Keywords

1 Introduction

Digitalisation has got new forms in tourism and creating experiences during the past years. When people have been forced to stay at home instead of experiencing places themselves, the meaning – and the challenges - of digital storytelling and experience design have increased. Gamification enables participants to engage actively and entertain themselves even online, and thus create cognitive ties towards the destinations and attractions. These digital experiences make visiting the places in real life better than merely promoting and marketing the destinations. Also, gamification in the attraction enhances the learning and sustainability requirements many slow travellers have [2] by providing immersiveness and guidance with the help of AR (augmented reality) -enabled small tasks challenging travellers.

The number of people playing games is ever-increasing, and the number of video game players is expected to be over 3 billion by 2023 [2]. Despite the typical stereotype of only kids playing games, most players are adults capable [3] of making, e.g. travel decisions. However, despite their potential, games are less used in destination marketing among DMOs and businesses.

The objectives of this paper are 1) to provide new insights and 2) to increase understanding of acceptance and role of gamification tourism. Previous studies have identified the potential of gamification in tourism. [5,6,7,8,9] Thus, this paper aims to enlighten the challenges in adapting the gamification of tourism experiences among selected tourism organisations and DMOs and works as a basis for the future development of gamification.

King’s Road is an old historical road from Bergen in Norway to St. Petersburg in Russia. In Finland, King’s Road and its attractions are coordinated by King’s Road Association. Local entrepreneurs presented the idea to gamify the road in a seminar hosted by King’s Road Association. They thought it would advance productisation and storification to support their business operations and bring new customers down the road. This idea was given to a multidisciplinary group of young professionals to create two different but collaborative game forms (video game and mobile game) to enrich the experiences, highlight the authentic history and Finnish mythology and boost businesses by reaching new target groups. During the process, the idea was presented to different DMOs along the southern coastline of Finland. This paper analysed the results of these discussions by reflecting on the responses from DMOs to the innovation acceptance model.

The main research question in this case study is, “On what level of acceptance are the DMOs along King’s Road concerning new gamification ideas?” This question is further defined in the following sub-questions: 1) What elements boost or hinder acceptance? Furthermore, 2) How to influence and ensure acceptance of gamification technologies? These questions allow us to analyse the concept of gamification from different perspectives and produce results that will advance the understanding of gamification in tourism. They also open a collaborative dialogue between the game industry and tourism organisations.

2 Gamification in Tourism

Gamification has many definitions, and one widely accepted definition defines it as “game design contextualising outside its original domain” [10]. Thus, gamification, as a word, entails a wide range of applications: dice games, board games, card games, ad- games, game elements at a trade fair, and even customer loyalty programs can be interpreted as a form of gamification. Game elements can be, for example, levels, points, progression, promotions, and badges [11].

Gamification aims to make the activity more attractive and entertaining. It is designed to boost hedonism encouraging the players to continue playing or return to it soon. Ryan and Deci [12] noted that the pure joy of playing and the hedonistic value it creates work as an intrinsic motivation for playing. In addition, gamification targets our natural desires for learning, achievement, status, competition and socialising [11, 13]. Successful gamification should aim to tap into this motivation base (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.
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Motivation base for gamification.

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Gamification would not succeed without experience design. Experience design is based on understanding customer experience, needs, and wants by researching and designing or developing services to match or exceed those expectations. It is a process that requires close collaboration with the customers. Theoretically, the tourism experience can be conceptualised as an outcome of design grounded in the holistic tourism experience [10].

When looking at how experiences are produced and delivered in tourism, entertainment and technology industries, Sundbo and Hagedorn-Rasmussen [6] suggest the term experience production system. This system develops an experience concept that connects the desired customer experiences with the organisation’s strategic objectives. This generation process creates two concepts: a tourism experience concept to cover a meta-concept (i.e., strategic value propositions) and an operational concept (i.e., orchestration of design elements) of the tourism experience. The meta-concept of a tourism experience is made up of the primary experiences, secondary experiences, and the foundation for a narrative about these experiences. These are made in response to the meaning-making possibilities discovered during exploratory design research. The complete tourist journey, from pre-trip to post-trip experiences, is covered by an operational tourism experience concept. Sundbo and Hagedorn-Rasmussen [6] highlight two essential design elements which make the experience concept successful: interactivity and triggers, which can also be found in gamification. Interactions influence how travellers evaluate their journey. Providing tourists with the experiences they desire may be advantageous in managing how they interact with the various parts of the attractions [4].

When destinations design gamified experiences, all different forms of games, the customer journey, interactivity and triggers should be considered. Weber [7] has identified ten various applications for gamification in tourism (Fig. 2). These are for pre, during and after travelling and show how widely gamification can be applied to other parts of the customer journey: location-based augmented reality games, gamified travel tours for urban and rural environments, gaming in theme parks, gamified immersive experiences in cultural heritage, gamification and transmedia storytelling, gamified restaurant experience, gamification in hospitality, gamified flying experience, experiencing virtual cultural heritage, and gamified virtual travel experience. In addition to enhancing existing services and products, gamification aims to create new innovative products and services [7].

