The Organisational Gardener

The Idea 

The Local Experience Shop was an initiative I brought to life from 2012 till 2014.  The idea was to create an “experiential” travel agency in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico.  The idea of experiential tourism was something that I had been working on through my consultancy company Ecoturismo Genuino in dozens of community-based tourism enterprises in Chiapas (and around Mexico).  The project was to create a selling and distribution channel through a physical store in the destination.  

I wanted the store in itself to be a different experience.  The look and feel had to be opposite of what you would expect from a traditional travel agency full of desks and computers.  You can appreciate in the following photograph that the store was minimalist (one big screen and our experience advisors had an iPad to show you the different experiences available).  The reception and advice was based on some initial questions we asked (and captured the answers) to then recommend what we thought would be the most appropriate and interesting experiences.  

An experience we defined as “a uniquely local themed activity that would be memorable for our client”.  For example, we had cultural immersive activities. One of them was to be picked up at your hotel by a local weaver to transport you in the local bus services to an indigenous village to visit them home and show you how to actually do waist-based weaving.  You then had lunch with the family and were sent back in the local bus.  We also had adventure experiences where highly trained tour guides would take you to a complex cave system to explore a subterranean river with all the safety gear provided.  We offered at our peak more than a 100 different experiences with a duration of four hours to one week. 

The Initiative 

The idea sounded great, we crystallised it through graphics, interior and travel design.  The development of the graphic design was done by friend and colleague Carl Forssell.  The interior design was envisioned by Alfredo Cano and turned into reality by a very skilled local carpenter and craftsman.  The experience and travel design was my contribution to the overall initiative.  

The initial team brought to life a space that generated a lot of local and regional interest, but the business model was flawed.  Although we generated a constant cash flow, as any travel provider we depended on the high seasons, and were affected by the low seasons.  In our marketing strategy we had a website, but it worked more as our online catalogue for the clients coming into the store, but not so much to attract clients before they came to the destination.  We were in the high street, but at the end of it, potential clients had already booked their tours in another place or even before arriving in the city.  We heard a lot of the phrase “only if I had found you before”.  We were in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Compost

At that time of our lives (my wife and I) were very busy.  She had a full-time job.  We already had another business in the high street commercially successful, and I had my consultancy company Ecoturismo Genuino generating good income.  We had 3 kids.  Something had to give, the two-year lease was about to expire so we decided to cut our losses and accept defeat.  It was a beautiful initiative and I constantly came back to the idea, but we needed to close and it was a great decision that allowed us at the end of 2014 to do a five week tour of Europe ending at “Santa Claus Village” in Finland!