IFITT President's update January 2013
Happy New Year!
As we are preparing to celebrate the 20 years of ENTER in ENTER2013 this week it is time to reflect the fantastic 20 years we had and the contribution to the eTourism community and Society at large that IFITT had done over the years. This is reflected partly in the video that Rosanna Leung http://ow.ly/gX40F has constructed to remind us of our journey. The world is moving really fast and I remember how we started with discussions with Hannes Werthner, A Min Tjoa and the other pioneers at the time !
IFITT ORGANISATION
All the IFITT work is performed by the IFITT Board and the Secreteriat and some more supporters. I would like to express my gratitude to the current IFITT Board and particularly to Wolfram who is “retiring” this year having served us Treasure and Vice President for a very long time (in fact we will not let him retire!). Without the hard work of all our people we will not be able to achieve these results.
BOARD
Dimitrios Buhalis Jan 2012 - Jan 2014 President- A Bit of everything and spinning the plates
*Wolfram Höpken Jan 2011 - Jan 2013 (last term) Vice President and Treasurer
Rodolfo Baggio Jan 2012 - Jan 2014 IFITTitaly + Projects
Ulrike Gretzel Jan 2012 - Jan 2014 Research+Awards+Constitution
*Tinkara Pavlovcic Jan 2011 - Jan 2013 Destinations+Marketing + ENTER2013
Paul Baron Jan 2012 - Jan 2014 Chapters
Dimitris Serifis Jan 2012 - Jan 2014 IT/Social Media + IFITTGreece
Alessandro Inversini Jan 2012 - Jan 2014 Communications + Social Media + Marketing
Rosanna Leung Jan 2012 - Jan 2014 Junction + China Marketing
Nicholas Hall (co-opted) Industry+ENTER2013
Matthias Fuchs (co-opted) Knowledge Hub
Barbara Neuhofer (co-opted) 2012- New Generation + Treasury
* = term ends on next AGM
ADMINISTRATORS
Nicolas Gregori Organisation and Administration
Soultana Symeonidou Web Sites+Technology+projects
STUDENT VOLUNTEERS
Liz Bouten Social Media Engagement and ENTER
Marie Kristin Foerstre Marketing + Communications
IT/SOCIAL MEDIA SUPPORT
Christos Xanthakis and Vasilis Bartzokas @NELIOS
ENTER CONFERENCES
ENTER 2013 www.enter-2013.org
We are about to welcome the IFITT community to ENTER2013. We will celebrate our 20th birthday back home in Innsbruck Austria. In ENTER2013 we will be dealing with Opportunities and Challenges for the next 20 years Innsbruck Austria 22nd to 25th of January 2013. Please find the programme on http://www.enter-2013.org/uploads/pages/60/files/1/ENTER2013_program_Brochure_FINAL.pdf Thank you to Tinkara Pavlovčič Kapitanovič, Nicolas Hall, Luis Costa, Lorenzo Cantoni and Philip Xiang, Christian Maurer and Roman Egger for leading the programme development and Rob Law, Matthias Fuch, Carlos Lamsfus, Barbara Neuhofer for managing the PhD Workshop. Thanks also to our Peter Mirski from MCI for sponsoring the PhD workshop and supporting the conference. We have 10 keynotes, about 150 presentations and plenty of opportunities to engage in great dialogue and collaborations. We are grateful to the Austrian Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth (BMWFJ), Tirol Tourist Board - Tirol Werbung, and Innsbruck Tourism for sponsorship and friendship and also our colleagues at Congress Innsbruck who have arranged a special celebration for us. Thank you Ina, Werner and Christina and look forward to a great event. Lets celebrate our 20 years of ENTER in style back in homeland!
ENTER2014 goes to Dublin ! www.enter2014.org
ENTER2014 goes to Dublin! For the first time even in the history of ENTER we are ready to announce the location and the team for the next year. We will in Dublin Ireland, hosted by our colleagues in the Dublin Institute of Technology and Dominic Dillane and Patrick Horan will be looking after. The calls for papers and cases are already online and we look forward to receive your papers and engage.
