IRPFinalWebsite

LITERATURE
REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Defining Innovation
2.2.1 Why Innovation Matters
2.2.2 What Causes Companies to Fail?
2.2.3 Making Innovation More Predictable
2.2.4 How Innovation Efforts Can Be Shared
2.2.5 Identifying New Markets
2.2.6 The Building Blocks of an Innovative Culture
2.2.7 Insights
2.3 How is Tourism Changing?
2.3.1 A Greater Desire for Humanity in Travel
2.3.2 Competing with Digital Realities
2.3.3 Artificial Intelligence & Greater Personalisation
2.3.4 Insights
2.4 The Thai Startup Ecosystem
2.4.1 Understanding the Startup Approach
2.4.2 Contextualising Thailand’s Startup Ecosystem
2.4.3 Identifying the Challenges
2.4.4 The Possible Causes
2.4.5 The Impact of National Culture
2.4.6 Insights
2.1 INTRODUCTION
Travel and tourism offerings are a sizeable portion of the startup landscape (Paget et
al, 2010). However, tourism innovation literature is fragmented and scattered around
niche specialisations with little addressing Asia generally and Thailand more specifically.
Thailand is a particularly interesting case study as it is amongst the most visited
countries in the world with a significant portion of its GDP attributable to tourism, yet
its tourism innovation output within the travel-tech space is currently under developed
(Russell, 2017). The Literature Review will begin by defining and establishing the case for
innovation, followed by an analysis of shifting trends in tourism and where the industry
should focus its innovation efforts. The general findings from these two sections will
then be contextualised through an in-depth exploration of the Thai startup ecosystem
in order to understand its unique characteristics and identify where the challenges to
stimulating tourism innovation in Thailand may lie. For the purpose of establishing
a working definition of tourism in this project, the UN World Tourism Organisation’s
definition will be used:
12
‘Tourism comprises the activities of persons traveling to and staying in places outside
their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and
other purposes’ (World Tourism Organisation, 1993).