How to get started developing your tourism product

Whether you are offering guided tours, boat rentals, accommodation or provide river cruises, you are offering services to your customers. For today’s tourists, just a service is not enough. They seek experiences, often even experiences that contribute to their quality of life. This document offers you guidelines to identify your customers’ needs and to develop innovative products, services or experiences that really matter to them.

1. Why develop your product with this method?

The needs of tourists from Europe have evolved over the past few decades. Current tourists are looking for quality service and experiences that really matter to them. To offer quality and experiences that matter to your customers, you need to know them very well, personally. What quality means for some may be different from what it means to others. And an experience that is life-changing for some, may be dull to others. This report teaches you how to get in touch with your customers, how to learn what they really need to boost their quality of life, and how you can design products, services or experiences that really matter. The nice thing is that if you succeed, your customers will share their experiences with their friends and followers, also on social media. In other words: they will promote your product to others. For free!

The current coronavirus crisis has put international travel under pressure. In many countries, tourist arrivals have nearly dropped to zero. It is likely that international tourism will be affected by the COVID-19 crisis for the next couple of years. Several scenarios are possible. The frequent holidays made by Europeans to faraway destinations may decrease and this may turn into less frequent and longer holidays closer to home. The battle for tourist visits may become fiercer. The attention for sustainability may also increase. Europeans might be willing to travel longer distances, but only for a very good reason. To tempt potential tourists from Europe to come to your country, your region or your business, you need to stand out, to understand the traveller well and be super-innovative – more than ever. Amazing stories and experiences may become even more important. As will issues of safety, security and assisting tourists in returning to their home countries.

The method described in this report is based on the principles of design thinking. It has been employed internationally in all kinds of businesses. To mention a few examples in tourism:

• Destinations like the Bahamas (an example is the One-Stop Online Booking and Immigration Card).
• Design for All, also referred to as ‘universal design’, to allow access for people with disabilities. You can read more about this in this thesis.  
• Hotels. For example Hyatt Hotels has developed various prototype hotels around the world, which are free from regulation. Another example is The next-generation hotel experience, getting the details right to improve travellers’ stays, and designing a modern work experience for business travellers.
• Visitor attractions, like improving the tourist experience of the Polar Bear Society, a visitor attraction in Norway, or bringing Tourists to a hidden coastal gem.
• Travel and transport. Examples are pioneering a car-sharing service and developing a customer strategy for public transport in Oslo.
• Restaurants, like creating a fresh and modern take on the Indian culinary experience.
• Organisation and development. An example is turning a historic music college into a collaborative learning platform.
• Tourism-related services. An example is the mobile visitor centre in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Another example is to ‘design of waste out of the food system’, taking place in a collaboration between hotels, food banks, foundations, and entrepreneurs to fight food waste.
   

2. This is what you need before you start

The procedure described below is not difficult. To follow the steps, it helps to have a few basic tools – but only if you already have them) – since it is the idea of how you are doing this that is important.

• Lots of sticky notes (Post-its)
• Markers
• Sheets of flipchart paper

In product development, we try to find a match between the needs of the European market and any of your local situation and business resources that might entail certain limitations. The following tips are related to this.

Below, the steps are described to help you to develop innovative products and services for new and existing customers. Staying tuned with the market is an ongoing process. The outcomes of each step are illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1. From inspiration from your (potential) customers to innovative products and services

3. Get inspired by your (potential) customer (Step 1)

You can only create meaningful products, services and experiences for your customers if you truly understand them. So try to understand the situations and experiences that are or might be meaningful to them. If you do not have any customers yet, or are looking for new customers, you need to get your inspiration from existing market intelligence (step 1a). If you already have customers, you can use these customers as a source of inspiration (step 1b).

a. Get inspired by potential customers

The largest share of potential customers doesn’t know you or your product offering, or perhaps even the destination. So you have to draw their attention by offering products and services that matter. What do you need to do to make a start?

