As been told by Dimitrios Buhalis, this event is a unique opportunity to engage in the cutting edge research and engage in a dialogue with all stakeholders on how they can use this research to develop their competitiveness and achieve unique experience propositions. He also opened the event by introducing eTourismLab to the audience, who was consists of business people and researchers from tourism and technology fields. Those who could not attend the event, could simply access live streaming by using Ustream and also follow twitter updates by using #BUeTLab.

The event was part into two sessions. In the first half, the topic was focusing on ‘eTourism innovations and tourism and hospitality competitiveness’, with discussion ranging on variety of issues such as SoCoMo-Social Context Mobile Services in Tourism and the EU DIG project as presented by Soultana Symeonidou, Consumer-to-Consumer co-Creation in the Tourism and Event Experience as presented by Ivana Rihova, Active Seniors’ Engagement with Online Media in Their Holiday Purchases as presented by Philip James, as well as as Branding eWOM and Online Reputation as presented by Vicki Loi. Two guest speakers also took part in this event, namely Rowena Revill from Dorset Creative who was presenting on Innovative Applications for Tourism Business and Ramona Wagner from DigitalTourismThinkTank who was explaining on Global Best Practices of e-Destinations. Philip Alford was closing this session with his presentation on Digital Destinations and competitiveness of Small businesses.

After a short coffee break, Nicolas Gregori opened the second session by explained his current research on The Service of Now. In the second half, ‘eTourism Innovations and the future applications and re-engineering of travel experience’ was being the main topic. The other discussion within this topic was stretching from smart tourism cities as presented by Nao Li, gamification in terms of marketing tourism as presented by Feifei Xu and how augmented reality gaming could be implemented in tourism purpose as presented by Jessika Weber. Guest speaker for this session was Liz Gordon from Brilliant Fish who showed the sample of gamification implementation at Corfe Castle. More insightful issues were also placed along in this session, such as how technology enhanced tourist experiences as presented by Barbara Neuhofer and smartphone context-aware augmented reality applications in tourism as presented by Zornitza Yovcheva.

These packs of great presentations had stimulated vibrant and interactive discussions between speakers and audiences. Afterwards, all the speakers, event organisers and participants of the event were seal the day by having drinks and dinner at the Slug and Lettuce Pub as an informal get together.

The Flying Team: It's a wrap!

Here below are some comments on the event:

@mona_wagner: Great presentations about #mobile, co creation, smart cities, eWom and service of now @SchoolofTourism @buhalid #BUeTLab

@beesocialmedia: @buhalid thanks, great event. I’ve been scribbling down notes!

@DorsetCreative: @buhalid great concept on co-creation & experiences that we experience tourism ‘through the eyes of others’ via social media #BUeTLab

@SPLASHRICHMOND: @buhalid @BUFestivals @SchoolofTourism thanks for #BUeTLab today – sharing some AR ‘actual reality’ coming to dest. + attractions soon.

@TruTourism: @buhalid thanks for an excellent afternoon yesterday, well worth coming to. Some great work going on. Look forward to the next one!

@TouristNetwork: @buhalid Thanks for the retweet! Plus your hard work yesterday. Hope to seen you at another Festival of Learning soon!

[Slides from the speakers could be found here]

The partnership generates mutual advantages for both parties. Whereas the eTourism Lab will be provided with a new platform for its members to publish their cutting-edge research, the Digital Tourism Think Tank will benefit from useful insights into the latest innovations in information and communication technology for travel and tourism.

Moreover, the partnership will generate a valuable source for marketers and tourism professionals who can access both platforms and stay updated about the emerging trends from the eTourism industry, which becomes increasingly important in today’s dynamic market conditions.

What is the Digital Tourism Think Tank? 

 The Digital Tourism Think Tank is an initiative that provides thought leadership to the tourism industry in digital marketing best practice. The project, which was created by Managing Director at SE1 Media with 10 years experience working in digital tourism marketing Nicholas Hall, puts together a team of experts in diverse and varied fields of the tourism industry. The Digital Tourism Think Tank comprises special features including interviews with industry experts and DMOs, best practice guides and reports, a programme of events and workshops and the Digital Tourism Brand Index.

