Arno Ebner, previously marketing director of the Tyrolean Tourist board, founded the at that time worldwide leading tourism and destination management system Tiscover in 1991. In addition, he pushed for an active collaboration between academic research and the industrial community.

As a leading member of the Finnish Tourist Board, she was a first mover in the eTourism field already in the early nineties. She formulated and implemented many visionary eTourism strategies for tourism destinations.

For his scientific contributions in the field. He was active in establishing several research centers, identified and worked on several basic research issues and is one of the most cited academics in the field.

With her book on eTourism already in the 1990s, she is one of the most outstanding first movers in the field. She showed and still shows leadership in numerous international tourism and eTourism related organizations.

He is a distinguished Professor and outstanding member of the tourism research community and a founding member of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism (IAST). He has done so many research especially in the fields of hospitality and tourism management, models of consumer and tourist behavior, strategic marketing and strategic planning.

For his scientific contributions, providing always an alternative view – especially when including organizational and human factors into consideration. He acted as a PC member of the ENTER conferences since 1996, and he has been an initiator of the preconference PhD workshop.

He has greatly contributed to the field of Travel and Tourism through his Research on a diverse number of topics such as the Tourism Environment, Knowledge sharing, Network positions and perspectives and many more. He got one of IFITT’s 2017 best paper awards for his research on Strategic Visitor Flows (SVF) analysis using mobile data. 

Professor Frew has served as President of IFITT. He is active in the fields of hospitality and tourism, specializing in the research, application and the management implications of information technologies and systems. He has published extensively, most recently a text in ICT and Sustainable Tourism.

Professor Oriol Miralbell has served as President of IFITT Spanish Chapter and served as a board member for IFITT.  He has devoted his life to the knowledge and innovation in the tourism sector. 

Professor Scaglione is one of the cornerstones of the IFITT community. She is an active participant and contributor to ENTER conferences and her research is an inspiration for the eTourism field.  

Professor Francesco Ricci has made a significant contribution to the advancement in the field of tourism and technology. His research on recommendation systems is a platform on top of which many tourism researchers and practitioners have been able to build upon. Professor Ricci has actively participated and contributed to the ENTER conferences and the IFITT community for almost two decades and introduced PhD researchers to the eTourism community with great success.