1. Get access to market intelligence reports of the European market. Subscribe to free newsletters or blogs of market intelligence institutions, such as UNWTO, WTTC, Global Sustainable Tourism Council or IATA. Read the annual UNWTO publications, such as Tourism Highlights and World Tourism Barometer.
2. Review and read the market intelligence information provided by CBI. This webpage gives access to a CBI trend report and promising market segments and target groups on the European market.
3. These sources will help you to identify important (emerging) trends and markets in Europe on a regular basis.
4. Try to identify a few target groups or niches that may feel attracted to your business.

b. Get inspired by existing customers

When customers make use of your service business they could also inspire you to make new products. This means that you would need to involve them in the development process. Do not ask them what they want (as they may not know) with a questionnaire, but try to get an idea of the needs they have in a different way.

There are three nice alternative methods you could use, although there are other methods available as well, such as the ones in Ideo’s free Human Centered Design Toolkit. The first time you do so, it might make you feel uneasy to approach a customer. However, always remember that communication with them is key in developing a better product or service.

1. It is your duty as an entrepreneur to look after your customers. So you can see it as part of your job to observe your customers during different phases of their customer journey and to learn to understand this customer journey through their eyes. Such observation should be done discreetly and quietly, so as not to disturb or annoy them while enjoying their holiday or business trip. It gives you insights into what they think, what they do, how they interact with others, and what they dream and wish for. While you observe your customers, you can also make notes. Afterwards, you need to find a moment that suits your customer to share your observations in an informal setting, and ask questions about things you did not expect, did not understand, or what they found appropriate. Again, make notes!
2. You may also ask your customers whether they would like to help you with improving your services. Ask your customers to take photographs. You could also ask your customers to document their customer journey with a camera and to take pictures of what they consider appropriate products or services. When they give you the pictures, ask them whether there is a suitable moment for them to share some thoughts about these. When you discuss them, do not forget to make notes. Do not insist if a person does not want to cooperate, but try others instead.
3. The third approach also requires asking your customers for help in making your services more appealing to them. Ask your customers whether they are willing to take a number of ‘memory cards’ along with them while using your product or service. These cards have to be printed by you beforehand in a kind of postcard format (such as in Figure 2). Ask your customers to fill in a card each time they experience something they did not expect, or which they find very positive or negative. Ask them to return the cards to you by the end of each day or when they leave. If they are open to doing so, ask them whether they have time to share their thoughts with you. If so, be sure you make notes.

Figure 2. Example of a memory card that you could print

A useful way to describe an individual customer is by using a puppet template. A puppet template is a simple picture of a single customer surrounded by clouds, words bubbles and icons, such as illustrated in Figure 3. Ideally you would make a puppet template together with a customer. This shows that you are open and willing to build a personal relationship with them. A good moment is when you have the chat about the observations, the photographs that they took, or the memory cards that they filled in. During this conversation you could also talk about the person’s age, where they come from, their work, what they do in their daily life, their main interests in life, their worries, their wishes and dreams, or their preferences in tourism. This generates a lot of relevant background information. Take notes! Each customer you talk with gets a separate puppet template.

You will end up with a number of puppet templates. Review the puppet templates and take a closer look at each one. What do you see? You will probably discover that some of the templates are similar to one another. This means that you have already started to understand your customers a little better! Now, group together the puppet templates that show similarities. Each group represents a type of tourist that makes use of your business.

Figure 3a. Example of a puppet template

Figure 3b. Example of a filled-in puppet template

4. Make a persona for each type of customer (Step 2)

In the previous step, you grouped the puppet templates with similarities together. Each group represents a type of tourist who could be attracted to your business. Now the challenge is to turn each type of tourist into a market description. You will do this in the form of a so-called persona: one persona for each type of tourist. You might end up with 4-8 personas. You may need to go back to the market intelligence and the puppet templates in step 1 for detailed information. A persona describes each tourist profile, point for point. It would be nice to add a quote on each persona to bring them to life.

