Active Learning Innovation in Tourism and Hospitality: The Co-Creation Process in Hospitality Services

Introduction

Companies currently face challenges that require constant adaptation to the evolution of the markets of the times and society. Therefore, we must adjust traditional management models to new contexts where people actively participate in the solution, not the problem. As such, the new management models cover collaborative and creative processes, inserted in a business culture that is innovative, positive, and encourages the participation of all involved. Furthermore, companies and organizations that aim to remain and succeed in the current market need to create an offer of products and services with added value propositions to differentiate themselves in a highly competitive environment with extremely well-informed, demanding, and active consumers.

Tourism and accommodation demand a progressive demand for unique, memorable, and personalized experiences, with differentiating service offers tailored to the target audience. However, although it is possible to see a wide variety of accommodation services available for consumption in certain segments, this diversity does not always result in customer satisfaction.

The organizational environment is at a time of great complexity and dynamism, so generating competitive advantage can determine organizational success and failure. Although there are already several studies on value co-creation, the topic remains a ‘black box’ to be explored and essential for developing institutions. Innovation is a necessary but not simple task in the contemporary business environment. Often, the work of teams is already limited and needs, for example, an external look. For this reason, solutions can be found outside the organization through partnerships with other companies or the academic community. This concept is a concept known as co-creation.

The tourism and accommodation sector faces new realities, which require new paradigms and ways of acting, and it even comes across new stakeholders with a different positioning, such as the senior tourist; for this reason, companies have to adapt to new supply and demand markets (Diekmann et al., 2020; Sie et al., 2021). On the supply side, digital transformation and sustainability have become fundamental pillars, which must be aligned with the profile of the increasingly demanding, more conscious and informed senior tourist who, besides wanting to understand the impact of their experience and their stay, try to get involved and also understand how to collaborate with the communities that host them. In this intersection between supply and demand, co-creation plays a fundamental role (Pellešová, 2020; Shin & Perdue, 2022).

Co-creation models are a broad concept used in several areas first explored and disseminated internationally in 2004 through an article published in the Harvard Business Review by Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004). While co-creation involves different internal and external elements (e.g., company, customers, and suppliers), it is included in management, marketing, and business practices to produce a result with added value.

It is imperative that tourist company professionals, particularly those in accommodation, better understand what the consumer is looking for to adapt their offer and optimize results. On the other hand, external agents are also involved in the co-creation process to better understand customers’ true needs, create new solutions that optimize the company’s resources, and guarantee better results and greater market satisfaction. Furthermore, involving and listening to stakeholders to understand what affects them contributes to a greater perception of reality in a collaborative co-creation process (Viglia et al., 2023).

Tourism and hospitality, including tourist developments, are sectors undergoing regeneration and recovery; because of the pandemic, it is increasingly necessary that solutions for the recovery, namely in long-stay accommodation in campsites, are outlined strategically and globally. Therefore, more than using collaboration, it becomes essential that managers include co-creation approaches with partners and customers when developing new services (Chen et al., 2017).