Xperience the CITY: The City of Destination as an Integrator and Its Role in Co-creating Travel Experiences

Abstract

Fast changing trends within a technology driven society and the context of new economic landscape call for new innovative approaches and reconfiguration of roles in existing supply and value chains. Xperience the CITY, is a project aiming to change the way we travel so far, by changing the existing tourism supply chain and taking the City of Destination from a passive to a more active role, acting as an integrator among demand and supply. At the same time it calls for co-creation and invites travelers to co-create travel experiences. Building upon the premises of service-dominant logic that the customer is a co-creator of value and the essence of the experience economy, this project attempts to explore innovative ways where traveling is approached holistically as an end-to-end service. Following an extensive review of literature and an Explorative Research (qualitative), a preliminary model along with a proposed service is developed. In order for this model to be tested and validated, a Validation Research (quantitative) was designed addressing all major stakeholders. By this research the authors obtained valuable insights from 514 Passengers, 42 Hotels, 6 Airlines and 6 Airports, regarding current practices and an almost catholic validation of the preliminary model. Not only passengers are deeply interested in thematic traveling and are ready to co-create with the industry and benefit from such strategies, but Airlines and Airports would be ready to fully incorporate such service into their practices.