(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.