ENTER2015
We have already receiving interest for ENTER2015. We are open to proposals and happy to discuss with potential partners that would like to host ENTER in the future. Please let us know if you are interested in hosting and start putting a bid together. See the requirements on http://www.ifitt.org/home/view/ENTERrequirements
IFITT AWARDS 2013
The International Federation for Information Technology and Travel & Tourism (IFITT) will be awarding a great number of people and organizations for their innovative achievements in eTourism.
THE IFITT E-TOURISM CURRICULUM http://www.ifitt.org/home/view/the_ifitt_eTourism_curriculum
IFITT has developed the THE IFITT E-TOURISM CURRICULUM under the leadership pf Matthias Fuchs. The material is freely available on the web site. We would like to encourage students, trainers and scholars from around the world, particularly those who are digitally excluded, to access educational material and information to enhance their topical understanding. We are currently developing extra resources to make them available to the world through the IFITT web site. We are looking forward to get as many suggestions as possible in order to further improve this first e-Tourism curriculum prototype version. Please contact Professor Matthias Fuchs matthias.fuchs@miun.se
EXPANDING IFITT TO THE WORLD
In the last year I have represented IFITT in more than 30 countries around the world. Following trips to AUSTRALIA, SOUTH AFRICA, GREECE, SWITZERLAND, ITALY, CHINA and many other places we are seeing activities happening and expansion of IFITT membership. I am also scheduled to travel to Lithuania, Spain, Costa Rica, Switzerland, Ireland, Greece, China, Finland and several more places to expand our network and seed development of activities and chapters. We would like to focus on CHINA and the AMERICAS this year and several initiatives are being planned. Watch this space and also get involve and engage in developing the IFITT community globally. Please let me know how we can stimulate interest in your region to expand the community.
CHAPTERS AND ACTIVITIES
Our Italian, Greek, Swiss, Australian chapters are really busy organizing events and recruiting members. The Spanish chapter is developing – Carlos Lamfus is leading the developments- please get in contact.
REGIONAL EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES
IFITTAustralia Range of events in 17 July 2012
IFITTgreece www.ifitt.gr 29th September 2012 Athens
IFITT@EyeforTravel April London
IFITT@WTM LONDON Monday 5th November 2012
IFITTSwitzerland 13th edition of TpM, December 7, 2012 at the HES-SO Valais in Sierre,
SOCIAL NETWORKING
Social Networking has been at the forefront of what we do. Due to the efforts of Dimitris Serifis and his Nelios team, Alessandro Inversity, Tinkara Pavlovčič Kapitanovič, and Rosanna Leung we are now much more visible on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. http://www.facebook.com/ifittorg now has almost 3000 people following.
In China Rosanna Leung is promoting IFITT in China. Please help her to support the information in Tourism and Information Technology exchange in Weibo and Renren.com :-) Weibo微博: http://weibo.com/ifitt and Renren人人网: http://www.renren.com/441188367
MEMBERSHIP: http://www.ifitt.org/home/registerNewUser
Membership has increased over the year and we have advertised on social media to reach new members. We also concentrate on influence and impact on non members!
NEW IDEAS: We are very open to new ideas and suggestions for IFITT activities, things that you feel that IFITT should be doing. Please send me an email with initiatives that you would like IFITT to take in the future.
Yours Truly
Professor Dimitrios Buhalis
IFITT President
January 2013
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IFITT President's update October 2012
What a summer has this been! I have been constantly on the go and have experienced all the Oceans of the world in less than 3 months taking the IFITT flag around the world! And if this was not enough the whole world came to London to celebrate the London2012 Olympics and even Tinkara moved to London from Slovenia and Alessandro moved to Bournemouth from Switzerland. Whaooooo the world is moving really fast !
EXPANDING IFITT TO THE WORLD
AUSTRALIA
At the invitation of Liz Ward of the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse and IFITT Board Member Paul Barron of Tourism Victoria I was invited to Australia to do a presentation at The National Tourism and Events Excellence (TEE) Conference will be staged in Melbourne at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Monday 16 and Tuesday 17 July 2012 http://www.teeconference.com/. Liz asked me to assess the online tourism presence of Australia and Ramona and I developed a comprehensive tourism destination online presence benchmarking methodology at Bournemouth University. A series of workshops were then organized in Australia, at Victoria University by Brian King, and at Queensland University by Noel Scott. An industry wide workshop was organized by Liz and Paul in Melbourne where the most influential people marketing Australia came along to Melbourne to discuss the future of eTourism. IFITT Board members Ulrike Gretzel and Rosanna Leung as well as Nina Mistilis also actively participated and helped the process and we are in the process of developing a publication to make the work known around the world.
