IFITT Report 2014INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION FOR IT AND TRAVEL & TOURISM

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IFITT Outline & MissionIFITT OutlineIFITT is the leading independent global community for the discussion, exchange and development of knowledge about the use and impact of new information and communication technologies in the travel and tourism industry and experience.

IFITT MissionIFITT mission is to share knowledge, experience, and a true passion for ICT in travel and tourism, being relevant for the industry and responsible for society at large, as well as ensuring scientific excellence.

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Message from the President

Dear colleagues and friends,

I’m very happy to share with you my experience as IFITT president in 2014.

In the following pages you will find some of the activities we have done, and goals we have reached, to make sure that IFITT can even better service the eTourism community, which encompasses good colleagues from the academia, as well as from the tourism and hospitality industry, from specialized media and consultancy organizations, and from destinations all around the world.

None of those achievements could have been reached without the commitment of a great IFITT Board. They have become possible also thanks to the very good status of IFITT as managed by the past presidents: I want to thank all of them – board members and past presidents – individually.

While in the next pages you will be able to see activities we have done in 2014, and an overview on ENTER2015, which promises to be a very memorable one, I want to devote a few lines to what we are going to do in 2015. Beside continuing in our effort to improve online and offline communication, and to improve our two major events: the ENTER Conference and IFITT Doctoral School, we’ll move along three lines of intervention.

First, we will consolidate IFITT interviews, and in general all activities aimed at innovation transfer, so to share the leading edge of eTourism research with all relevant stakeholders, as well as to share best international practices; second, we’ll enlarge the scope of local interventions, fostering IFITT footprint through a range of small- and medium-size events all around the globe; third, win-win collaborations with other major players in the field will be strengthened, so to offer new learning and networking opportunities to all our members.

It has been a very exiting year, and 2015 will be even more adventurous!

Yours in eTourism,

Lugano, December 31st, 2014

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IFITT Board, Members, and Community

Lorenzo CantoniProfessor, Faculty of Communication Sciences, USI – Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland.

Serving IFITT as president.

Lis TussyadiahAssociate Clinical Professor, Hospitality Business Management, College of Business, Washington State University Vancouver, USA.

Serving IFITT as vice president and taking care of IFITT partnerships.

Matthias FuchsProfessor of Tourism Management & Economics, European Tourism Research Institute (ETOUR), Mid-Sweden University, Sweden.

Serving IFITT as director of Education.

Wolfram HöpkenProfessor for Business Informatics, University of Applied Sciences Ravensburg-Weingarten, Germany.

Serving IFITT as Innovations & Education director.

IFITT President and Board

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Alessandro InversiniLecturer of Marketing and Media Communication, School of Tourism, Bournemouth University, United Kingdom.

Serving IFITT as responsible for ICT4D Scholarship and co-responsible for Marketing and Communication.

Carlos LamsfusDirector, Human Mobility and Technology, CICtourGUNE, Spain.

Serving IFITT as responsible for Members Benefits.

Anastasia MariussenAssociate professor, Oslo School of Management, Norway.

Serving IFITT as co-responsible for IFITT Chapters.

Jamie Murphy Director of Research, Australian School of Management, Australia.

Serving IFITT in exploring opportunities offered by MOOC movement.

Barbara NeuhoferLecturer at Bournemouth University, United Kingdom.

Serving IFITT as Treasurer andIFITT Next Generation director.

Tinkara Pavlovcic KapitanovicManaging Director at Digital Apple Ltd. and Digital Manager at Atlantis Healthcare, United Kingdom.

Serving IFITT as director of Marketing.

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Dimitris SerifisCEO and Co-Founder at Nelios.com, Greece.

Serving IFITT as ICT & Chapter director.

Brigitte StanglLecturer in Tourism at the School of Hospitality & Tourism Management, University of Surrey, United Kingdom.

Serving IFITT as co-responsible for Marketing and Communication.

Zheng (Phil) XiangAssistant Professor at the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech, USA.

Serving IFITT as Research & Awards director as well as responsible for the development of IFITT in China.

Nadzeya KalbaskaPost-Doctoral Researcher, Faculty of Communication Sciences, USI – Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland.

Serving IFITT as General Secretary.

Arwin Ehteshamniawebatelier.net, Faculty of Communication Sciences, USI – Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland.

Serving IFITT as Junior Communication officer.

IFITT Secretariat

In 2014 Alessandra Filippi, Marie Foerste, Hazique Gul Memon and Thomas Schwendener were actively involved in the activities of IFITT Secretariat.IFI

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IFITT Members and CommunityIFITT gathers together scholars and PhD students from the academia as well as professionals from the travel and tourism industry, and from the destination management organizations.

IFITT members are from all over the world, with the majority of them being based in Europe.

The 15 most represented countries are:

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9 10 11 12 13 14 15

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IFITT members’ interests and drivers

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IFITT Community on LinkedInFunction:

13%Marketing

Seniority:

23%SeniorIndustry:

43%Leisure, ...

