Inovação tecnológica utilizada no parque de neve Snowland em Gramado - RS

Abstract

The spread of tourism brought as a consequence the need to innovate constantly to attract new visitors. Innovation in services not only contributes to the high performance and the company's profitability, but for economic development as a whole. Thus, justified the use of technology in the constant search for innovation, is to launch a new product or service, change or improve their processes, marketing or management, considering it as a key element for technological innovation happen. From the importance of the issues related to the subject, the research aimed to verify the technological innovations implemented in the services and innovations in processes, radical and incremental, in Snowland snow park, located in Gramado, Rio Grande do Sul, and if these technological innovations attract tourists to the city. The methodology used was a case study, exploratory and descriptive, divided into two stages of research, focused on data collection. In the first stage it was used for in-depth interviews conducted with company experts. Later interviews passed through content analysis. In the second research stage was used the survey research method, applying a structured questionnaire, which was validated by experts and tested, and later applied to a sample of 385 visitors. At this stage, the data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and multivariate linear regression. As a result in qualitative research, it was found that technological innovations in services are mainly related to the snow production equipment and skidoo the battery, and these innovations can be considered radical. With regard to innovations in processes, we have to purchase tickets online, the use of electronic bracelets, which record the consummation, and efficient checklist in preparation and guidance for practical activities, they were considered incremental innovations. In quantitative research found that the first choice of tourists is related to visiting natural attractions (48.8%), while in second place is the snow park (23.4%). In addition, the end of the work, the average found for the innovations of the park was 6.51 and the services provided were satisfactory, was 6.03. Therefore, the study was able to search on technological innovation in the service sector, because usually most studies are focused on the industry sector. Furthermore, considering that the issue is being discussed in the gym and that needs to be widespread in the business world, it is pertinent to the development of scientific research in this area of knowledge, encouraging the practice of technological innovation in the tourism sector.