SOUTH AFRICA
Last week I was represented IFITT at the eTourism Summit organized by Damian Cook at Cape Town South Africa. There were several influential speakers at the event and many of those will be joining us at ENTER2013. I am trying to encourage the development of IFITTsouthafrica and to develop our foot print globally.
ENTER 2013 www.enter-2013.org
ENTER preparations are developing rapidly. We will celebrate our 20th birthday back home in Innsbruck Austria. ENTER2013 eTourism. We will be dealing with Opportunities and Challenges for the next 20 years Innsbruck Austria 22nd to 25th of January 2013. Dimitris Serifis has lead the redevelopment of the web site http://www.enter-2013.org and we would love to have your feedback.
Tinkara Pavlovčič Kapitanovič is the ENTER 2013 Chair whilst Luis Costa (Tourism Portugal), Nicholas Hall (se1media) and William Bakker (Think! Social Media) are managing the applied programme. Research Chairs are Lorenzo Cantoni (Università della Svizzera italiana) and Phil Xiang (University of North Texas, USA) whist Austrian Day Chairs are Christian Maurer (IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems), Mario Jooss and Roman Egger (University of Applied Sciences Salzburg). Our PhD Workshop is managed by Rob Law (Hong Kong Polytechnic University) and Matthias Fuch (ETOUR Mid-Sweden University), Carlos Lamsfus (CICtourGUNE), Barbara Neuhofer (Bournemouth University).
We are about to announce the most exciting programme ever with speakers from a range of innovative organizations. Our research track has attracted more than 100 submissions out of which we hope to have more than 70 research papers going through the evaluation process. Another 30 PhD students will be participating in the PhD workshop whilst the Austrian programme will attract the best innovation from the region. As we celebrate our 20 years of ENTER we will be celebrating in style back in homeland!
Marketing opportunities - Sponsor ENTER 2013
Sponsor ENTER2013 – Many opportunities also available for organization
http://www.enter-2013.org/Sponsorship-Opportunities-108.htm
Let make our 20th Birthday a very special one
ENTER2014 and beyond
We are also in serious discussion with a great location for ENTER2014. We are still open to proposals and happy to discuss with potential partners that would like to host ENTER in the future. Please let us know if you are interested in hosting and start putting a bid together. See the requirements on http://www.ifitt.org/home/view/ENTERrequirements
IFITT ICT4D SCHOLARSHIP: INNOVATION FUND
The IFITT ICT4D Scholarship (Information and Communication Technologies for Development) IFITT will fund young talents coming from developing/emerging countries, to provide a positive impact onto their respective communities through the application of ICT. Projects should be connected with a Master or PhD thesis, having a clear orientation to local development. The scholarship consists of an assignment of a tutor, funding of ENTER participation and free IFITT membership for one year. The call for applications is still open. Professor Wolfram Höpken, Vice President IFITT is leading on the innovation fund wolfram.hoepken@hs-weingarten.de.
IFITT AWARDS 2013 – CALL FOR NOMINATIONS http://www.ifitt.org/home/view/IFITT-Prizes
The International Federation for Information Technology and Travel & Tourism (IFITT) is pleased to announce that it will sponsor a series of awards to be presented at the ENTER 2013 In addition to these awards, ENTER 2013 will also present awards to the best research papers and the best PhD proposal. Please submit nominations to Ulrike Gretzel (ugretzel@uow.edu.au) for these categories:
· Hannes Werthner Tourism and Technology Lifetime Achievement Award
· Thesis Excellence Award
· Outstanding Industry Contribution Award (2 Categories:
o Small Enterprises
o Medium/Large Enterprises
· Innovative Destination Award
· Journal Paper of the Year Award
THE IFITT E-TOURISM CURRICULUM http://www.ifitt.org/home/view/the_ifitt_eTourism_curriculum
As part of its Social Corporate Responsibility and its agenda to further enlarge the global e-Tourism community, IFITT has developed the THE IFITT E-TOURISM CURRICULUM under the leadership pf Matthias Fuchs. The material is freely available on the web site. We would like to encourage students, trainers and scholars from around the world, particularly those who are digitally excluded, to access educational material and information to enhance their topical understanding. The transmission of technical and intellectual skills and concepts through a variety of learning experiences enables learning individuals to develop career opportunities in today’s multicultural and technology-driven working society. IFITT supports this challenge around “life-long learning” by providing an e-Tourism curriculum which is based on stakeholders’ and pedagogical needs.