Partners of Digital Tourism Think Tank 

• Yahoo (lead partner)
• IFITT
• European Travel Commission
• Last Exit
• Travel Bloggers Unite
• CATALUNYA Tourism
• European Cities Marketing

2. The submission deadline for the abstracts has been extended to May 13!

–> Submission is highly recommended as you will extremely benefit from useful suggestions by experienced researchers for your research project!

Please submit at: https://www.easychair.org/account/signin.cgi?conf=ifittsw20

3. If you do not have the chance to submit an abstract you can also just attend the event!

Remember! The IFITT Doctoral Summer School is a great opportunity to discuss your research topic. Attendance will provide you with great advantages, especially if you are in the process of writing a Masters or PhD Thesis. Moreover, the event will give you a good chance to network with other researchers and speakers from across the globe.

For information about the Summer School please look at http://www.ifitt.org/home/view/summer_school#TimeSchedule

IFITT and the eTourism Lab are looking forward to meeting you soon!

Keep in mind! Those who submit their abstracts will benefit from useful suggestions by experienced researchers for their research projects!

Submit at: https://www.easychair.org/account/signin.cgi?conf=ifittsw2013

For information about the IFITT Doctoral Summer School:
http://www.ifitt.org/home/view/summer_school#TimeSchedule

The latest report featured Prof Dimitrios Buhalis and Zornitza Yovcheva from the BU eTourismLab about Augmented Reality in Tourism.

With the release of powerful smartphone devices, and more recently Google’s project Glass, Augmented Reality (AR) quickly became the new buzz word. The technology allows combining seamlessly physical world and virtual information, but is still widely under-utilised in the field of Tourism. This report presents 10 highly innovative AR experiences that showcase the potential of the technology to revolutionise the way we experience new destinations and services within the industry.

This report looks at the following best practices:

1. An Enhanced Booking Experience
2. Museum Interactivity
3. AR Browsers in the Destination
4. Responsive Experience Through Gaming
5. Services in the Restaurant
6. Re-living Historic Life and Events
7. The Hotel Experience
8. Transportation
9. Accessibility and Translation
10. Participative Destination Management

Access the full report here: DOWNLOAD REPORT

Bournemouth University, July, 8th-9th 2013

Hosted by the eTourism Lab at Bournemouth University, this first edition of the IFITT Summer Doctoral Summer School aims to bring together the future eTourism researchers for a two-day unconventional workshop on a variety of cutting edge eTourism topics.

The IFITT Doctoral Summer School provides all participants a unique platform for knowledge and idea exchange in the field of Travel and Tourism technologies and a great opportunity to network with early career researchers and speakers from across the globe. The Summer School will provide inspirational and practical insights on the current and future technological trends. Early-career researchers will familiarise with various research methodologies and will be introduced to the world of academic journal editors. Parallel sessions will help in sharing and discussing research ideas, and will provide participants with valuable and topic-specific feedback on their research.

Chairs: Alessandro Inversini and Barbara Neuhofer
Research Chairs: Carlos Lasmfus, Sofia Reino, Anastasia Mariussen
Host: Dimitrios Buhalis, BU eTourism Lab
Social Programme: Barbara Neuhofer and Nicolas Gregori

*** CALL FOR ABSTRACTS ***

In order to take part in the parallel sessions participants will be asked to submit a short abstract (500-800 words – See call for abstracts for details). Accepted abstracts will be assembled in an online publication “Letters from IFITT Doctoral School 2013”.

Call for abstracts: http://tinyurl.com/cdkld7y

Time Schedule

• Submission closes: May 1st 2013
• Acceptance: May 30th 2013
• Registration: June 2013
• Summer School: 8-9 July 2013

*** REGISTRATION ***

To register, please your abstract according to the deadlines indicated above. Upon successful acceptance we will send you a confirmation of registration.

http://ifitt-summerschool.eventbrite.co.uk/

Costs for registration:

• 30 euros for IFITT members
• 150 euros for non members (IFITT Student Membership 30 euros)

*** PROGRAMME***

Download the programme

Predicting technology is a thankless task, as it changes dramatically. It becomes more complex when trying to apply it to the tourism and travel industry; an industry that is extremely volatile, fragmented and dynamic.

