YuMi Tourism Partners: A shared value project

with Government, Corporate and Community

Vanuatu & Papua New Guinea

What was the opportunity?

There’s no ‘one mould’ for the work that we do with government and corporate partners to create shared value. YuMi started as an idea between Carnival Australia, TDi and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Carnival described their challenge of bringing local, meaningful, cultural experiences to their customers at ports around the Pacific. TDi, from experience working in the Pacific, noticed the continual challenge for local Indigenous entrepreneurs being locked out of the market by big international corporations that they were unable to meet or access contracting regulations. DFAT were looking to ‘prove out a new model’ for delivering Aid and Development. They wanted to develop sustainable Indigenous businesses that could become a successful enterprise in their own right. These three challenges formed the basis of the question ‘what needs to exist in the market to create a different outcome for all parties?’

Tell us the ‘Nitty Gritty’ details…

The process started with an intense design phase where we took time to understand the problems being brought to the table, the aspirations of all parties and we also spent time in community understanding why contracting was so difficult for local entrepreneurs. It was evident that, particularly in Vanuatu where we initially piloted, that there had been a lot of tourism development and the question was, how would YuMi add a different type of value and differentiate? We felt strongly that the missing link in other approaches was market access and places to test and validate product. This led us to build Carnival as the market access component as a strategic central piece in the delivery of the program. We also built in a day on board a cruise ship with a test and validate session for all participants. Both of these decisions have paid off and we consider this to be the reason why YuMi has had success where other programs have failed to deliver.

The program is delivered through an accelerator format, followed by bespoke 1:1 coaching which ensures we are building capacity alongside businesses. The highlight of the accelerator is the day spent onboard a Carnival Australia ship (P&O, Princess, etc), where the entrepreneurs get to step into the shoes of the passenger for a day, to be able to put them at the centre of their business model.

The Outcome

YuMi has been run in 3 ports across Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea, with a 4th port kicking off at the writing of this case study. It has worked with 41 enterprises, delivered 4 contracts through Carnivals system and a projected $1.6M flowing directly back to local communities. YuMi proudly won a Shared Value award in Oct 2018.

“We work with TDi on a professional level and a personal level.

TDi has turned up more opportunities and options than we would have realised. It’s the power of them getting into a community, spending more time, listening and seeing things in a different way. When you’re viewing from a business lens, you can sometimes overlook opportunities.

They are able to really get into the fabric of a place. Identifying, getting a feel for it and then knowing how to work with communities to do that business. It’s a real skill, and it’s not something we are skilled in. The power of TDi was to be able to work between those two cultures, two working /operating environments and bring them together.”

– Sandy Olsen, Corporate Affairs Carnival Australia