The IFITT e-Tourism curriculum will continuously up-date and extend the materials according to technological developments as well as trainers’ requirements. Thus, all major stakeholders, such as lecturers, students and personnel managers involved in e-Tourism education at all academic levels are encouraged to provide us with feedback and comments on this first e-Tourism curriculum prototype version (via Email). Additional material can be added if provided and approved by the IFITT education panel. We are looking forward to get as many suggestions as possible in order to further improve this first e-Tourism curriculum prototype version. Please contact Professor Matthias Fuchs matthias.fuchs@miun.se
CHAPTERS AND ACTIVITIES
Out Italian, Greek, Swiss, Australian chapters are really busy organizing events and recruiting members.
EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES
IFITTgreece www.ifitt.gr 29th September Athens Hilton http://ifittgreece2012.eventbrite.co.uk/
IFITTgreece President Dimitris Serifis is organizing a A workshop on new technologies and their catalytic effect on tourism is organized by IFITT Greece. Innovative Technologies for the Tourism Industry -Technology as a tool for development and dealing with the economic crisis SATURDAY 29th September 2012 17:00-21:00 HILTON ATHENS
The event will involve business professionals and tourism stakeholders and experts in modern technology trends. This event will discuss issues on the evolution of the Internet, the constantly increasing penetration of Social Media in tourism, the rapid growth of mobile marketing and how it can affect catalytic tourism. The discussion will be divided into two thematic panels for better interaction with the attendees in order to highlight ideas, identify best practices and discuss concerns. The first panel will be titled "Technologies - Tourism and Economic Crisis: tools for Recovery" and the second panel will be titled "Destinations & eTourism: Future Tools and Recovery".
IFITT@WTM LONDON Monday 5th November 2012 http://ifitt.eventbrite.co.uk/
In London at the World Travel Market IFITT will is organizing the WTM Technology enabling Travel organised by IFITT: Technology Enabled Tourism Experience Economy, South Gallery Room Monday 5th November 2012 from 10.00 to 12.00 ADMISSION FREE BUT SUBJECT TO REGISTRATION AND ACCESS TO WTM ! Followed by eTourism events by our partners the TTI and Open Travel conference from 13.30 - 17.00 in South Gallery Room Technology drinks reception from 17.00 - 18.00 on the exhibition floor in the Technology region. IFITT is hosting a workshop at the London World Travel Market to discuss the “Technology Enabled Tourism Experience Economy”. The experience economy has become an increasingly important concept in modern society as well as in business. Today, consumers increasingly strive for experiences gained by the consumption of products/services. Tourism as a traditionally service-dominated industry has always been on the forefront of the experience economy. For tourism businesses, designing, staging and delivering meaningful, unique and memorable consumer experiences has become an imperative. At the same time, recent dynamic technological advancements have provided opportunities for adding value to already high-level quality tourism products and services. Businesses in the cruise, aviation, or hospitality sectors, as well as a number of destination management organisations, have successfully implemented information and communication technologies in order to enhance the experiences provided for their customers.
