PhD Student of BU eTourism Lab receives 2nd Prize for Best PhD Proposal at ENTER2012
Date: 01 February 2012
(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.
John Kent student wins top PhD prize at Enter 2011
Date: 28 January 2011
A student from the John Kent Institute in Tourism has won the top award at this year’s prestigious Enter 2011 PhD Research Workshop.
Zornitza Yovcheva won First PhD Prize for her current research into three-dimensional mobile, context-aware applications for tourism at the international etourism conference held in Innsbruck, Austria.
John Fotis, who is also a PhD student and a part time lecturer in the School of Tourism, was awarded the Third PhD Prize for his ongoing research into the impact of social media on consumer behaviour.
The annual PhD Research Workshop was attended by doctoral students from all over the world who are undertaking research in information and communication technology in the tourism industry. The workshop is part of Enter 2011, which is organised by the International Federation for Information Technology and Travel & Tourism (IFITT).
Zornitza said: “I feel truly honoured to receive this award by the IFITT, the leading eTourism community of the world, and to be a part of such a vibrant community of tourism and technology researchers!”
Professor Dimitrios Buhalis, who is the Director of the John Kent Institute and Zornitza’s PhD supervisor, said: “I am very proud of Zornitza’s award and also of John for winning the third place prize. This demonstrates the cutting edge etourism research that is being undertaken at BU and the innovations that our team are working on.”
View Zornitza’s PhD research poster for Enter 2011, which is about finding ways to improve the usability of context-aware, three-dimensional mobile map-based applications for urban tourism.
View John’s research poster about his PhD, which aims to develop a comprehensive framework / model describing the impact of social media on the purchase decision making process.