Future&Innovation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Future&Innovation - Essay Example Packaged travel market by tour operators and online travel agency packages, 2000-2008 (US$B) 3 Figure 2: U.S. and U.K. total travel market and package travel share 2008 (US$B) 4 Figure 3: Forces affecting on Paradise Travels 7 Figure 4: The four P innovation space 9 Figure 5: Forces acting on Paradise Travels and the strategy to be adopted by the company to counter these forces 10 Figure 6: The process of innovation process for Paradise Travels 11 Figure 7: Framework for critical evaluation 14 Figure 8: Paradise Travels – location of high street shops 19 Figure 9: Adopting Shibata's problem solving model adapted to help solve Paradise Travels’ problems 21 Photo credit Cover page Image URL: http://www.wanderwoman.com/images/hiking_samaria_gorge.jpg Section 1: Industry Overview 1.1 Macroeconomic and environmental factors The impact of the global financial meltdown was also visible on the travel industry, and particularly on air travel and tour business. A large numbers of small players vanished from the tour operators’ radar during these years; more than 75 air travel and tour operators closed their shop within the past three years (Air Travel Insolvency Protection Advisory Committee, 2010, p.13). The industry is currently cruising through one of the most difficult times due to a number of macroeconomic and environmental factors. These are discussed as follows: 1.1.1 Environmental impact Eruption of the Eyjafjallajolkull volcano closed the UK airspace for six days and a considerable portion of EU airspace, causing flight delays and cancellations throughout the world (Air Travel Insolvency Protection Advisory Committee, 2010, p.6). This incident affected adversely on the consumer confidence as it was observed that immediately following the eruption, bookings dropped sharply (Air Travel Insolvency Protection Advisory Committee, 2010). 1.2 Issues faced by the industry Air Travel Insolvency Protection Advisory Committee (2010) listed some of the issues currently faced by the industry. These are discussed below: 1.2.1 Weak demand An offshoot of weak consumer confidence was seen directly on the weak demand it currently exerted on the industry. To regain consumer confidence is perhaps the most important issue the industry faced currently. 1.2.2 Weak sterling Once in their holiday destinations, weakness of Sterling had eroded the holiday makers spending powers; a trend noticed mostly in Eurozone holiday destinations. This affected adversely consumer perception as consumer expectations did not match the consumer experience. 1.2.3 Shifting away of holiday bookings Another alarming trend was shifting of bookings to traditional holiday destinati