SOCIAL NETWORKING
Social Networking has been at the forefront of what we do
Due to the efforts of Dimitris Serifis and his Nelios team, Alessandro Inversity, Tinkara Pavlovčič Kapitanovič, and Rosanna Leung we are now much more visible on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. http://www.facebook.com/ifittorg now has almost 3000 people following
In China Rosanna Leung is promoting IFITT in China. Please help her to support the information in Tourism and Information Technology exchange in Weibo and Renren.com :-)
Weibo微博: http://weibo.com/ifitt
Renren人人网: http://www.renren.com/441188367
MEMBERSHIP: http://www.ifitt.org/home/registerNewUser
With our systems in place we are now ready to have a major push and drive membership. We have clarified the Corporate and Discounted Corporate prices and benefits too. One of the major benefits is our ability to reinforce our corporate members http://www.ifitt.org/home/view/corporate-members Please renew your membership as your current membership if you have not done so far and benefit from the exclusive benefits of accessing the ENTER research paper proceedings electronically, accessing the presentations of ENTER and many others. Please use our online system and report back if you experience any difficulties.
NEW IDEAS:
We are very open to new ideas and suggestions for IFITT activities, things that you feel that IFITT should be doing. Please send me an email with initiatives that you would like IFITT to take in the future.
Yours Truly
Professor Dimitrios Buhalis
IFITT President
October 2012
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IFITT President's update June 2012
As the summer is approaching fast lots of different activities are taking place on IFITT. We are progressing with our agenda expanding IFITTs footprint globally through a range of local events and chapter activities. A number of events are being organized and supported by IFITT enabling us to expand on membership and chapter activities globally. We try to concentrate our message in regions that we have not been as active in the past.
Expanding IFITT and outreach – Dimitrios will visit Australia in July
One of this initiatives will be addressing the Australian Tourism Industry in July through a series of workshops, conference and University links organized by Liz Ward, Paul Barron, Nina Mistilis, Noel Scott and Brian King. This will centered around The National Tourism and Events Excellence (TEE) Conference will be staged in Melbourne at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Monday 16 and Tuesday 17 July 2012 http://www.teeconference.com/. I will then visit Victoria University in Melbourne and Queensland University in Brisbane. I am looking forward to meet many colleagues and friends in Australia and to take IFITT forward with collaborations down under.
ENTER 2013
We will celebrate our 20th birthday back home in Innsbruck Austria. ENTER2013 eTourism. We will be dealing with Opportunities and Challenges for the next 20 years Innsbruck Austria 22nd to 25th of January 2013. See http://www.enter-2013.org
Tinkara Pavlovčič Kapitanovič (Slovenian Tourism Board) is the ENTER 2013 Chair whilst Luis Costa (Tourism Portugal), Nicholas Hall (ETC) and William Bakker (Think! Social Media) are managing the applied programme. Research Chairs are Lorenzo Cantoni (Università della Svizzera italiana) and Phil Xiang (University of North Texas, USA) whist Austrian Day Chairs are Christian Maurer (IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems), Mario Jooss and Roman Egger (University of Applied Sciences Salzburg). Our PhD Workshop is managed by Rob Law (Hong Kong Polytechnic University) and Matthias Fuch (ETOUR Mid-Sweden University), Carlos Lamsfus (CICtourGUNE), Barbara Neuhofer (Bournemouth University)
ENGAGE with the team and ENTER and
Submit a research paper Call For Papers http://www.ifitt.org/congresses/website/enter2013/cfp
Suggest an Industry Case Study and presentation http://www.ifitt.org/congresses/website/enter2013/enter-industry
Suggest a Destination Case Study and Presentation http://www.ifitt.org/congresses/website/enter2013/enter-destination
Sponsor ENTER2013 – Many opportunities also available
Let make our 20th Birthday a very special one
ENTER2014
We also looking for the ENTER2014 organisation and location. Please let us know if you are interested in hosting ENTER2014 and start putting a bid together. See the requirements on http://www.ifitt.org/home/view/ENTERrequirements The deadline for proposals is the 15th July 2012 and we will aim to select a destination in the early part of autumn.
INNOVATION FUND
Professor Wolfram Höpken, Vice President IFITT is leading on the innovation fund.
By the IFITT Innovation Fund IFITT intends to foster innovation and strengthen the strategic development of IFITT. IFITT will fund projects or initiatives, proposed and executed by IFITT members, with the clear intention to deliver innovative services to the IFITT community and increase existing or generate new revenue streams. IFITT members are invited to submit project proposals clearly stating generation of strong advantages and benefits for the IFITT community, either by a direct return on investment or an increase of ITITT's reputation and membership. Project proposals can be submitted at any time and IFITT will invest up to € 10.000 into innovative projects per year.
