Essay: Innovative Idea In Tourism Industry - Discuss.

The Creative Process and its Stages

Question:

Discuss about the Innovative Idea of Tourism Industry?

Tourism sector is considered to be one of the most promising sectors in Australia. In the financial year 2013-14, the tourism sector in the country employed 530,000 people creating highest employment. The tourism sector is identified as one of the five sectors posed for super growth and it is projected to contribute $250 billion to the economy of the country (Gassmann, Enkel, & Chesbrough, 2010). This ambitious growth of the tourism sector needs to be supported by an innovative idea of tourism industry. This report explains the creative process, discussion on the tools used to generate ideas, the innovation component, type of innoand H process. It also covered uniqueness value creation aspect of the product.  

The creative process is first step in developing new ideas and it has different stages. According to Kaufman, the creative process can be classified into four different stages namely preparation, incubation, illumination and verification (Kaufman, & Plucker,. 2011). The preparation is the first stage where an individual gathers knowledge with the help of using brain in terms of reasoning, attention and planning to collect data and information. The incubation is the second stage where an individual rather than thinking on the ideas consistently to let the mind wander to promote better creativity(Hagman, 2013). The illumination is the third stage where an individual actually get the new ideas and experience a high. The verification is the last stage where an individual puts in the creative thinking ability to make the ideas meet the customer requirement.

                                                                    [Source : Kaufman, & Plucker,. 2011]

In formation of the new idea of Myki card, the individual applied all the four stages namely preparation, incubation, illumination and verification and it helped in evaluating the usefulness of the idea in the tourism sector and helping the visitors to use the Myki as debit card to transact (Hagman, 2013)

The creative process undertaken by an individual can be improved with the help tools used to generate idea. Some of the tools used to improve the new idea include brainstorming, Imagineering and idea box. Brainstorming is a tool used to generate ideas and it promotes lateral thinking to come out with new and innovative ideas in an informal and relaxed environment (Wang, Cosley, & Fussell, 2010). It motivates individual to express ideas and thoughts that might be little crazy in the first place. It results in various ideas where some can provide innovative solution to problem while others help to come out with more ideas. Brainstorming aims to explore possibilities and judgment and analysis can act as barrier in idea generation. Thus evaluation should be done after brainstorming session ends. Imagineering is a tool used to generate ideas that helps in setting the direction to make the idea beneficial to the customers (Wang, Cosley, & Fussell, 2010). It involves seven steps prologue (needs, requirements and constraints), blue sky (generating more number of ideas), concept development (selecting the idea to develop), design, construction and epilogue (opening evaluation and exhibiting quality standard). Idea box is a tool used to generate ideas and it involves specification of the challenge, selection of parameters related with the challenge, list variations and exploiting different combinations.

Tools Used for Idea Generation

The tools used to generate ideas were useful as it helped to make the creative process more organised and work in a disciplined way to accumulate the different idea and evaluate them in terms of innovative solution it can provide to the tourism sector in terms of improving the business process and facilitating customers in getting better experience (Johnson, Christensen, & Kagermann, 2008). In developing the innovative idea for tourism industry, the tool used to generate ideas was brainstorming as it encouraged all types of ideas including some crazy ones with the help of lateral thinking process that helped to beyond conventional thinking process.  

There were different ideas raised during the brainstorming session like connecting with the customers in the comfort of their home using the social media channel to linking the shopping with tourism product. There were other ideas as well related with hospitality products like hotels membership card, off season travel card or EMI facility related with the tourism like paying the holiday package with monthly instalment as applicable to consumer products (Aldebert, Dang, & Longhi, 2011). Of the numerous ideas raised in the brainstorming session, some were really great idea but in term of customers and market they were not suitable. All the ideas generated during the brainstorming session were evaluated at the end of the session and the idea that got selected was Myki card.

Myki card is similar to the debit card provided by banks and used by the customers. It is card designed to facilitate electronic payment. It is designed for the guest to use during their travel in the public transport in Australia. It is different from the usual debit and credit card as it is developed to be unique serving as keep up card (Aldebert, Dang, & Longhi, 2011). The modern tourist travelling to Australia can use the Myki card to pay their fairs while travelling in the public transport in the country and get free from carrying local currency of the country. It makes the free from the foreign exchange problem that plays a significant role in international tourism.