Nevertheless at the eTourism Lab of Bournemouth University, the team is developing a range of Information Communication Technology (ICT) solutions that will engage the most cutting edge technology with the most innovative strategic management and marketing techniques in the tourism marketplace.

It is evident that the world is going to be totally interactive, using personalisation, context information and a variety of inter-connected devices to facilitate dynamic interaction. These are some of the predictions emerging through this research.

Social Transformation

Two major trends can be observed in the generation change. First, Generation X (Gen X, baby boomers born after 1950), which in 2010 had already reached 21% of the world’s population, becomes more active and enjoys travelling in their newly found leisure time. This generation is also known as ‘digital travellers’ making use of new technologies in all stages of the customer journey (mobile devices, tablets, desktop PCs etc.).

The other rising trend is ‘digital natives’ (20th century kids) growing up with technology and interacting with digital technology from early stages in all lifetime situations. Therefore, the increasing adoption of ICT by consumers will be a catalyst for changes in the tourism industry as well as for the development of sustainable strategies and lead to a competitive advantage within the market sector. This as a result, brings transparency, cocreation and interoperability in the marketplace.

Customer Co-Creation

Through extended value chains and co-creation between organisations and consumers as well as consumers with each other, the new tourism industry is evolving to one that is based on engagement and value added services, all amalgamated due to technology. Value in tourism is co-created by tourists themselves, as they engage in meaningful interactions and relationships not only with the tourism provider but also with each other. Technology will provide increasingly crucial tools that will support and facilitate tourists’ co-creation processes.

Tourism enhanced-experience with ICT

Creation of meaningful and memorable experiences constitutes a key concept in today’s tourism industry. Integrating emerging technologies in consumers’ everyday lives and travel activities will be critical in order to facilitate successful tourism experiences throughout all stages and touch points of travel. Research will deliver key knowledge of how to strategically use technology as a source of innovation, strategic differentiation and competitive advantage.

The tourism industry will benefit from creating high-touch technology-enhanced tourism experiences in the future by empowering customer co-creation, one-to-one engagement and personalisation.

Content & Context

Content will still be ‘king’ in the future as it is essential to convince potential tourists. However content presentation and amalgamation will change fundamentally. The power of pictures transmitting authentic experiences made in a tourism destination, hotel or any tourism attraction is what tourists are striving for.

Videos and increasingly interactive videos will also be of critical importance to demonstrate the experience and narrate the story. For tourism players, it will be more essential than ever to build up a strong online marketing strategy to (re-)position the brand on the web and at the same time meet the customer’s needs. Consumer generated context will be so much more powerful and convincing.

Therefore, a two-pronged strategy will be vital. On the one hand it will be needed to spread media rich data on different social media channels/platforms and on the other, to curate user-generated content on the tourism organisation platform and enrich it with unique content to make it more valuable and personalised.

New features such as private cloud computing, internet TV and face/pattern/image recognition will provide more exciting ways for interaction and visualisation.

Social Media, Location Based and Mobile (SoLoMo) Marketing

SoLoMo marketing is increasingly becoming a critical and pivotal tool for tourism marketing. It combines social media, location and context based marketing as well as mobile devices. Interactions are no longer bound by the constraints of stationary computers, as they are becoming digital real-time experiences at a physical location. SoLoMo represents a powerful opportunity in the field of social commerce, allowing marketers to serve better today’s multi-channel, multi-experience consumer.

Service of Now and Real Time

Enabled by social media and mobile internet devices, travellers are sharing their experiences, opinions and sentiments about products and brands during the consumption stage. Therefore, monitoring the social media sphere, and responding to or proactively engaging with the customer, becomes critical for competitiveness. This includes instant adaptation and personalization of services, immediate recovery of service failures and pro-active development of customer surprises and delights on the spot; all based on real-time social media input. This so-called ‘Service of Now’ concept will require employees across the company to drive social media engagement.