IFITT ICT4D SCHOLARSHIP
Additionally, by the IFITT ICT4D Scholarship (Information and Communication Technologies for Development) IFITT will fund young talents coming from developing/emerging countries, to provide a positive impact onto their respective communities through the application of ICT. Projects should be connected with a Master or PhD thesis, having a clear orientation to local development. The scholarship consists of an assignment of a tutor, funding of ENTER participation and free IFITT membership for one year. The call for applications is open till the end of April 2012.
By the IFITT innovation fund, IFITT creates innovative ideas and services for its members based on the potential of the whole community, increases its awareness in developing countries and specifically in countries which are underrepresented in IFITT and ENTER and takes social responsibility. Contact ifitt@ifitt.org to request further information or submit your proposals.
CHAPTERS AND ACTIVITIES
Out Italian, Greek, Swiss, Australian chapters are really busy organizing events and recruiting members.
EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES
In April Greek IFITT President Dimitris Serifis organized a great event in Heraklion Crete Greece where almost 100 people attended. Other activities are reported in the Chapter Sectors.
In London we hosted a great event IFITT@EYEFORTRAVEL EUROPEAN TRAVEL SUMMIT London IFITT @ EyeforTravel: Technology Enabled Tourism Experience Economy Wednesday, 18 April 2012 from 09:00 to 11:30 London, United Kingdom Thank you go to Barbara Neuhofer and Ivana Rihova from my team at Bournemouth University who organized it and the great speakers and audience who contributed. Speakers included Barbara Neuhofer Bournemouth University The Technology Enhanced Tourist Experience; Hannes Werthner & Rainer Schuster Founders, Pixtri OG PixMeAway: A picture-based search and recommendation platform for tourism objects; Adriana Conte Social Media Programme Manager, VisitBritain The VisitBritain Experience; Danny Potter & Noel Hunwick Inamo Restaurant London The Digital Dining Experience; Carlo Fontana General Manager, Hotel Lugano Dante High Tech for High Touch; Marco Fanton Social Media Director, Sol Melia Group. Read the report and see photos on http://www.ifitt.org/home/view/IFITT@EyeForTravel_technology_enhanced_experience_economy_event_report
Next in the calendar is the
WTM Technology enabling Travel organised by IFITT event @ World Travel Market 2012 http://www.wtmlondon.com/
Technology Enabled Tourism Experience Economy Monday 5th November 2012 from 10.00 - 12.00
Followed by eTourism events by our partners the TTI and Open Travel conference starting at 13.30 - 17.00 FREE EVENT FOR IFITT MEMBERS – Register http://ifitt.eventbrite.co.uk/
eTourism Education Material and eTourism Research
Matthias Fuchs with Wolfram Höpken are also coordinating the IFITT effort to develop eTourism educational Material and distribute to the world. Ulrike Gretzel is coordinating our Research Distil.
Please get in contact with them for more information and for making a contribution.
SOCIAL NETWORKING
Social Networking has been at the forefront of what we do
Due to the efforts of Dimitris Serifis and his Nelios team, Alessandro Inversity, Tinkara Pavlovčič Kapitanovič, and Rosanna Leung we are now much more visible on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. http://www.facebook.com/ifittorg now has almost 3000 people following
In China Rosanna Leung is promoting IFITT in China. Please help her to support the information in Tourism and Information Technology exchange in Weibo and Renren.com :-)
Weibo微博: http://weibo.com/ifitt
Renren人人网: http://www.renren.com/441188367
MEMBERSHIP:
With our systems in place we are now ready to have a major push and drive membership. We have clarified the Corporate and Discounted Corporate prices and benefits too. One of the major benefits is our ability to reinforce our corporate membershttp://www.ifitt.org/home/view/corporate-members Please renew your membership as your current membership if you have not done so far and benefit from the exclusive benefits of accessing the ENTER research paper proceedings electronically, accessing the presentations of ENTER and many others. Please use our online system and report back if you experience any difficulties.
