Lecture about the topic in Laurea

1. MOBILE AND
VIRTUAL
PRODUCTS IN
TOURISM
Johanna Heinonen
11.3.2015

2. First practical assignment 1
 One sunny August day Sam the Student walked in the
doors of Leppävaara campus. He was about to start
his studies in tourism in Laurea.
 He stood in the lobby, looked around and wondered
where he should go. He was lost. His head was
spinning and he felt ill.
 So he went outside to get some fresh air and to think.
 And then he saw a QR code in the front door. He
scanned it and it told him to go to one place where
he find another QR code to show him to another
place.
 QR codes saved Sam’s day. With the help of them he
learnt his way around the campus and was never lost
again.
 Your job is to find evolve the story and create one QR
code to the place you’ve been given. Add also some
action there, e.g. jump like a frog in the lobby!

3. First practical assignment 2
 Team 1: Library
 Team 2: Students’ office
 Team 3: Helpdesk
 Team 4: Comms
 Team 5: LaureAMKO
 Team 6: Bar Laurea
 Go and take pictures of the place.
 Go on with the story of Sam the Student
 What is this place and what is he supposed to do there?
 Create a video, a picture with text or add instrcutions to
a website
 Create a QR code of this
 Send QR code and possible pictures / videos to teacher
johanna.2.heinonen@laurea.fi for further use 

4. First practical assignment 3
EXAMPLE: Health services
 Sam has found the nurse, but there is a
long queque to her.
 One of Sam’s fellow students is really
nervous, so Sam decides to measure her
pulse.
 Take a picture of Sam taking the pulse
and post it to Instragram with hashtag
#Laurea_UAS and autogram it to
@Laurea_UAS and write something Sam
would have said about Laurea health
services

5. First practical assignment 4
SOME INSTRUCTIONS
 If you are creating a website, you can use following:
 https://sites.google.com/site/leppavaaramobile
 Log in with
 Username Laureamobiletourism@gmail.com
 Password LaureaUAS
 Go to the page where your destination is mentioned
 Click the pencil on the right hand corner and edit the
page
 Creating QR code
 Go to e.g. http://www.qrstuff.com/
 Choose the type of original ”data”
on the left
 Follow instructions in the middle (stage 2)
 Download QR code (on the right)

6. First practical assignment 5
WHAT DID YOU LEARN?
 What is important in creating
this sort of ”product” from
customer/user perspective?
 What are the essential issues
you must consider?
 What was hard / difficult?
 Is this something you would
use as a tourist?
 Challenges?

7. Johanna ”Jonna” Heinonen
 Senior Lecturer in Laurea since September 2014
(before Haaga-Helia)
 Marketing, communication, digitalisation, tourism
 Background in tourism: destination & regional tourism
development/EU-projects in Kymenlaakso region, Viking
Line (conceptualization/service development)
 Social media, ebusiness, digitalisation ”nerd” since 1990
 Latest effort in ”real business” developing Southeast135
(= tourism brand for Kotka-Hamina region) ebusiness 2013
– 2014
 Tourism efforts at the moment
 Putting Kerava on world map (mobile ”adventure” in Kerava
city center)
 Selling Finland to scouts abroad = organizing tours for foreign
participants of the Jamboree in July 2016

9. ONLINE
PURCHASES
DURING THE
PAST 12
MONTHS
2015
Source: http://bit.ly/Eurostat_Onlinepurchases

10. What type of
information
are people
usually
looking for in
local
businesses?
Source: Consumerbarometer.com

11. DIGITAL TOURISM TRENDS

12. Tourism
companies and
digital
opportunities
Source:
The e-Business Index (2006) for sectors
http://www.umic.pt/images/stories/public
acoes/BR06.pdf

13. 3,1%
12,0%
16,4%
17,6%
26,0%
8,3%
8,4%
12,4%
8,5%
21,4%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
Blogs Feedback Shopping Offers Information
Company Customer
Identity
“Companies should understand that social media is something they must done
continuously. They should hire someone to follow social media and customers’ opinions and
post instead of doing this job just besides the regular tasks”

14. 4,1%
5,2%
7,5%
13,2%
31,3%
38,6%
7,0%
2,2%
15,8%
16,5%
28,1%
30,4%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Anyone
Other
Customer
s
Agency
Personnel
Entrepren
eur
Company Customer
Profile
“Companies should try to create a dialogue with a customer. It is just not enough to create a
fan page in Facebook and fill it with offers and advertisements”
“I don’t want everybody to see when customers we don’t even want to have write negative
things about us”

15. 53%
47%
Measuring the impact of social media
use
Yes
No
The more you understand what is wrong
with a figure, the more valuable that figure
becomes ~ Lord Kelvin ~

16. Image
“I do not travel anywhere without
checking the destination,
accommodation and restaurants in
Tripadvisor. That is part of my
everyday life. I have even sometimes
sent mail to some persons who have
given their comments and asked them
for further details.”
“People are always talking, why
should we care about that. There will
always be negative feedback and if
someone decides not to visit us based
on that, then they maybe are the
wrong customers for us.”
35%
65%
Knowledge of customer thoughts
Yes
No

17. Essentials in creating mobile / virtual
tourism services
 Story (ie Citynomadi and Kotka)
 Easy to use for customer
 Clear & simple (also technology behind)
 Interesting
 External service provider vs. Ownership (Google Maps
vs. Here)
 Affordable (also offline vs. roaming)
 Website or App
 IOS, Android, Windows
 Known and ”famous”
 Resources (especially human)

18. So how to do it?
1. Goals
2. Who is your customer? What
channels / devices s/he uses?
What kind of information /
products / services s/he
searches?
3. Resources
4. Contents
5. Technology
6. Key persons and budget
7. Measurement

19. THANK YOU!
Further questions:
Johanna Heinonen
johanna.2.heinonen@laurea.fi
https://www.facebook.com/JohannaHoo
https://twitter.com/Jonna_Hoo
https://fi.linkedin.com/in/johannaheinonen