancy tin on Amazon.com as 'Grains of Paradise' for $7.50 plus shipping and handling.

So, I was very happy with my purchase and will use the new spice all the time.... probably in place of pepper in my pepper mill, since most Puerto Ricans do not use black pepper.

The people purchasing on Amazon weren't so happy. They report that the fancy tin was mostly empty - containing a deceivingly small amount of spice compared to the image/container that they bought. Delivery was also an issue - not received in the amount of time promised.

Same basic product.... different price / packaging.... and very different 'expectation vs. reality'..... both in product and customer service.....

So - you can take a basic commodity and merchandise it online to command a premium price... but if you can't deliver what was implied or promised on your website, you probably won't get a repeat sale....

The psychology of 'Expectation vs. Reality' is one of the core elements of our work at Caribbean Consulting.... and the beds at your hotel are not all that much different than the spice at the local 'Plaza del Mercado'.

Price and its implied level of product/service doesn't always equate to product or customer satisfaction - BUT IT SHOULD!

Is the Caribbean starting to look like Florida?

We've been meeting with other consultants who work in the Caribbean and what constantly comes up in conversation is how the current development of luxury condo-hotels, resorts and fractional ownership has an impact in the region.

Part of the 'charm of the Caribbean' has always been the small hotels, funky resorts, island culture and 'island time' that often caused tourists to complain. But once they got used to the fact that they were in a different world - they eventually calmed down, chilled out and grew to love the unique madness that Herman Wouk so wonderfully describes in 'Don't Stop the Carnival'.

Any hotelier and most guests to the Caribbean could read 'Don't Stop the Carnival' and swear that they had experienced exactly the same charming clash of cultures, resources and attitudes against a backdrop of stunning natural beauty that used to be the hallmark of Caribbean travel. For better or worse, life under the Caribbean Sun was unlike anything else on earth.

With the huge increase of luxury hotels, condo-hotels, condos, fractional ownership and the commerce that follows - are the islands starting to look alike? Cable TV has reduced accents, local cafe's can't compete with fast food chains and upscale clients demand instant service and 'international standards'. Starbucks is the first choice for tourists - where they buy Kenya Gold Decaf or 'Bold & Beautiful Blend' even on islands famous for their own coffee!

Tourists and the new 'owners' demand the same standards they have 'at home' but want it enhanced by the Caribbean and the label of 'luxury', 'prestige', 'exclusive' and 'privileged' that is promised in the sales brochures.

In the short term - its bringing more business as construction booms and new properties come online....
In the longer view.... will we all start to look the same?

Is the Caribbean starting to look a lot like Florida?

How do we differentiate our products - our islands, culture & experience... so that the 'luxury living box on the beach' in St. Lucia, Provo or Aruba is worth a premium over the same physical accommodations on Florida's Gulf Coast - which is easier to get to and doesn't require a passport.

With high fuel costs, limited airlift, service issues, customs, departure tax, imported food & beverage, hotel taxes, etc. is the resort in the islands competitive in the price/value/experience equation....

This will be the main issue for hotels/resorts/destinations in the next few years as travel planning moves almost exclusively to the internet and our product becomes 'globalized'.

We're looking at ways for our clients to easily position themselves in the global market - now that our competition is not necessarily another island in the region - but Florida, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Mexico, Fiji or anywhere in the world that builds a compelling tourism product at an attractive price.

Everyone in the tourism industry should ask 'why should someone want to come to my island?'
but then calculate the price of the visit against other destinations/products worldwide...
and see if they have a competitive product and a compelling story to command a premium in price and travel time.

In today's tourism market - you're just one more product on the shelf of the travel store...
In a market filled with expert shoppers - how can we close the sale?
And what will happen once Cuba is added to the product mix for the US market?

Caribbean Consulting is encouraging our clients to start thinking about this now....
since we're seeing consumer buying habits changing much faster than destination marketing strategy on most islands....

Destination-based Travel Agents

As I'm planning my vacation - a few thoughts:

I'm using a travel agent in Bali for my 4 night/5 day stay in Kuta/Ubud.
I'm using a travel agent in Bangkok for Thailand and it turns out that their primary base is in Cambodia so we'll use them for Angkor Wat and Phnom Penh as well.

When I went to Prague, I had a local agent reserve the budget hostal I used and arrange airport transfers.
When I went to Lima/Cuzco/Puno, Peru - my agent was in Lima.
When I went to Brazil - I found a local travel agent in Rio on the internet and they booked by hotel, tours, and an excursion to Iguassu Falls and Sao Paulo.

Why don't travel agents in the Caribbean do more internet marketing?

All of the travel agents I found on the internet were located just down the street from the hotels, attractions, tour operators and transfer services they offered. They knew much more about the destination than most travel agents in my home town - and had much better prices.
Hotels tended to give us priority - since they knew that if there was a problem, my agent would walk through the door instead of trying to phone or email. The local agent was also a steady source of business - so they wanted to make their customers happy.

The only problem with this is telling who is a reputable travel agent online.
I've been very lucky - doing a lot of research to make sure agents were legit... and even then - I was a bit nervous about wiring money for Peru to a numbered account in Miami... until I found out it was a subsidiary of the largest travel agency in Peru.

Except for one of our clients - 4Seasons Travel in San Juan - www.virtuosocaribbean.com - I can't think of any Caribbean-based travel agents who actively promote themselves on the internet for travelers coming to their islands.

We've suggested that several of our client Tourist Boards promote travel agents on their own islands - at least as much as they promote travel agents in Ohio, Alabama, New York or Los Angeles on their websites.... but its a hard sell.

Caribbean Consulting is working on a new program to help promote 'island-based' agents sell their home destination to travelers from around the world... we just have to figure out how to explain to governments, associations and travel agents how it benefits a destination to have local expertise, new client/revenue sources and the quality-control aspect of agents inspecting hotels in their own destination.

If a travel agent in Tortola has an email request from a potential guest - they may suggest a different hotel or island within the BVI to meet the client's personal style and need. A local travel agent in Des Moines may say 'hey, why not look at this hotel in Puerto Vallarta - they have a great special and the website looks great (even tough the agent's never been to Mexico)...

Something to think about.....

The value of travel agents and online review sites

I'm planning a trip to Tokyo, Bali, Bangkok & Angkor Wat for Christmas/New Years and found a very helpful travel agent in Bangkok to help with travel arrangements and recommendations.
I was rather adamant about using a particular hotel in Siem Reap for our side trip to Cambodia and Angkor Wat - because the website looked spectacular, sounded great and the prices were reasonable by comparison with other hotels.
The agent told me he had received several similar requests - and I could indeed use that hotel if I insisted - but he requested an email with the specific request in writing... since he had recently visited the hotel and found that it was very attractive - but the service was horrible! Even worse, the restaurant was one of the most visually stunning eateries in Asia - serving food that reminded him of a second-rate bus-stop diner. Needless to say, I went with his original recommendation.
If I had not used an agent - I would have probably been very upset on arrival.
There is nothing worse than failure to meet expectations.....
The agent then went on to say that he now inspects all hotels - since he found a fabulous hotel on the internet in Saigon and wanted to use it for his programs.... However, when he arrived - he found that it was a 'pet hotel' catering to Koreans who traveled with their pets! But he didn't even feel it was suitable for the animals - much less the owner!