NEW IDEAS:
We are very open to new ideas and suggestions for IFITT activities, things that you feel that IFITT should be doing. Please send me an email with initiatives that you would like IFITT to take in the future.
Yours Truly
Professor Dimitrios Buhalis
IFITT President June 2012
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IFITT President's update March 2012
I hope you enjoyed ENTER2012 at Helsingborg, Sweden as much as I did, both the business/educational and social sides. Our gratitude goes to Malin and Pia and their team for hosting us. Everyday our eTourism community is getting stronger and the impact of our activities is becoming more evident. I am so glad to meet so many of you in events and activities around the world.
BOARD AND AGENDA Following the IFITT AGM at ENTER2012 I was very honored to be reelected as President and to take IFITT forward to the global stage. A new Board http://www.ifitt.org/home/view/ifitt-board is already taking things forward. We now have a much stronger marketing and communications team with Tinkara, Alessandro and Rosanna and we can make a big influence. As we said before our strategic objectives for 2012 will concentrate on:
• Expand IFITTs footprint globally through a range of local events and chapter activities
• Expand on membership and chapter activities
• Bring new benefits to members
• Facilitate more networking to the eTourism community
• Engage in conversation with partners and other international organisations
Communications are becoming much more dynamic on Facebook – see http://www.facebook.com/groups/ifitt/
ENTER 2013 celebrates its 20th birthday back home in Innsbruck Austria. ENTER2013 eTourism Opportunities and Challenges for the next 20 years Innsbruck Austria 22nd to 25th of January 2013. www.enter-2013.org
We are very fortunate to have a very strong of chairs to take the responsibility of the conference
ENTER 2013 Team:
IFITT President: Professor Dimitrios Buhalis (Bournemouth University)
ENTER 2013 Chair: Tinkara Pavlovčič Kapitanovič (Slovenian Tourism Board)
Industry Chair: Giancarlo Carniani (BTO and Hotel Mulino di Firenze) and Luis Costa (Tourism Portugal)
Destination Chair: Nicholas Hall (ETC) and William Bakker (Think! Social Media)
Research Chairs: Lorenzo Cantoni (Università della Svizzera italiana) and Phil Xiang (University of North Texas, USA)
Austrian Day Chairs: Christian Maurer (IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems), Mario Jooss and Roman Egger (University of Applied Sciences Salzburg)
PhD Workshop: Rob Law (Hong Kong Polytechnic University) and Matthias Fuch (ETOUR Mid-Sweden University), Carlos Lamsfus (CICtourGUNE), Barbara Neuhofer (Bournemouth University)
ENGAGE
Submit a research paper Call For Papers http://www.ifitt.org/congresses/website/enter2013/cfp
Suggest an Industry Case Study and Presentation http://www.ifitt.org/congresses/website/enter2013/enter-industry
Suggest a Destination Case Study and Presentation http://www.ifitt.org/congresses/website/enter2013/enter-destination
Sponsor ENTER2013 – Many opportunities also available
Let make our 20th Birthday a very special one
ENTER2014 We also starting the process to select the ENTER2014 location and organiser. Please let us know if you are interested in hosting ENTER2013 and start putting a bid together. See the requirements on http://www.ifitt.org/home/view/ENTERrequirements The deadline for proposals is the 15th May 2012 and we will aim to select a destination in the early part of autumn.
INNOVATION FUND
Wolfram is leading on the innovation fund and several interesting announcements will be coming soon
CHAPTERS
Out Italian, Greek, Swiss, Australian chapters are really busy organizing events and recruiting members.
There are several initiatives to start new chapters or redevelop existing ones in Portugal, Spain, Finland, Norway and we look forward for more initiatives.
