This presentation was part of the SDT2012 - the 1st international conference on service design and tourism, Innsbruck/Austria, August 23-24, 2012. For more info on the conference and other presentations visit: www.sdt2012.com. All rights reserved by the author(s): Bert Smit, The Netherlands NHTV University of Applied Sciences Bert Smit is senior lecturer and researcher on Imagineering and Service Design at NHTV Breda. Although educated as a social scientist, he has had a career in designing and branding zoo’s. He is currently working on his PhD focusing on the design of life changing experiences. Nathalie Vermeij, The Netherlands Hospitality Design Nathalie Vermeij is currently in the graduation phase of her bachelor International Real Estate & Facility Management. Throughout her education she has been interested in guest experiences. In her thesis she has focused on guest experiences in hospitals which has led to a new service evaluation tool . Combining customer journey mapping with customer delight principles as a tool to steer the strategic investment agenda in service development. A case study of Dutch hospital services translated to the tourism industry. This paper presentation aims to show the added value of customer journey thinking (Stickdorn and Schneider, 2011) combined with the customer delight principles first coined by Kano (1984). By assessing the elements of the customer journey in four major Dutch hospitals using the Kano methodology, the customer journey was mapped for different types of users. As a result three types of elements were identified in the hospital customer journey: the minimum requirements of the customer journey; the elements that show a linear correlation between quality and satisfaction; and finally the elements that have the greatest influence on customer satisfaction but are not part of the other two types, the so-called exciters. The study has provided the hospitals with valuable information on where investing in improvements or innovation would have the biggest effect on customer satisfaction and possibly loyalty in the market driven Dutch hospital sector . In this paper the authors will build a case of how this methodology can used in tourism related service environments and how this will influence strategic decision making related to investments.