By Chris Deliso

While traveling in Macedonia this summer to research a new travel guide, I encountered a number of interesting things. There were the usual vexations (littering, incongruously overpriced accommodation, poor infrastructure, etc.), but there was also something that really struck me, partly because it is often expressed so subtly. It’s also something that I also consider extremely important: that is, the idea of hospitality, and the economic implications of expressing it for tourism providers.

All types of tourism have their own unique service-oriented goals. What might be the ideal style for interacting with the clientele of, for example, a large urban business hotel would not be relevant for, say, a little place on the beachfront reserved for escapists. Owing to its size and specific offerings, Macedonia has the greatest chance of success with small- to medium-sized guest houses, the sort of places that are often family-run and that can be self-sustaining, in a country where tourism has been understood (from an industry perspective) as an activity conducted frenetically in hulking structures that then lie dormant for nine months of the year.

If Macedonia indeed has a strategic advantage in ‘going small,’ then understanding the real spirit of hospitality becomes very important. Media-driven talk of new tourism fads and faint promises of EU funding can prove tempting for people looking to get rich quick. However, tourism is not generally such a business, and anyone wishing to seriously be involved in it must first do some soul-searching. The business is not for everyone, and aspiring tourism providers would do well to ask themselves some fundamental questions in advance.

And so the issue of hospitality. To succeed, tourism providers must have a genuine love of providing a dependable service to complete strangers- people often coming from completely different countries, cultures and walks of life. This takes enthusiasm, patience and above all the willingness to see things from the visitor’s unique point of view, to try and understand what that individual prefers, how they wish to be treated, what sort of things affect them positively or negatively, etc.

Since these things might be expressed very subtly indeed, communication errors that compound the problem can occur when people are not paying attention. One good example is when a host mistakes expressions of politeness for real enjoyment or approval (as when the guest does not like the food they are served, but also does not want to hurt the feelings of their host by saying so).

In the same way, guests can be timid about saying what they really want when they perceive that doing so will irritate their hosts. In both cases, the problem is most often due to the latter’s failure to perceive the unfolding situation, and ultimately this affects the guest’s feeling of well-being, and indeed their entire experience. And one can easily imagine how much more complicated such things can become when the host is not automatically attuned to the needs of their guests, has guests who are not ‘easy’ (i.e., families with children, people with health conditions or specific dietary needs, the elderly, etc.).

Therefore, the first thing that goes into providing real hospitality is temperament. One expends an enormous amount of energy when constantly thinking of things from the guest’s perspective, and so must be naturally attuned to doing so. Not everyone has the character for this, and the difference between someone who is in their element working with guests, and someone who is not, is easily and immediately apparent. After all, one can pass off a fake historical artifact or tall tale easily, but faking hospitality is impossible- guests can easily see through it.

In addition to the importance of being aware of visitors’ needs, there is a second key element that goes into sustaining a real spirit of hospitality, and that is inclusiveness. With the type of tourism that I believe Macedonia can best exploit, this becomes extremely important. In the likely scenario, guests are most often going to be in a relatively constrained physical environment that facilitates conversation and interaction. To some extent this sort of situation needs to be ‘managed’ well by the host, who must at least be aware of the situations going on at all times, and who ideally can create the conditions whereby a fun, lively and respectful feeling of community can flourish.

Since today’s travelers have an unparalleled range of destinations from which to choose, and can take part in activities targeted to their every desire, the cross-comparison of experience becomes increasingly relativistic. As a result, the need to differentiate, to create preferences, involves this extra element.

For people today, creating a memorable vacation has less and less to do with the physical ‘things’ on offer, and more to do with their personal sense of connecting with others, and with generally enjoying the positive vibrations of places that they will remember not only for what they did and saw, but from the interesting people they met, stories they were told and experiences shared.

Since the basis of any sustainable tourism business is the need to develop a repeat clientele, it is thus vital that guests go away with a positive feeling of having been truly welcome, that their presence was valued, and that they can reasonably expect to enjoy such an experience again and again.

One man who clearly understands this is Petar (‘Pece,’ for short) Cvetkovski of the Villa Dihovo, a small guest house in the bucolic village of Dihovo, 5km from Bitola in the foothills of Mt Pelister. It’s easy to like the traditional furnishings and relaxing lawn, as well as Dihovo’s rustic wooded setting, pristine mountain river and open pool; but what really sets the place apart is the spirit of hospitality cultivated here by Pece and his family.

For him, there are two operative rules. One is to “welcome guests in the way that you would like to be welcomed,” he says. The second is to “respect the value of people’s money.” And this is precisely what led the Cvetkovski’s to make a marvelously unorthodox decision: to allow their guests to pay whatever they like for their accommodation and meals.

This decision – one that would give most Macedonian hoteliers an instant heart attack – brings the concept of investing in hospitality to its logical conclusion. It signifies both an expression of inherent confidence in the quality of one’s offered service, and a show of trust in the critical faculties and general goodness of the guest. Both add up to creating confidence and good energy around the product and the place.

Of course, it is not necessary or even desirable for every tourism provider to employ such a business model; the operative factors that underpin the approach to hospitality are what remain vital. After all, as Pece cheerfully notes, “a smile does not cost anything.” But it does cost quite a bit, on the other hand, to heat hotel rooms that go unused just because no one took the trouble to invest in something as simple as a smile.

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This article was originally published in the American-Macedonian Chamber of Commerce’s magazine, Emerging Macedonia, in Sept. 2010.