BU Research Blog

BU’s Professor Dimitrios Buhalis has been invited on a speaking tour of four cities in China, including two conferences and two research seminars. The invitations come from three of China’s universities and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).

This includes giving a keynote speech at the International Smart Tourism Conference and at the 9^th UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Forum on tourism trends. Both conferences will be held in China in October 2015. Professor Buhalis’ presentation will cover the issues of smart tourism, the internet of everything, big data, and the co-creation of tourism and hospitality experiences.

This year’s International Smart Tourism Conference is themed around the idea of ‘new normal, new travel, new experience and new paradigm’, with the conference serving as a platform to share and exchange the latest developments in smart tourism.

The 9^th UNWTO and PATA Forum will focus on the idea of ‘tourism and the experience economy’. By sharing research and up-to-date industry practices and exploring current challenges, conference attendees hope to identify potential new areas of research on tourism as an experience economy.