Local Experiences, a New Trend? - A Study Exploring Innovation in Lokalii

Local experiences within tourism have been a growing trend for the past years. Tourists want to experience what the locals do: where they eat and where they sleep. They can use their smartphone to access services that offer what they are looking for. Smartphones are easily accessed. Various travel apps are analyzed, by focusing on a travel app for local experiences; Lokalii. This thesis is written in collaboration with the developers of the app. Lokalii is an app that offers experiences curated by private individuals. Anyone can show off their talent, and offer an experience. The app gives the users the opportunity to experience a city like locals do. Users can learn new things, see new places in a city, and develop relations to the hosts of the experiences. New companies can often develop products or services that change the market. In several cases, these can be described as disruptive innovations. This thesis seeks to explore whether Lokalii can be described as a disruptive innovation, as defined by Clayton M. Christensen. This has been done by conducting focus groups. The information from the focus groups combined with analyzes of mobile app design theory, innovation theory and experience design theory, gives a comprehensive image of Lokalii. Disruptive innovation is a theory that have been used by many scholars, and criticized as well. This thesis use the theory on an entrant, to see if it is possible to describe it, based on various aspects from both the theory and the app