Innovation in the tourism context: New opportunities for enhancing competitiveness

Abstract

An important development in the tourism industry is the emphasis on innovative services. In a marketplace where 
services make little difference one from another, innovation is necessary to increase competitiveness. Tourists 
are a different group of customers as they are not depending on the service as they have lots of possibilities in 
front of them. Tourists, as a matter of fact can exploit different sources of information which helps them decide on 
which service to choose. Studies show that innovation in tourism services follow a different pattern from 
innovation in manufacturing, as tourism service innovation is behavioral rather than technological (Drejer, 2004). 
Tourism businesses now days don’t compete with service quality only but they focus on providing innovative 
services and quality to customers and are organized under Destination Management Organizations. Tourism 
services follow a shorter lifecycle than before which is a major factor for moving toward innovation. This research 
paper focuses on tourism businesses which operate in Shkodra city and tries to evaluate how innovative they 
are. Also it represents a case study which shows the importance of a DMO as a concept of collaboration which 
leads to innovative products and services and it would be an innovation to Shkodra.