Celes Davar looks like a middle-aged biology professor who’s spent a lot of time outdoors. His hair is thin on top, offset by a neatly trimmed beard, big glasses and an even bigger smile. Though busy with clients from across the country, when he zoom chats with me, there’s no rush, no sense of impatience, no hurry to push an agenda.
It turns out Celes is a biologist, as well as chef, musician and tour guide. In his own words, he’s an “experience broker.” He worked for Parks Canada for many years in his home province of Manitoba. But his unique vision of tourism—experiential tourism he calls it—led him to found his own business, Earth Rhythms. He is not a consultant, he corrects me, he is a practitioner. This makes me think of doctors and medicine, and there’s a considerable amount of healing in his approach. Celes’ definition of sustainable is “do no harm,” a motto borrowed from the Hippocratic Oath. Sustainable habits are good, but from time to time they need the assistance of regenerative practice. This practice asks: can we restore that which has been harmed?
I inform Celes that our Foundation are creating a Centre as a retreat for artists, people interested in nature and health, and other visitors. He tells me I’m in the tourism business. But he’s quick to add, there are many kinds of tourism. The difference between a superficial visit and a meaningful experience has to do with programming. This means visitors are invited to participate, to taste local food, to get a sense of the DNA of a place, and, most importantly, to share stories. This is a niche tourism, not large-scale industrial tourism. In conventional tourism, the goal is to increase the number of visitors, to increase volume and revenue. How many people, how much income? Celes calls these inappropriate questions.
Niche tourism approaches the situation from a more environmental perspective, asking: what is the quality of experience given your capacity? If you can only handle a small number of visitors at a time, well, there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, that might be an advantage. It might be what sets your centre apart from other tourist hotspots.
Celes speaks of the promise of tourism as a place for good. This leads to a second question: can your centre be a place where people practice reverence for life?
His third question: “What is the DNA of the place?”
Fourth question: “Who are the ideal visitors or guests for what we have to offer?”
I tell Celes I can’t answer at this time. Our centre is just getting started and we’re still exploring. This makes some people uncomfortable. They ask, where’s the business plan? Celes smiles and assures me there’s nothing wrong with an identity quest. There’s even a name for it–emergent practice. What this means is to be thoughtful. What you want is to embrace good design practice.
I’m aware that Celes has big clients like Gros Morne National Park, Tourism Newfoundland, the Fundy Geological Museum. How do these clients react when he talks about small-scale regenerative tourism? Celes answers that “people are ready to do different. They see the old models aren’t working. People want a new approach, but they don’t know what questions to ask.”
Many of Celes ideas come from the operation of his own experiential tour company. Celes hosts guests in his own passive solar home, feeds them gourmet meals from ingredients grown in his own garden, using dishes made by his wife in her unique pottery studio, then walks his guests across the local landscape, building fires and singing songs.
Celes continues to learn. He describes a conversation with his son. His son told him you’re at a stage of life where it’s not necessary for you to earn money by creating services. Your future income may come from reducing expenses. Celes agrees. That’s why he created the solar home, why he has the garden and land. He tells me, investors know that if they protect their money, their capital, its value will increase over time. Well, the same is true with the environment. The environment is only valuable as long as it is protected. Celes introduces a term I haven’t heard before, the “circular economy,” and recommends I visit the Ellen MacArthur Foundation website.
Celes brings up a related topic: transformation. He’s not in the tourism business, he says, he’s in the transformation business. To this end, he states that studies by Howard Gardener and other educators have shown that the old model of learning is ineffective. “If I can just deliver knowledge in the right way …” No, Celes, says, people don’t learn by being taught or lectured to. They learn by experience. If you want to transform what people know, if you want to impact their lives, you have to do it through shared experiences.
When I ask Celes if he’d consider conducting a workshop at our Centre, he answers yes, but only as part of a team developing a joint project. When he comes to our centre, we will have a shared experience working toward a common goal. I tell him I like this approach and I’ll brainstorming with our team to help make this happen.