CONSUMERS’ PERCEPTION ON INNOVATION IN THE TOURISM VALUE CHAIN

In the current economic environment, innovation is considered critical by the majority of tourism companies that are increasingly willing to spend more to become more innovative. This tendency is visible in all segments of the tourism value chain: accommodation services, transportation, intermediaries – travel agencies and tour-operators – as well at entertainment and leisure facilities. The final aim of innovation in tourism enterprises is to increase customer satisfaction and thus secure the enterprises’ competitive advantage on a continuously changing market. Thus, consumers’ perception on innovation is relevant not only to academics and researchers, but especially to organisations in the business environment, which use customer feedback in order to develop innovative products which are better suited to the individual needs of tourists. The purpose of this article is to determine how consumers of tourist services perceive innovation in the various segments of the tourism value chain. The results will indicate the perceived intensity with which innovation is implemented in the tourism industry as well as the sectors in which innovation could bring additional benefits to tourists. To this aim, it was conducted a literature review on the main types of innovations in hospitality, airline transportation and travel intermediaries, as well as a pilot questionnaire-based study on 120 regular consumers of tourist services. Results indicate a discrepancy between the importance tourists give to innovation and the actual perceived level of innovation in the tourism value chain. Furthermore, the research shows the importance of innovation in different segments of the tourism value chain in the purchase decision of a tourism product. Unfortunately, results indicate that Romanian tourism operators’ perceived innovativeness is lower in comparison with foreign tourism operators. The study is exploratory, representing a starting point into a more comprehensive research into the means through which innovation can be enhanced in the various sectors of the tourism industry.