Monthly Archives: February 2012

REGISTER NOW : Technology Enabled Tourism Experience Economy

by Barbara Neuhofer


REGISTER NOW HERE –>>>

http://ifitteft-eorg.eventbrite.com/

 

When: Thursday, 18th April 2012, 09:00 – 11:30
Where: Eyefortravel Trave Distribution Summit 2012, London
Registration: Fees: Free for IFITT Members – £40 for non IFITT Members (charged at the entrance)

 

The International Federation for IT and Travel & Tourism (IFITT) is hosting a workshop entitled “Technology Enabled Tourism Experience Economy” at the EyeForTravel London Travel Distribution Summit Europe 2012. The workshop will take place on Thursday, 18th April from 9:00 am to 12:00 am at the Business Design Centre, London.

The experience economy has become an increasingly important concept in modern society as well as in business. Tourism as a traditionally service-dominated industry has always been on the forefront of the experience economy. Therefore, for tourism businesses, designing and delivering meaningful, unique and memorable consumer experiences has become an imperative. At the same time, recent dynamic technological advancements have provided opportunities for adding value to already high-level quality tourism products and services.

Businesses in the tourism, travel, cruise, aviation, or hospitality sectors, as well as a number of destination management organisations, have successfully implemented recent information and communication technologies in order to enhance the experiences for their customers. The event will highlight the increasing importance of technological solutions for customer experiences, and discuss how these can enhance the competitiveness of tourism and hospitality products and services.

IFITT President Professor Dimitrios Buhalis said “as tourism and leisure are increasingly recognised as experience industries we need to explore how technologies and technology enabled services will be critical in developing and delivering dynamic tourism experiences. Social media, mobile technologies, augmented reality and eventually gaming will give us technological tools for developing such experiences. The gamification of tourism will also enable us to create virtual experience and blend them with real experiences. This is a fantastically exciting area that we will explore on this event.”

 

FINAL PROGRAMME:

 

 

  • Barbara Neuhofer and Dimitrios Buhalis, eTourismLab, Bournemouth University:

The Technology Enhanced Tourist Experience

 

  • Danny Potter & Noel Hunwick, Owners, Inamo Restaurant London:

The Digital Dining Experience

 

  • Adriana Conte, Social Media Programme Manager & Phil Taylor, Head of Digital, VisitBritain:

The VisitBritain Tourist Experience

 

  • Hannes Werthner & Rainer Schuster, Founders, Pixtri OG:

PixMeAway: A picture-based search and recommendation platform for tourism objects

 

  • Carlo Fontana, General Manager, Hotel Lugano Dante:

High Tech for High Touch

 

  • Marco Fanton, Social Media Director, Sol Meliá Group:

The Technology-Enhanced Guest Experience in the Sol Meliá Hotels

 

  • PANEL DISCUSSION & Q&A SESSION

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ENTER 2012 – Main conclusions

by Barbara Neuhofer

ENTER 2012, the annual IT and Tourism conference, was held from 24th to 27th January 2012 in Helsingborg, Sweden.

Organised by IFITT, the leading international organisation for information technologies in travel and tourism, this conference is the biggest tourism IT and travel related event of the year, attracting 300 delegates from more than 40 countries, covering all continents. This edition had 150 presenters, which attended the conference to discuss the present and the future of eTourism. Overall, the event included 6 keynotes, 51 research papers, 59 industry presentations, 16 PhD-student presentations and 14 presentations on the Scandinavian day.

IFITT President Professor Dimitrios Buhalis stated that “ENTER has again identified the most important developments in tourism and technology. It is evident from the presentations that social media is becoming the most critical communication tool for organizations to engage dynamically with consumers. Applications which are location and context aware and facilitate a range of sensors also emerge to provide dynamic solution for the travellers. Perhaps the future will emerge through innovations in augmented reality and gamification where the virtual will blend with the real world. This will enable tourism and travel organizations to co-create memorable experiences with – rather than for – tourists, throughout their journey from inspiration to travel experience and post-trip sharing in the social world.”

Rodolfo Baggio, ENTER2012 Chair said: “A wonderful team has been able to provide a well-balanced and high-quality program. Good and insightful presentations from academia, industry and destinations have given the audience examples and ideas. The social program, and the Swedish hospitality has then helped strengthening the most important aspect of the whole IFITT community: the willingness to work together for the advancement of the field.”

During ENTER2012 KLM was awarded with the prestigious IFITT innovation award for their innovations on social media marketing and state -of-the art approach in customer service via social media in airline industry. Additional IFITT Awards were presented: the Hannes Werthner Tourism and Technology Lifetime Achievement Award to Inkeri Starry from Regional Council of Lapland (Finland), Dr. Carlos Lamsfus from Cic-Tourgune (Spain) won the Thesis Excellence Award, while Malgorzata Ogonowska (Poland) won the best PHD proposal Award. ENTER2012 Best Paper Award was presented to Ada Lo, Joey Wu and Rob Law (Hong Kong Polytechnic University); Andrew Lepp, Heather Gibson, Charles Lane won the Journal Paper of the Year Award for a study entitled: Image and perceived risk – A study of Uganda and its official tourism website published in Tourism Management. Finally, John Fotis won the picture competition with a prize offered by the Thailand Tourism Board.

Barbara Neuhofer is awarded 2nd Prize for Best PhD Proposal at ENTER2012

by Barbara Neuhofer

(In the picture: Prof. Dimitrios Buhalis, IFITT President; Barbara Neuhofer, Bournemouth University PhD Student; Dr. Ulrike Gretzel, Chair ENTER 2012 PhD Workshop)

 

Babara Neuhofer, PhD student at the Bournemouth University eTourism Lab won the 2nd Prize of the PhD Workshop Best Proposal Award at ENTER 2012, held in Helsingborg, Sweden on 24th to 27th January for her proposal entitled “Revisiting the Tourist Experience: An exploration of the essence of the technology-enabled enhanced tourist experience”.

The annual PhD Research Workshop at the ENTER conference was attended by doctoral students from all over the world who are undertaking research in information and communication technology in the tourism industry. The ENTER 2012 conference was run by the International Federation for Information Technology in Travel and Tourism (IFITT), the leading independent global community for the discussion, exchange and development of knowledge about the use and impact of ICT in the travel and tourism industry.

Barbara’s research, supervised by Prof. Dimitrios Buhalis, Prof. Adele Ladkin and Dr. Scott Cohen, focuses on exploring how technologies can be used to enhance the tourist experience for the tourist throughout all stages, i.e. pre/during/post, of the travel process.

Abstract of the PhD Proposal:

The notion of consumers increasingly striving for experiences constitutes a prevalent concept in today’s experience economy. The significance of experiences in both tourism research and practice has been acknowledged by literature in the past. However, given the recent impact of technology on tourist experiences, there is evidence for a prevailing insufficient understanding of the experience in a technology-mediated context. Considering that the changing nature of the tourist experience needs to be understood in order to create and deliver competitive experiences in the future, a revision of the concept is indispensable. Based on this rationale, the doctoral research aims to explore how technologies can be used to enhance the tourist experience for the tourist throughout all stages, i.e. pre/during/post, of the travel process. Theoretical contribution in terms of developing a holistic framework to understand and measure the Technology Enhanced Tourist Experience by adopting a mixed methods approach will be provided.

For further information on Barbara’s research project.

View Barbara’s PhD Research Poster: ENTER 2012_Poster Presentation_Barbara Neuhofer.

For further information on ENTER2012 go to: http://www.ifitt.org/congresses/website/enter2012/Home_page.