Dear Tourism and E-Marketing Enthusiasts!

On November 4, 2013 the International Federation for Information Technology and Travel and Tourism (IFITT) invites you to join the event ‘WTM Technology Enabling Travel’ at the World Travel Market 2013.

Event Details:

The event will take place in form of a workshop themed ‘Gaming and Gamification in tourism: opening a new experience’, which will address both issues, phenomenons gamification and location-based games and will introduce best practices in the tourism industry. The motivation for this topic evolved from the WTM Global Trends Report 2012 where gamification was described as one of the major trends in tourism. The report also highlighted the finding that many travel companies and destinations (Tourism Ireland, Australia Tourism Board, Lufthansa) as well as hospitality organisations (Marriott, Starwood Hotels & Resorts) have already applied the concept of gaming in their business to create new experiences, which are fun and engaging for customers and employees likewise. The workshop is aimed at people who want to:

• Understand the concept of gaming and its impact on the tourism experience
• Learn how gaming can be applied in the tourism context
• Find out from leading experts in the field about current best practices and future opportunities of gaming for the tourism industry.

The event will be moderated by IFITT President and Chair in Tourism at Bournemouth University Professor Dimitrios Buhalis. Together with Jessika Weber from the eTourism Lab at Bournemouth University he will open up the workshop topic with a presentation about ‘Augmented Reality Gaming: A new Paradigm for Tourist Experience’. After that the event will continue with a number of interesting presentation by speakers from famous universities and tourism companies, such as Antonio Coelho from Porto University who will talk about ‘Location-based games for tourism’ or Benjamin Kolb and Julia Bachwinkel from Tripventure who will give insights into ‘Augmented Reality Games for Tourism Urban Destinations’.

Registration Process:

The event is completely for free but you have to register in the following way: First, you need register for the WTM opening day, even if you have already signed up for a standard WTM admission. Registration for the opening is absolutely necessary, as otherwise access to the WTM on November 4, 2013 will be denied. Secondly, you need to register for the event at http://ifitt.eventbrite.co.uk/.

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis says: “Augmented Reality in combination with gaming will open up a wide range of opportunities for tourists and visitors. This workshop will provide a great opportunity for tourism practitioners and destination managers to find out about this cutting-edge concept in tourism marketing and how it can be applied to achieve great results. “

The workshop is part of the World Travel Market 2013 and will take place on November 4, 2013 from 11.30 to 14:00 in the BTM Theatre at ExCel London. Prior to the event participants are encouraged to engage in the conversations on the Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/events/120171938153132/) to make first contacts and raise issues to be considered at the event.

For more information please contact: Professor Dimitrios Buhalis (IFITT President) at ifitt@ifitt.orgor dbuhalis@bournemouth.ac.uk.