INTERNATIONAL EVENTS: Through events we will increase IFITT’s footprint and we start collaborating with colleagues and organisations to support events and conferences around the world where IFITT can make a contribution. I am also presenting IFITT in all the conferences I am invited around the world. If you feel that IFITT should be presented in another conference please let me know. We are also arranging for a range of additional events to bring the community together
IFITT@EYEFORTRAVEL EUROPEAN TRAVEL SUMMIT London IFITT @ EyeforTravel: Technology Enabled Tourism Experience Economy Wednesday, 18 April 2012 from 09:00 to 11:30 London, United Kingdom
FREE EVENT FOR IFITT MEMBERS – Register http://ifitteft.eventbrite.co.uk/
IFITT@ World Travel Market 2012 http://www.wtmlondon.com/ Technology Enabled Tourism Experience Economy Monday 5th November 2012 from 10.00 - 12.00
Followed by eTourism events by our partners the TTI and Open Travel conference starting at 13.30 - 17.00 FREE EVENT FOR IFITT MEMBERS – Register http://ifitt.eventbrite.co.uk/
CHINA
With Rosanna Leung on the Board we started concentrating on China and to establish a presence in the Chinese media.
Rosanna Leung is the new IFITT and ENTER conference Group: the eTourism Community board member and one of my roles is to promote IFITT in China. Please help me to introduce your friends in China who are interested in exchange information in Tourism and Information Technology follow our page in Weibo and Renren.com :-)
Weibo微博: http://weibo.com/ifitt
Renren人人网: http://www.renren.com/441188367
IFITT just joined China Weibo, please help us to invite your friends in China who are interested to exchange information in Tourism and Information Technology follow our page.
国际旅游资讯科技联会(IFITT)刚加入微博，希望各方好友多多关注，把IFITT 介绍给有兴趣在旅游和资讯科技一起交流的好友。
Weibo Page 微博: http://weibo.com/ifitt
IFITT just joined China Renren.com, please help us to invite your friends in China who are interested to exchange information in Tourism and Information Technology follow our page.
国际旅游资讯科技联会(IFITT）刚加入人人网，希望各方好友多多关注，把IFITT 介绍给有兴趣在旅游和资讯科技一起交流的好友。
Renren 人人网: http://www.renren.com/441188367
MEMBERSHIP: With our systems in place we are now ready to have a major push and drive membership. We have clarified the Corporate and Discounted Corporate prices and benefits too. One of the major benefits is our ability to reinforce our corporate membershttp://www.ifitt.org/home/view/corporate-members Please renew your membership as your current membership if you have not done so far and benefit from the exclusive benefits of accessing the ENTER research paper proceedings electronically, accessing the presentations of ENTER and many others. Please use our online system and report back if you experience any difficulties.
NEW IDEAS: we are very open to new ideas and suggestions for IFITT activities. Things that you feel that IFITT should be doing. Please send me an email with initiatives that you would like IFITT to take in the future.
Yours Truly
Professor Dimitrios Buhalis
IFITT President March 2012
IFITT President's update January 2012
Happy New year and Welcome to ENTER2012 Helsingborg Sweden www.enter2012.org
We are very excited with all the developments happening and look forward to welcome you to Sweden
IFITT AGM AND ELECTIONS
IFITT AGM will be on Wednesday 25th January 2012 in Campus Helsingborg of Lund University, Campus Helsingborg, Universitetsplatsen 2, SE-251 08 Helsingborg, Sweden MAP Room U202 [AGM only for those who are members by that time. [If you are not a member yet register today on http://www.ifitt.org/home/registerNewUser]
Board Elections - See Candidates background and intentions on http://www.ifitt.org/home/view/boardelections
VOTE FOR THE BEST JOURNAL PAPER
Please Vote for the best journal paper http://www.ifitt.org/home/view/IFITT-Prizes - Prizes will be announced at Gala Dinner
ENTER2012 CONFERENCE
Our programme is great : View and Download the detailed ENTER012 Provisional Programme
Information for your arrival is available here http://www.ifitt.org/congresses/website/enter2012/arrive
Maps and locations are marked here http://www.ifitt.org/congresses/website/enter2012/Conference_Location
Celebrate Chinese New Year at the ENTER Reception on Wednesday 25th January
ABBA Mamma Mia Conference Dinner Thursday 26th January - DRESS ABBA FOR THE OCCASION !!! Lets make this a night to remember !
Fantastic Social Programme http://www.ifitt.org/congresses/website/enter2012/SocialProgramme
Look forward to welcome you all to Helsingborg, Sweden !
Prof Dimitrios Buhalis
IFITT President
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