Bournemouth University eTourism Lab leads at the ENTER 2014 Digital Tourism Conference in Dublin. From January 21-24 the famous ENTER 2014 will bring together again the eTourism community from all over the world for an exciting week full of eTourism events centered around the conference theme ‘Where Social Inspiration meets Dynamic eTourism Innovation’. Heavily involved in the organization and research aspect of this conference are also several members from the eTourism Lab at Bournemouth University.
ENTER has been organized by the International Federation for Information Technology and Travel and Tourism (IFITT),for the last 21 years. With Professor Dimitrios Buhalis being the President of IFITT Barbara Neuhofer the Treasurer and Dr Alessandro Inversini the Communications director, the eTourismLab members are heavily involved in developing and delivering the conference. The conference will attract 350 people and will offer an exciting mix of more than 150 keynote presentations, workshops, panel discussions and research sessions on cutting-edge eTourism developments.
The conference programme is organised in three streams. In particular the research stream will focus on the discussion of successfully submitted conference papers by BU eTourism students and academics. The following BU eTourism Lab members will present:
- Alessandro Inversini and Emma Sykes: An Investigation into the Use of Social Media Marketing and Measuring its Effectiveness in the Events Industry
- Philip Alford, Yanqing Duan, and Jacqui Taylor. An Analysis of the Key Factors Affecting the Success of a Re-Launched Destination Marketing Website in the UK.
- Fei Fei Xu, Professor Dimitrios Buhalis and Jessika Weber: Gamification in Tourism
- Dimitrios Buhalis and Eleni Michopoulou: Usability Requirements for Accessible Tourism Systems
- Dimitrios Buhalis, Nao Li, Xiangje Qiao, Wei Zhu and Lingyun Zhang: An Agent-Based Simulation Model of Visitor Behaviours for China Tourism Attractions
- Aditya Amaranggana and Dimitrios Buhalis: Smart Tourism Destinations
- Marie-Kristin Foerste and Dimitrios Buhalis: SoCoMo Marketing for Travel and Tourism
- Barbara Neuhofer, Dimitrios Buhalis and Adele Ladkin: Co-Creation through Technology: Dimensions of Social Connectedness
The conference also includes a PhD Workshop which Dr Inversini is co-chairing. The workshop will be a forum for PhD students to interactively discuss their research proposals with peers, colleagues, leading supervisors and scholars in the eTourism field. Among them will be three PhD candidates from Bournemouth University:
- Jessika Weber: Augmented Reality Gaming: A New Paradigm for Tourist Experiences
- Meikun Loi:The Influence of Social Media on eWOM in Online Reputation and Brand Personality
- Barbara Neuhofer: The Technology Enhanced Tourism Experience
All papers have been published in the conference proceedings ‘Information and Communication Technologies Tourism 2014. Proceedings of the International Conference in Dublin, Ireland’, which will accessible for IFITT members on the IFITT Website (www.ifitt.org) and can be purchased online.
Apart from the research track, conference delegates can also enjoy the parallel-running industry and destination tracks where representatives of world-known technology-savvy tourism and technology organisations such as Google, Tripadvisor, Facebook, Digital Tourism Think Tank, Yahoo!, Tourism Ireland, Aboutourism, Bookassist, Realex Payments, Kayak, Amadeusand many more will give insightful presentations. The programme of the conference can be found at http://www.enter2014.org/Programme-60.htm.
The BU eTourism lab explores cutting edge information and communication technologies, alongside e-based strategic management and marketing for the tourism and hospitality industries and is organises a number of eTourism events throughout the year. For more information, please visit http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/etourismlab/about-us/
IFITT President and Director of the eTourism Lab at the School of Tourism at Bournemouth University says: “I am proud that so many members of the eTourism Lab at Bournemouth University are involved actively in ENTER and were able to successfully submit their research proposals and papers to the conference. All their research topics tackle very cutting-edge and innovative eTourism approaches, which will be the basis for further investigations and industrial implications. ENTER gives us the opportunity to showcase the innovations we research at Bournemouth, engage in conversation with partners and expand our impact to industry.”
ENTER 2014 expects more than 350 participants and is a must-attend event for experts from academia and industry who are keen on staying updated about the latest news about information and communication technology in travel and tourism. Registrations for ENTER 2014 are still open. Don’t miss out and register now on the website at http://www.enter2014.org/Registration-64.htm.
For more information contact: Professor Dimitrios Buhalis (IFITT President) at ifitt@ifitt.orgor dbuhalis@bournemouth.ac.uk.
By: Professor Dimitrios Buhalis