A persona includes:

• A nickname
• Profile of the type of tourist
  • List of ages & countries or origin
  • List of work and ambitions
  • Details about personal lives
  • List of main interests
  • List of wishes, preferences and dreams
• You may want to add photographs (for example from magazines) and quotes that characterise the type of customer
• The use of your business:
  • Key locations they went to
  • Activities
  • Alone? Or with whom?
  • Why?
  • What did they like and what not?
  • Which emotions did they show?
  • Key issues, needs, dilemma’s

Most organisations have their own template. The Interacting Design Foundation explains the use of personas in a video. In the figures below, you will find a few examples with different levels of detail and a different style. You can put each persona on a different flipchart sheet.

Figure 4. Example of tourist persona

Figure 5. Example of tourist persona

5. Identify the core needs of the customers and the key opportunity areas for your business (Step 3)

Now you need to identify the most prominent needs, hurdles, issues or disappointments of each type of customer (persona).

• Take a closer look at each persona, one by one, and ask yourself the following questions.
  • What would be remarkable events and experiences for that persona? What were remarkable events and experiences for that persona?
  • What would be stunning likes for that persona? What were stunning likes for that persona?
  • What would be striking issues, hurdles, disappointments, wishes or needs for that persona? What were striking issues, hurdles, disappointments, wishes or needs for that persona?
• You may need to go back to the market intelligence and puppet templates in step 1 for possible answers.
• Write each possible answer on a separate sticky note no matter from which persona. Try to get at least 25 sticky notes in total. More would be even better.
• When you are finished, group the Post-its together into areas of which you think they could have a positive impact on your customers’ experiences. Label each grouping of Post-its with a short telegram-style sentence that identifies the impact area. You could write these labels on a Post-it. A label could be, for example: “customers need more personal attention during the excursion”, “customers like to enjoy local cuisine”, or “customers need to be able to connect online”.
• Finally, turn each label into a positive opportunity for your business, also known as an opportunity area, and write it on another Post-it that you put at the top of the label. The header could be for example: “much personal attention during excursion”, “provide local cuisine to the customer”, “adequate Wi-Fi network”.

Now you have created opportunity areas for your business! It would be great if you were able to end up with anywhere between two to five such opportunity areas.

6. Develop a multitude of ideas for solutions, or new products, services or experiences (Step 4)

During the previous steps you started with collecting a lot of information that, step by step, you worked into just a few opportunity areas for your business. Now we will try to generate ideas for new products, services or experiences that matter to your customers for each opportunity area. Ideally, you should take this step together with colleagues in your business (not just senior staff!). If you think it is outside the range of your core business, you may also want to involve other businesses in your community.

For a long-term benefit, you first need lots of ideas to get a single good one. This one idea should be innovative and really different from the others. It might be a completely new solution to a problem customers did not even know they had. Do not be satisfied with an obvious solution!

How does it work?

Brainstorm for each opportunity area

Write out each idea on separate Post-its

Sort and group/cluster the ideas that you wrote down

• Brainstorm for each opportunity area that you created in the previous step. Come up with as many ideas as possible. Try to think of weird solutions, products, services or experiences. Never worry whether ideas are right, wrong, absurd or obvious. That hampers your creative flow of thoughts. If you do it with your team you might end up with dozens of ideas.
• Write each idea on a separate Post-it. If it helps you to understand it better, you can make a drawing of what you have in mind.
• Next, sort and group the ideas that you wrote down. Put the bad ideas to the side. Group the ideas that go well together into clusters. Give each cluster a label that tells you what the overarching idea is that the cluster is about. Brainstorming for the opportunity area “provide local cuisine to the customer” could lead to the following labels (Figure 5): start our own restaurant; authentic design of the restaurant; involve local farmers; kitchen staff recruitment and training programme; sustainable waste treatment.