Fig. 2.
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Ten gamification applications for pre, during and after travelling.

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Games are often portrayed as rich narrative learning environments. Mobile games utilise three types of storification: receiving (spectator), constructing (director) and participating in (actor) the story. Types of storification affect engagement differently. Participating in the story, or living the narrative, elicited high activity in the game but less awareness of the story, while building the story generated awareness of the complete story. However, compared to receiving the story, both these types positively influenced activeness and motivation during the game. [8, 9] More intensive narratives create more engagement [14]. Engaging stories have emotional, cognitive and behavioural consequences, such as empathy, immersion and purchase intention [15]. Based on these facts, it can be argued that experience design strategically creates the points for interaction [6] which are then delivered through narrative in gamification to the tourists [8, 9], and those interactions affect how tourists perceive the trip [5].

Though most games are not created with tourism in mind, the sector can frequently use them. [1]. Corrêaa and Kitanoa [16] identified two predominant types of games in the tourism industry: (1) online/offline games and (2) location-based mobile games, aiming to increase engagement and enhance tourists’ on-site experiences at the destination in an entertaining and informative manner.

Since video games as a tool for tourism are not discussed much in literature, King’s Road concept idea provides a new approach and angle to the ongoing discussion.

3 Innovation Acceptance

The acceptance of innovations in this King’s Road case is studied mainly from the Finnish DMOs’ side to understand how this new concept is accepted. The theory allows us to pinpoint the challenges affecting the acceptance rate. New services and products follow the diffusion of innovations theory introduced by Rogers in 1962 [17, 18]. The diffusion of innovations is depicted with normal distribution to demonstrate how quickly people adapt to innovations (Fig. 3). Thus, it is a unified theory to apply in this use case.

Fig. 3.
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Diffusion of innovation.

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Innovators comprise 2,5% of eager and bold individuals to test new ideas. For them, it is common to have a circle of other innovators around them and to possess substantial financial resources. Innovators have technical understanding, and they can tolerate uncertainty. Established habits do not stop them from trying innovations [17, 19].

Early adopters (13,5%) are an attractive group since they have remarkable opinion leadership in most social systems [17]. Early adopters can pressure other potential adopters and speed up the progress [20, 21]. People in this category enjoy the respect of their peers while simultaneously being role models [17]. In tourism, early adopters often have younger ages and higher education [22]. They also often have more knowledge and involvement in the product category or field than late adopters [23].

The early majority adopts innovations slightly before an average user, while the late majority is a bit after the average. The last 16% of people belong to the laggard category. Decisions are made based on what has been done previously, which is why often the others have already absorbed a more novel idea when the laggards are adapting the initial one [17]. Some say that the laggards are imitating or copying rather than innovating, which can be a good skill when forming incentive plans or setting strategic goals [24]. In tourism, laggards can be, for instance, the locals or entrepreneurs who are suspicious or have no recognition [25]. The main issues are risks and a lack of understanding of innovation’s advantages or benefits [19].

The early majority adopts innovations slightly before an average user, while the late majority is a bit after the average. The last 16% of people belong to the laggard category. Decisions are made based on what has been done previously, which is why often the others have already absorbed a more novel idea when the laggards are adapting the initial one [17]. Some say that the laggards are imitating or copying rather than innovating, which can be a good skill when forming incentive plans or setting strategic goals [24]. In tourism, laggards can be, for instance, the locals or entrepreneurs who are suspicious or have no recognition [25]. The main issues are risks and a lack of understanding of innovation’s advantages or benefits [19].

The diffusion of innovation has been complemented later in the literature with other theories, such as the five stages of grief by Kubler-Ross [26], the technology acceptance model by Davis [27] or Parasuraman’s [28, 29] technology readiness index [30, 31]. Additionally, one could compare innovation acceptance to readiness for change. Knowing how to persuade others towards a positive change is crucial to make people accept changes. [32, 33]. Technology does cause both negative and positive emotions, as well as insecurity and anxiety, which influences technology usage [28, 34]. Therefore, customer needs should not be forgotten to thrive [35]. The more satisfied customers are, the more they will use electronic services [30].

The most significant influencing factors on innovation diffusion have different viewpoints [20]. The critical element can be reaching the early adopters and early majority. On the other hand, reducing the price [20] or geography [36] is argued to affect the diffusion process. Geography in this context means both knowledge and technology transmission [36]. Depending on the innovation, the technological performance compared to the previous product or market demand can be the main component of innovation diffusion [37].

In this paper, the interest is to compare the diffusion of innovation model to the Finnish DMOs attitudes towards the presented gamification concept. The aim is to identify the categories where the Finnish DMOs currently belong and find solutions to upgrade one’s category.

4 Method

To get an idea of the innovation acceptance among the DMOs and other tourism development organisations (Table 1) along King’s Road, the idea of the gamified experience concept, including an interactive video game and a mobile game, was presented to 12 organisations between September 2021 and March 2022. These twelve organisations present 75% of the total Visit/development organisations or municipalities along King’s Road.

