Hospitality Innovations in the Emerging Experience Economy

Abstract

With the emergence of the experience economy, hospitality consumers have become qualitatively more discerning and are increasingly demanding innovative products and services. In order to understand the DNA of successful hospitality innovations, this chapter uses the case study of the Oberoi Group’s luxury resorts to examine the innovations in the components of the marketing mix. The chapter then looks at the innovative personalized experience options offered by the resorts to meet the exponentially rising bar of guest expectations. The strategic role that hospitality employees play in contributing to and implementing service innovations, as well as the importance of embedding a culture of excellence and creative thinking in the organisation by recruiting the right employees and by providing training, empowering and engaging them to enable to innovate on a continuous basis, is also highlighted.