New food experiences for international travellers : case ChocoSomnia
Myllykangas, Kaisa (2025)
2025
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025110927426
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025110927426
Tiivistelmä
Tourism business is one of the sectors growing faster than the rest of the economy. Tourism is a diversified sector, it is not just accommodation, it extends to food, culture and transport sectors. Tourists as consumers are keener on spending more money on food while travelling than in their everyday lives. The present trend is to support the local food production and food culture by consuming local food while travelling. Food related services to tourists are a possibility for businesses to develop their income and build competitive advantage.
This practice-based master’s thesis aimed to find out how to utilize different experimentation-driven innovation and service design methods to create successful food tourism experiences which meet the needs of international travellers coming to Oulu Region. The thesis had a case company, ChocoSomnia, which is an SME, manufacturing different chocolate related products and producing chocolate-themed experience services such as tastings and workshops. The goal was to invent and test a new, innovative food service experience targeted to international customer segment, which the company could utilize in the future.
For the theory part, the focus was on tourism industry, food tourism and at the basics of service development. Experimentation-driven innovation and service design methods were examined at the end of the theory part, and they were utilized in the practical part with the case company ChocoSomnia. Since the output of this thesis is confidential, as a result I describe how the development process went and what my key learning as a business developer were.
This thesis indicated that different experimentation-driven innovation and service design methods and tools are well suited for SMEs’ service development. The work brought new expertise to me as a business developer and the case company got material for a new food experience service product and valuable feedback from piloting test group.
This practice-based master’s thesis aimed to find out how to utilize different experimentation-driven innovation and service design methods to create successful food tourism experiences which meet the needs of international travellers coming to Oulu Region. The thesis had a case company, ChocoSomnia, which is an SME, manufacturing different chocolate related products and producing chocolate-themed experience services such as tastings and workshops. The goal was to invent and test a new, innovative food service experience targeted to international customer segment, which the company could utilize in the future.
For the theory part, the focus was on tourism industry, food tourism and at the basics of service development. Experimentation-driven innovation and service design methods were examined at the end of the theory part, and they were utilized in the practical part with the case company ChocoSomnia. Since the output of this thesis is confidential, as a result I describe how the development process went and what my key learning as a business developer were.
This thesis indicated that different experimentation-driven innovation and service design methods and tools are well suited for SMEs’ service development. The work brought new expertise to me as a business developer and the case company got material for a new food experience service product and valuable feedback from piloting test group.