The innovative component plays a significant role in the creative process and idea generation approach undertaken by an individual. It is related with the types of innovation and they are radical innovation, incremental innovation, diffusion innovation and combination innovation. Radical innovation is also known as disruptive innovation and this kind of innovation has high implication on the market in terms of the financial outcome of the company in that market. Incremental innovation is also known as extension and this kind of innovation is related with the improvement in the performance of existing product, process, service or method (Spadoni, Tariffi & Sassolini, 2011). Diffusion innovation is also known as duplication and this kind of innovation is related with two step flow process that focus on the probability of increase or decrease of an innovation or idea in terms of acceptance in the market . Combination innovation is also known as synthesis and this kind of innovation promoted by company by mix two innovations.

Evaluation of Ideas Generated

The selected idea Myki card can be defined as incremental or extension innovation as it promotes the up gradation of electronic payment system with the help of card used by the daily commuters within the country for transportation. The Myki card will facilitate the tourist travelling to Australia to pay their fair while commuting in the public transport during their vacation in the country (Spadoni, Tariffi & Sassolini, 2011). It will overcome the hard cash used in transportation and tourist can be free from carrying foreign exchange.

The Five W’s and H is model used in innovation that deals with who, what, where, when, why and how. It explains the Five W’s and H in terms of new idea to understand the effectiveness of the new idea in meeting the company objective and customer satisfaction. In this project it will help to evaluate the Myki and how it impacts the tourism industry and tourist visiting Australia (Chesbrough, 2006).

Who – Myki card is developed for tourist visiting Australia.

What – Myki card will act as the debit card for the tourist to make payment.

Where - Myki card can be used by tourists in restaurant, cafes and transport.

When - Myki card be used at any point of time.

Why – Myki card reduce the worry of foreign exchange.

How – Myki card be used by the tourist during their vacation in Australia to make payments.

Myki card is designed to operate as debit card and facilitate electronic payment on the part of the tourists. The Unique feature is it is used as debit card whereas debit of local country cannot be used in Australia. This kind innovation is new in the tourism industry as there is no such card payment system existing in the country (Chesbrough, 2006). The Myki card is better than competition as customers can be free from foreign exchange problem and carrying hard cash during vacation. It relates to the Tourism and hospitality industry as every service tourist seek is payable and use of Myki card address the problem of cash.

Conclusion

The new product Myki card developed as part of the creative process by using the tool used to generate ideas namely brainstorming is first of its kind innovative product. The idea was selected after gathering a range of ideas related to tourism industry as explained in the above section. At the end of brainstorming session, the idea of Myki card was selected as it was found to be innovative product for the tourism industry as it creates value for customers in terms of making them travel without carrying cash and overcoming the problem of foreign exchange and money exchange (Johnson, Christensen, & Kagermann, 2008). The customers while planning international vacation to countries like Australia always had the problem to arranging the Australian dollars and each country has limitation of the amount one can get from exchange. It was major problem that was faced by customers and the innovative product Myki card will solve the problem and add value to customers.

References

Aldebert, B., Dang, R. J., & Longhi, C. (2011). Innovation in the tourism industry: The case of Tourism@. Tourism management, 32(5), 1204-1213.

Chesbrough, H. W. (2006). Open innovation: The new imperative for creating and profiting from technology. Harvard Business Press.

Gassmann, O., Enkel, E., & Chesbrough, H. (2010). The future of open innovation. R&d Management, 40(3), 213-221.

Hagman, G. (2013). The creative process. Progress in Self Psychology, V. 16: How Responsive Should We Be?, 277.

Johnson, M. W., Christensen, C. M., & Kagermann, H. (2008). Reinventing your business model. Harvard business review, 86(12), 57-68.

Spadoni, F., Tariffi, F., & Sassolini, E. (2011). SMARTCITY: Innovative technologies for customized and dynamic multimedia content production for Tourism applications. EVA.

Wang, H. C., Cosley, D., & Fussell, S. R. (2010, February). Idea expander: supporting group brainstorming with conversationally triggered visual thinking stimuli. In Proceedings of the 2010 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work (pp. 103-106). ACM.

Kaufman, J. C., & Plucker, J. A. (2011). Intelligence and creativity. The Cambridge handbook of intelligence, 771-783.