Testing discontinuous innovations in the tourism industry: The case of scenic airship services

The tourism industry is widely recognised as a driver of economic growth around the world. Yet it has also been recognised that the tourism industry faces many issues regarding continued growth and development. Novel ideas are needed to ensure the future growth of the tourism industry. Discontinuous innovations are products that aim to solve existing needs in dramatically different and better ways. This study contributes to the tourism literature by developing a methodology for testing discontinuous innovations in the tourism industry. The new methodology has five phases: (1) qualitative exploration, (2) quantification, (3) product development, (4) evaluation, and (5) qualitative explanation. A case study operationalises this methodology within the context of scenic airship services. Significant consumer interest was shown for scenic airship services and a descriptive model of what drove this interest was created for the tourism market of Queenstown, New Zealand.