Service design for tourism

Training on service design to plan and visualise tourism services looking for untapped market segments (or blue oceans). Practical workshop on service design for the tourism sector using the Lego Serious Play ® methodology.

Tourism is one of the most important sectors in the province of Cadiz. It is representative in terms of the active population it represents as well as in the rate of growth of visitor spending. However, the reality of the situation poses challenges for the companies in this sector:

• The growth in the total expenditure figure is due to the increase in tourist arrivals.

• The average expenditure per visitor is decreasing.

• The type of accommodation that has grown the most is rented accommodation, which has a lower added value.

• The increased low-cost offer has an impact on travellers’ spending.

According to the UK Design Council, service is a process that can be represented as a molecular system made up of elements, links and evidence. It can be represented and applied to understand the service ex ante in order to better design, model, test and replicate it. If we think of a sector where service is paramount, it is tourism. The new ways of booking, staying overnight, enjoying leisure time when travelling, etc. have multiplied and become more sophisticated, opening up enormous possibilities for the traveller. Understanding that the service can be designed and modelled to make the user experience more memorable, and the process more profitable, is a first step to improving the tourism business.

Service design seeks to incorporate the processes of a design project into the area of services, stimulating reflection, order and creativity, as well as requiring the effort to place the manager in the user’s place. The process is visualised, represented, sequenced and, among other things, a visual map of the user’s journey is obtained, indicating needs and problems at each step. The service is modelled and the interaction points are defined, allowing greater control over the user experience and the use of resources to satisfy that service.

The Cadiz Chamber of Commerce together with the Provincial Tourism Board wanted to support the sector and offer them training to learn how to plan and visualise their services by looking for untapped market segments (or blue oceans). In October 2015, after a training session, a practical workshop was held on the design of services for the tourism sector using the Lego Serious Play ® methodology. Companies in the sector in the province of Cadiz were able to put into practice the discipline of service design by rapidly prototyping their business ideas.