The industry will see a shift towards greater agility and flexibility of service operations, flattening of corporate hierarchies and increasing empowerment of front-line employees.

Augmented Reality and Gaming

Together with NOW, enhancing the environment with highly relevant, personalized and contextualized content is a fundamental to creating meaningful and unique destination experiences. Intelligent, location-based and context-aware Augmented Reality (AR) information systems are a key in realizing this vision. AR has the potential to augment a number of important activities, as well as different types of environments (hotels, parks, airports) and services (entertainment, education). Further research will deliver fundamental knowledge regarding the successful design, development and implementation of effective AR information services which disappear in the background but at the same time are constantly aware about the needs, motivations and attitudes of tourists.

In this context, mobile gaming will also play an important role providing the opportunity to immerse the tourist on-site throughout exciting storytelling and role-playing, challenges and social interaction with other players. AR in combination with gaming will open more opportunities for tourists and visitors: to engage with a destination and its history, architecture, heritage and traditions; to interact not only with the physical surroundings but also with other people (residents and visitors). By challenging the player throughout the destination visit, an AR gameplay can merge the virtual and physical worlds and enhance the tourist experience in a fun and enjoyable, but more importantly memorable and unique way.

Online reputation and E-Branding

The internet has transformed brand management in travel and tourism. To a large extent, it has shifted the brand creation that for so many years worked in favour of brand managers. However, with the interactive power of social media, more business to consumer, consumer to consumer engagements and dialogues are further encouraged.

Successful brand management in Web 2.0 is not conducted by brand managers alone, but instead co-created through on-going interactions among brand users so that establishing a common understanding of the brand concept. Stories about travel brands, products and services that are posting and sharing by travellers in social media create a central concern for tourism providers who try to manage their online reputation. Successful online reputation management in Web 2.0 and social media, require tourism providers to carefully curate the content available in their own platforms, for instance, official website in Facebook and Twitter, regularly monitoring content, and systematically monitoring all forms of social media such as third party online review websites.

It is evident that the world is moving real fast, with interconnectivity between systems, proximity marketing and context driving a range of these changes. However it is critical to remember that it is not about technology but about value generated, packaged and delivered to the right customer, at the right place, at the right time, and at the right price. Technology enables the interactivity, engagement and co-creation of this but it is fundamental to focus on the needs of the consumer, co-create the experience and ensure that all stakeholders work in harmony together. A small task considering the challenges, unpredictability and dynamic nature of both tourism and technology.

PhD Researcher, Barbara Neuhofer has just returned from presenting at the CAUTHE Conference 2013 in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Barbara presented her paper that she co-authored with Professor Dimitrios Buhalis and Professor Adele Ladkin, titled “Experiences, Co-creation and Technology: A conceptual approach to enhance tourism experiences” at the conference.

Back in November, Barbara was awarded the PGR Development Scheme Funding by the Graduate School at Bournemouth University. This funding meant she had the opportunity to travel to New Zealand to attend the conference and present her paper.

Barbara commented “It was a highly beneficial conference and a great chance for me to share my PhD research, meet new academics, engage and extend my academic network to key universities and institutions in the Australasian region.

Overall it was a very enriching experience and I would like to express my gratitude to the Graduate School and the School of Tourism for giving me the financial support to attend CAUTHE Conference 2013.”

Last week, after the success of ENTER2013 @ Innsbruck, Austria Professor Dimitrios Buhalis and PhD student Soultana Symeonidou were both awarded separate awards from the conference committee.

Dimitrios was awarded the “20 Years ENTER Paper Contribution” 1st Place and Soultana won the “Best PhD Proposal Award” 3rd Place.

Enter 2013 ran from Tuesday 22nd – Friday 25th and celebrated 20 years of continuing contribution and ground breaking interactions within the IFITT community.

The ENTER conference, organised by IFITT, offers a worldwide and unique forum for attendees from academia, industry, government, and other organizations to actively exchange, share, and challenge state-of-the-art research and industrial case studies on the application of information and communication technologies to travel and tourism.

Congratulations to both Dimitrios and Soultana! For more information on Enter please see here