It's Not Your Marketing. It's Your Internal Communication (And How Tri Hita Karana Explains It)

Why the three pillars of sustainable hospitality fail at the same place: internal alignment.

Tri Hita Karana —'three causes of wellbeing' in Balinese— proposes that true prosperity arises from the balance between three fundamental relationships: with purpose, with people, and with nature. For your hospitality business, this isn't philosophy. It's strategy.

1. Purpose and Values (Parahyangan): The "Why"

I'm not talking about the mission statement hanging on the wall. It's the uncomfortable question: Why do we exist beyond generating profits? Businesses that connect with an authentic purpose —protecting an ecosystem, preserving a culinary tradition, revitalizing a community— create magnetic experiences - they can copy your posts, but not your essence. This is where your brand's soul resides.

2. Human Relationships (Pawongan): Your People, Your Asset

This includes employees, guests, suppliers, and crucially, the local community. Creating true partnerships. Hospitality stops being a service and becomes a genuine exchange. If you don't take care of your people, the guest will feel it. If your people aren't committed, so will they.

3. Harmony with Nature (Palemahan): Designing to Regenerate

This goes far beyond changing LED bulbs or reducing paper. It means designing operations that regenerate, not just minimize harm. Think about architecture that respects the environment or supply chains that turn sustainable local agriculture into a differentiator. I've been on projects where Zero Waste, so important for hotels with 200 rooms that generate daily amounts of food waste and garbage, betting on this means caring for the environment: people and nature in harmony.

On paper, this sounds logical. Even inspiring. But here's the problem: I know dozens of hotels and resorts that have these values printed in their mission statements, on their walls, even in their welcome dossiers. And still, they fail. Why? Because the three pillars don't collapse from lack of intention. They collapse from lack of alignment.

These three pillars always fail at the same place, and it's not a marketing problem.

When I arrive at a new consultancy, I dedicate 2 to 3 intense days conducting 1-on-1 interviews with each stakeholder. I ask them what they see, what frustrates them, but above all, what's the most valuable thing they know that nobody has asked them about. They have the best information about your business, but they're too busy putting out fires to use it. And there's problem number one: when you do a thousand things, you lose focus and what's important gets diluted.

When internal communication crumbles, everything else cascades down.

• Purpose becomes an empty poster.

• The relationship with guests becomes mechanical.

• Sustainability initiatives remain good intentions.

Tri Hita Karana shows us that you can't have harmony with your guests or with the environment if harmony doesn't exist internally first. The three relationships are inseparably intertwined.

The True Starting Point: Leadership and Communication

If there's one thing I know with certainty after years in this business, it's: Communication, Communication, Communication. So, before thinking about the marketing campaign or the green certification, ask your leadership strategy:

Does your team know and feel the company's purpose?

A year ago I worked with a boutique hotel that had a beautiful purpose: 'Reconnect people with authentic local culture.' When I interviewed the chef, he told me that none of his team knew what that meant in their day-to-day. Zero. But when I asked them what was the most special thing about working there, the chef told me: 'Here I go to the market every morning and choose the fresh ingredients. Guests ask me what each thing is and I tell them the stories the vendors tell me.' That was the purpose. He was living it without knowing it. The problem wasn't the mission. It was that nobody had made the connection.

If your purpose only lives on the website, it doesn't exist.

The other questions that matter

• Are there REAL communication channels where they feel heard, or just compliance meetings?

• Do you celebrate and elevate those who shine so they serve as examples and inspire the rest?

• And if someone isn't engaged: why? Sometimes you need the courage to let go of a rotten apple so the rest of the tree can flourish.

Real sustainability doesn't begin with a report. It begins with an honest conversation among your people.

So if any of this resonates, start here: this week, book 30 minutes with someone on your team you don't normally listen to. Not to solve anything. Just to ask: What's the most valuable thing you know that nobody has asked you?

You'll be surprised.

f you're running a hospitality business and this disconnect between mission and reality sounds familiar, that's exactly the gap I help bridge. I work with hotels, resorts, and wellness brands as their Chief Marketing Officer—building strategies that don't just look good on paper, they work because they're aligned from the inside out.

Want to talk about what that might look like for your business?
www.mariangomez.com

Sustainability in Tourism: The Essential Role of the Traveler

The Global Tourism Paradox and Destination Branding

In their revealing article "How to Travel Nowhere by Going Everywhere: Why Culturally Irresponsible Tourism is Hara-Kiri Tourism", authors Arato Miguel, Dhers Frantz, and Payo Guiomar illuminate a fundamental paradox at the heart of contemporary tourism's evolution: as we democratize global access, we simultaneously risk homogenizing the very cultural tapestry that gives destinations their distinctive essence. This tension creates a strategic inflection point where the authentic differentiation that powers destination branding confronts the standardizing forces of mass tourism.

