Question 1
Case Scenario

SingExplorer Pte Ltd (SingExplorer) is a local enterprise that conducts and manages inbound tours in Singapore. During the recent COVID-19 pandemic period, its business was affected badly and it had to scale down and pivot its business to being a booking agent for local attractions, hotels, and cruises. After the pandemic, it reverted to its old business. Even so, it could only recover back to about 70% of its pre-pandemic sales. It is now looking for opportunities to grow its inbound business.

SingExplorer is not alone in this predicament. The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) had obtained similar feedback and wanted to help the industry. It also hopes to promote Singapore as a pre-eminent tourist destination in Southeast Asia. It notes that Singapore has been accorded two UNESCO heritage statuses: Hawker Culture and Tropical Botanical Gardens. Leveraging these awards, the STB has started to promote Singapore as a must-come destination in overseas markets. At the same time, it has set up a Local Tourism Innovation (LTI) Grant program for any creative tourism service that is themed on either one or both of these UNESCO awards. The grant for each successful proposal is worth up to $50,000.

SingExplorer is deeply interested in pursuing the LTI grant. The grant will help to defray costs in developing a new range of services that it can offer to its customers. This will create yet another avenue of growth for the company.

In this assignment, you will be required to use independent thinking and analytical judgment to apply innovation effectively to real-world problems.

Imagine that you are a product manager at SingExplorer and you have been tasked to propose a new service innovation to the STB. How will you develop the discussions, justifications, and presentations to the senior management of the company and to the STB?

Question 1a

Analyze the case scenario and suggest a service innovation that will help promote Singapore as an attractive tourist destination that leverages the UNESCO accolades. Explain how your proposed service will be delivered along with a clearly labeled diagram of a delivery blueprint. Illustrate with a collage of images of how you would like your prospective customers to view your service. What is the most distinctive part of your service and justify, using a suitable theoretical framework, why it can be considered “new”?

Question 1b

The tourism industry is highly competitive. Appraise three (3) distinct ways to protect your proposed service innovation. Support your answer with how similar real-life businesses are protecting their service innovations. Citations and references are required.

Question 2

Question 2a

Explain the concept of digital transformation. Noting that services can often include technological options, describe a real-life example from which you can learn how to apply digitalization to the delivery of your proposed innovation in Q1(a). Citations and references are required.

Question 2b

What is Design Thinking? Demonstrate how you would apply any of the five (5) stages of Design Thinking on a continual basis to improve on your proposed innovation of Q1(a).

Section B

Question 3

The Singapore Tourism Board manages a Local Tourism Innovation grant for
promoting tourism in Singapore. Your company management would like you to make a formal presentation to the Board to convince them why your innovation idea should be eligible for the grant. Prepare a video presentation of at least 3 minutes but not exceeding 6 minutes. It should present a summary of your answers to Question 1 and Question 2 found in Section A.

There are two methods for ECA video assignment submission: either Record Media or Upload Media. For Upload Media, please note that your file size should be no more than 500MB and the format must be .mp4

Section C

Question 4
Prepare a set of PowerPoint presentation slides upon which the video presentation is based. Please note that the PowerPoint file must be converted to PDF format before submission to Canvas