The idea was to hear spontaneous comments and questions from the organisations, so qualitative and inductive methods were chosen. Since the concept of games and gamification is still relatively unfamiliar, the discussions started with the presentation of gamification and video games in general and how the new concept would function in real life. Also, a short trailer video [38] (proof of concept) was shown to illustrate the looks of the video game, what it could be, and how it could present attractions of the area. Due to the unfamiliarity of gamification, a case example was needed for demonstration and inspiration. After the presentation, respondents were encouraged to share their thoughts and ideas without any specific guidance. The discussion went on without any particular agenda, instead of asking them structured questions or guiding the discussion one way or another. This supported the original idea of the inductive approach. Feedback and responses from the discussions were collected into an excel sheet and analysed thematically. The findings highlight the obstacles and possibilities of this presented gamification concept from the DMOs’ point of view.

The inductive approach was chosen because it fits the interest in identifying patterns and central themes [38]. Qualitative research methods were more suitable in this study since the data is textual and collected via conversations [39]. The thematic analysis method allowed us to identify and interpret patterns of meaning and suited well to the inductive approach by helping examine the perspectives of different research participants, emphasising differences and similarities, and producing unexpected insights [40].

5 Findings and Conclusions

Once the presentation had finished, most of the respondents found it exciting and innovative for the future (Table 1). Based on the general responses, it was clear that gamification is not yet as efficiently utilised in tourism as possible. AR applications to walking routes also include storification, which can be developed further by adding other gamification elements. Even though the idea was found interesting, the responses were mostly reserved. Many (Table 1) were worried about monetary issues, how much the concept would cost and how much it would benefit. Also, the maintenance and further development were considered an issue for acceptance. Some responses emphasised that they already had some QR or Google maps-based solutions to which they wanted this new concept to fit, which showed a lack of technical knowledge.

The anticipations regarding the video game concerned the age of the players and the possibility that games would stop people from coming to the destination in real life. The inductive responses can be seen in Table 1.

Table 1. Central feedback from respondents
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When the discussion themes are viewed from the innovation acceptance perspective (Table 2), it can be stated that the private development organisations were the most eager and enthusiastic about the new concept. The monetary issues can also explain this; private development organisations have access to different, often superior, funding solutions compared to public organisations.

Most reluctant were a couple of DMOs and one national organisation. These respondents, situated in the late majority or laggards categories, raised concerns that video games would replace on-site travelling and wanted the concept to fit into existing solutions. Their hesitation could already be seen when arranging the meeting as it proved difficult. These concerns can be tackled by designing gamified experiences or services to fit the needs of the company and the traveller; hence, these concerns can be due to la ack of information regarding technological solutions for gamification.

Table 2. Innovation acceptance among respondents
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As a whole, the innovation acceptance among these organisations is average at the early majority level. However, one can anticipate whether that is enough to compete in the global market. Therefore, the value of this preliminary research for understanding is essential to find proper ways of selling new ideas and convincing organisations of the importance of gamification.

6 Discussion

The games designed for tourism benefit two industries: tourism and games, but also local communities and entrepreneurs will also benefit from marketing and productisation. On a strategic level, in the future, this collaboration will be a standard in the tourism and game industry. The games would welcome tourism-related knowledge and target specific tourists.

The answer to the question “On what level of acceptance are the DMOs along King’s Road concerning new gamification ideas?” varies from the innovators to laggards depending on the organisation and its people. Personal traits were a vital issue in acceptance; this emphasises the importance of recruitment processes so that we find people in the industry with certain innovative personal traits. By interpreting the feedback word by word, the innovation acceptance level was easier to detect and analyse, also by DMOs themselves. When looking at the reason for the acceptance level, we can rely on the innovation acceptance literature, where technology acceptance [28, 29] and technology readiness [30, 31] are emphasised as a part of the whole resilience, the readiness and capability to change. In this study, it was clear that the DMOs were still in the middle of the acceptance curve. It was partially due to the technological readiness and knowledge, but also the emotions of insecurity and anxiety, as mentioned by Parasuraman [28] and Blut & Wang [34].

According to Bianchi et al. [20], the critical element for boosting acceptance is to reach the early adopters or early majority. This study revealed that those were usually private companies or organisations with a broader market view. Future studies could research this aspect more and discover why private organisations are more innovative than others.

Smartness and smart tourism are the keywords in destination development, and plenty of research has been done in that area. Nevertheless, the gamification research from the acceptance point of view is quite non-existing. Thus, the theoretical contributions of this study enlighten that area and lay a basis for future studies about the knowledge level and requirements among tourism professionals because the lack of knowledge was surprising in the modern days of information flow and technology. Also, structural issues among DMOs concerning management and governance are worth studying from a gamification aspect; it seemed that many respondents were very stuck in their old ways.

When assessing this case study, 12 respondents might not be enough to guarantee a reliable analysis for the whole Finland. However, organisations represented most of King’s Road organisations, and the research showed similarities among organisations, and the key issues were quite common. Future research on the innovation adaptation of games, as well as follow-up for respondents in this study, is needed with more respondents, deeper analysis and different geographical areas.

From the managerial point of view, this study offered valuable information on the issues to tackle when introducing new concepts to DMOs. It also revealed some guidelines for innovators and early adopters who should be convinced first.