New Product Development
NEW-PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT IN TOURISM COMPANIES CASE STUDIES ON NATURE-BASED ACTIVITY OPERATORS
Raija Komppula
University of Joensuu Department of Economics Box 111 FIN-80101 JOENSUU Raija.Komppula@joensuu.fi
ABSTRACT New product development in tourism companies has been a nearly ignored theme in tourism marketing literature. Research on product development has in major studies handled destinations, development of resorts or sites as a total tourist product. This paper will introduce two case studies, which will aim to help us to identify the major problems as well as key phases of the new product development process in a small tourism company. The two examples represent Finnish activity operators, which at the moment have the challenge to innovate more and more attractive activities to fulfil the customers needs for emotional experiences. The theoretical framework for the study is based on the traditional product (and services) development theory, which suggests it to be a process of following stages: idea generation, service concept development and evaluation, business analysis, service development and testing, market testing, commercialisation and postintroduction evaluation. Based on the existing literature and our case studies we try to evaluate the usefulness of the traditional product development model in small tourism business marketing. We also try to present an advanced model for new product development in a small tourism company.
Raija Komppula 1. INTRODUCTION
1
In the general marketing literature there has been a considerable amount of research carried out into new product development, the majority of which is based on manufacturing industries, but relatively less attention has been given to services (Edget 1994, Jones 1995, Kelly & Storey 2000). Although product development is a prerequisite for satisfying tourists needs and changing demands as well as insuring the profitability of the industry, new-product development in tourism
Raija Komppula
University of Joensuu Department of Economics Box 111 FIN-80101 JOENSUU Raija.Komppula@joensuu.fi
ABSTRACT New product development in tourism companies has been a nearly ignored theme in tourism marketing literature. Research on product development has in major studies handled destinations, development of resorts or sites as a total tourist product. This paper will introduce two case studies, which will aim to help us to identify the major problems as well as key phases of the new product development process in a small tourism company. The two examples represent Finnish activity operators, which at the moment have the challenge to innovate more and more attractive activities to fulfil the customers needs for emotional experiences. The theoretical framework for the study is based on the traditional product (and services) development theory, which suggests it to be a process of following stages: idea generation, service concept development and evaluation, business analysis, service development and testing, market testing, commercialisation and postintroduction evaluation. Based on the existing literature and our case studies we try to evaluate the usefulness of the traditional product development model in small tourism business marketing. We also try to present an advanced model for new product development in a small tourism company.
Raija Komppula 1. INTRODUCTION
1
In the general marketing literature there has been a considerable amount of research carried out into new product development, the majority of which is based on manufacturing industries, but relatively less attention has been given to services (Edget 1994, Jones 1995, Kelly & Storey 2000). Although product development is a prerequisite for satisfying tourists needs and changing demands as well as insuring the profitability of the industry, new-product development in tourism
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