This phenomenon, which the authors vividly describe through examples such as the transformation of Santorini into a "theme park" for visitors or the gentrification of emblematic neighborhoods in Barcelona and Venice, poses an existential challenge for the tourism industry: why travel somewhere if that somewhere is becoming everywhere?

Orchestrating Cultural Sustainability in the Tourism Ecosystem

While Miguel, Frantz, and Payo's analysis constructs valuable frameworks for organizational responsibility—notably the "Cultural Responsibility Flower" and the "Corporate Cultural Responsibility Engagement Matrix"—these instruments represent only part of a more complex ecosystem. The current paradigm largely positions travelers as consumers within a transactional framework rather than as stewards within a relational one. This conceptual limitation obscures a critical dimension of cultural sustainability: the transformative potential of the conscious traveler as catalyst for authentic preservation.

The Conscious Traveler as an Agent of Change

My experience in the tourism sector has shown me that, on many occasions, it is the travelers themselves who, consciously or unconsciously, transgress cultural norms, invade sacred or private spaces, and contribute to creating an artificial scenario that departs from local reality.

An illustrative example is the case of the New York house that served as the exterior facade for Carrie Bradshaw's residence in the series "Sex and the City." The actual owner has had to deal for years with hundreds of fans who daily invade his private property to take photographs. Despite his constant reminders that "this is a private residence, not Carrie's house," the line between fiction and reality becomes blurred in the minds of many visitors, creating a tourism experience that disrespects the local environment and its inhabitants.

This phenomenon is particularly evident in emerging destinations, where the economic and cultural gap between visitors and residents can significantly affect the customer experience and the authenticity of the place.

The "selfie tourism" mentioned in the article exemplifies this dynamic: travelers who visit destinations not for their intrinsic value but as a backdrop for their digital presence, creating an experience that is closer to Disneyland than an authentic cultural exchange.

The Need for an Integrated Approach

To complement the strategies proposed by Miguel, Frantz, and Payo, it is essential to consider tourists as active agents in cultural preservation. Travelers cannot be seen merely as consumers or passive spectators but as participants in an exchange relationship with the local community.

As Elizabeth Becker points out in her book "Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism," "tourism is the world's largest industry with no global standards, where every traveler is an untrained ambassador." This observation highlights the critical importance of educating travelers about their role and impact.

Traveler education and awareness should be an integral part of the global agenda for cultural preservation. This requires a coordinated effort among all actors in the tourism ecosystem: from international organizations and governments to private companies, local communities, and the tourists themselves.

A truly integrated approach would recognize that responsibility is shared and that cultural sustainability depends on both adequate policies and responsible business practices as well as conscious and respectful individual behaviors.

The Future of Cultural Tourism: From Consumption to Cultivation

The strategic imperative for tourism now transcends the traditional metrics of visitor volumes and environmental impact calculations. We stand at a crossroads where the preservation of cultural diversity represents not merely an ethical consideration but the foundation of tourism's sustainable value proposition.

As Miguel, Frantz, and Payo eloquently articulate, "cultural sustainability is a complete matter: sustainability of cultures, sustainability of the authenticity of visited places, and sustainability of tourism itself." This perspective can be further expanded: cultural sustainability represents an integrative framework where authenticity becomes both the means and the end of transformative travel experiences.

In a hyperconnected world where digital access has collapsed geographical barriers, the future belongs not to those who simply catalog destinations, but to those who cultivate meaningful connections between travelers and places. The paradigm shift from consumption to cultivation transforms "going everywhere to end up nowhere" into purposeful journeys that enrich both the traveler and the destination.

This evolution begins with organizations that design for cultural resonance but finds its fulfillment through travelers who approach each destination as stewards rather than spectators. Only when these elements align can tourism transcend its current paradoxes to become a regenerative force for cultural vitality and authentic human connection.

As a strategic consultant specialized in international tourism marketing, I offer cultural audit services, development of market entry strategies, and adaptation of communications to authentically resonate in diverse cultural contexts. I invite you to explore how your organization might express its distinctive hospitality vision through a complimentary Strategic Tourism Marketing Session. This focused 30-minute virtual exploration—offered as a professional courtesy with absolutely no financial obligation—often reveals unexpected pathways for destination differentiation that remain invisible within conventional marketing frameworks.

Connect with me via email or LinkedIn to arrange your tourism marketing session. The most profound transformational journeys begin with a single moment of strategic clarity, and I welcome the opportunity to contribute to yours without any investment beyond your valuable time and perspective.