Browsing by Author "Kim, Youngkyu"

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    Rethinking tourist information centers (TICs) in the digital age: Improving customer experience of the Helsinki TICs with sustainable services
    (2019) Kim, Youngkyu; Solsona, Nuria; Department of Design; Muotoilun laitos; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Solsona, Nuria
    Tourist information centers (TICs) are a physical venue that provides travel information and services to visitors, and acts as a crucial bridge between tourists and local businesses. However, due to the increasing online travel information services, such as apps, websites and blogs which are available for tourists anytime and anywhere they want, the tourist information centers are facing challenges. In this regard, TICs are trying to evolve their services to fulfill the new demands of tourists and to maximize operational efficiency in the digital era. Providing tourists with free travel brochures and maps are still one of the conventional ways of distributing information to tourists in TICs. However, providing promotional brochures with limited travel information do not fulfill the diverse interests and needs of tourist in the digital age, and creates brochure waste at the end of the customer journey which raises concerns of sustainability. Therefore, the research objective is to improve customer experience by introducing new sustainable services which can increase efficiency and customer satisfaction of TIC services, and potentially create a motivation to visit TICs. The research especially focuses on rethinking travel brochures that can reduce brochure waste and promote sustainable tourism to tourists. Helsinki TICs were chosen as a research scope, since Helsinki city is one of the capital cities in the Nordic countries annually experiencing increasing tourists, and promoting sustainable tourism as the city strategy to visitors. To fulfill the research goal, the related literature were reviewed to understand the different approaches of tourism information, digital tourism, service design in tourism, and sustainable service proposal development which are used as a theoretical background for field research and service development. Qualitative field research was conducted in Helsinki TICs with direct observation and stakeholder interviews to understand the current ecosystem and gather insights from the field for the new service development. The results showed that (1) Helsinki TICs are still needed to customers, and current services can be more visible to assist customers throughout the trip by providing stronger cross channel experience to customers. Moreover, to promote offline Helsinki TICs, improving the online presence is crucial to increase awareness of the service points to customers. (2) Brochures and maps are an important medium used in TICs for customers, staff and business partners, however, brochure waste is a challenge to Helsinki TICs. The challenge can be tackled through sustainable brochure production guidelines and responsible consumption activities. (3) Customers visit Helsinki TICs for information, interaction and inspiration purpose. Generally, TIC staff are the first customer touchpoint at the TICs. However, the preference of information channels which acts as touchpoints can be different depending on the customer, which can eventually influence customer experience at the TICs. Therefore, a mixed balance (i.e., human interaction, digital services, and paper materials) of information services can be provided to fulfill different customer preferences and needs. (4) Helsinki TICs function as a strategic place for city branding and a promotional platform for local and regional businesses. For the customers, Helsinki is an important gateway to travel to other regional cities in Finland. Thus, collaborative and cooperative services between Helsinki and municipalities can be developed to assist throughout the customer journey and increase domestic tourism in Finland. Based on the research insights, five service suggestions were developed and proposed to improve Helsinki TICs customer experience in a sustainable way. The final suggestions were tested through semi-structured interviews with customers and experts of Helsinki TICs, and concludes three proposals to improve the customer experience of Helsinki TICs in a sustainable way. The first proposal is improving online presentations in My Helsinki website. This suggestion focuses on boosting the online presence of Helsinki TICs by stronger promotion with improved visual elements in My Helsinki website which can influence motivation and awareness of Helsinki TICs. The second proposal is implementing a self-service information kiosk in Helsinki TICs. By implementing digital services in the service points, this can support the TIC staff and can meet diverse customers’ needs. The last service proposal is creating brochure reuse and collect points for customers. This proposal focuses on increasing the lifespan of brochures and maps, and promote sustainable tourism to customers. This research contributes to the field by providing a better understanding of Helsinki TIC customers, and introducing future opportunity areas of sustainable information services based on the current service gaps in Helsinki TICs which was discovered during the field research, and new service proposals. Therefore, initial directions from this study can be used as a guidance for a smoother digital transition of the offline service points of TICs and customer experience improvement.