Function:Marketing 13%

Education 13%

Enterpreneuship 7%

Operations 5%

Consulting 5%

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IFITT followers on Twitter

InterestsMost unique interests42% Luxury travel 40% Business travel39% Europe39% Hotel33% United Kingdom

Top interests75% Travel news and general info 49% Adventure travel43% Tech news42% Luxury travel42% Air travel40% Business travel39% Europa39% Hotels38% Technology35% Business and news

Top cities7% Athens, GR 2% Dublin, IE2% London, UK2% Madrid, ES1% Barcellona, ES

LocationTop countries and states

Other UK GRC

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IFITT for Excellence & NetworkingMajor Achievements, Accomplishments, and Events happened in 2014

New IFITT websiteAt the end of May 2014, IFITT has launched its new website. A fresh new look with responsive design, user-friendly navigation and updated information, which provides an interactive platform for all users.

Check it out at ifitt.org

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IFITT Intronetworks

In order to foster IFITT’s vision of creating the global eTourism knowledge network and community, IFITT launched in June of 2014, a dedicated online community – IFITT IntroNetworks.

It is a private online network aimed at stimulating conversations within the IFITT community, giving members the opportunity to facilitate communication & collaboration activities with other IFITT members through a centralized, professional online environment. IFITT IntroNetworks enables users to match to the people and organizations they need to meet, be that long before or after meeting in person.

The platform is open exclusively for IFITT members, however in order to further encourage collaboration and conversation within the eTourism community, ENTER2015 delegates have been invited to access it for a limited period of time, until March 2015.

Check it out at ifitt.intronetworks.com

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Hangouts on AirThroughout the year leading up to ENTER conference, IFITT has hosted a series of discussions with experts from academia, industry, and/or destinations on various hot topics in ICT and tourism. They were organized bimonthly and were broadcasted live on IFITT’s Google+ and YouTube Channels. Iis Tussyadiah, IFITT Vice president and initiator of the idea, has moderated all the talks.

Have a look at IFITT Hangouts: ifitt.org/events/hangouts-on-air

The first IFITT hangout on air was held with Dan Fesenmaier (University of Florida) and Phil Xiang (Virginia Tech) on April 11, 2014 and was dedicated to the topic of big data and analytics in tourism research.

Second IFITT hangout was held on June 9, 2014 with Ulrike Gretzel (Univer-sity of Queensland) and Chulmo Koo (Kyung Hee University). The topic of the discussion – “Smart tourism”.

IFITT third hangout was held on 26, September 2014 for the celebration of the World Tourism Day with Lorenzo Cantoni (IFITT), Aurkene Alzua (Overall Chair of ENTER2015 Conference) and Vitor Pereira (Smart Travel 2014). The topic of discussion: recent developments in eTourism.

The fourth IFITT hangout an air hap-pened on November 13, 2014 with Deana Gao (China Gravy) and Bing Pan (College of Charleston). The hangout was dedicated to the discussion of the landscape of social media in China, including trends and insights for tourism marketing. IFI

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Interviews Interviews with IFITT gather industry professionals and academic experts to share their knowledge on ongoing research, new trends and future prospects.

Watch our 3 minutes interviews and learn more about the IFITT community!

Do you want to be featured in IFITT Intreviews?Drop us an email to ifitt@ifitt.org

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IFITT Doctoral SchoolSecond IFITT Doctoral Summer School was hosted at the University of Eastern Finland & Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki, Finland in June 2014. It has been chared by Dr. Juho Pesonen and Dr. Anastasia Mariussen and attracted more than 30 young scholars.

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The Third IFITT Doctoral Summer School will be held in summer 2015 in Vienna (Austria) and will be hosted by MODUL University.

Learn more: ifitt.org/ifitt-doctoral-summer-school

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EventsIFITT has organized and supported a number of international meetings, events, workshops, and seminars throughout the year.

December 5-6, 2014 – IFITT Greece event: Digi.Travel - Athens, Greece

December 4-6, 2014 – Smart Travel 2014 – Northeast Portugal

November 13, 2014 – Social Media in Travel in China - IFITT hangout on air

November 3, 2014 – eTourism Dynamics: Technology and hotel distribution online - London, United Kingdom

October 23-24, 2014 – IFITT Spain event: TuriTec Conference - Málaga, Spain

September 30, 2014 – Travel technology event – Showcase.travel Digital – London, United Kingdom

September 26, 2014 – IFITT celebrates World Tourism Day – IFITT hangout on air

September 23-25, 2014 – Innovative ICT applications and business intelligence in tourism – Östersund, Sweden

August 25 – September 5, 2014 – IDEAL-Tourism. Summer School – Lugano, Switzerland

June 11, 2014 – eTourism innovations in the digital era - Bournemouth, United Kingdom

June 9, 2014 – Smart tourism – IFITT hangout on air

June 5-8, 2014 – IFITT Doctoral Summer School – Helsinki, Finland

June 4, 2014 – IFITT Italy event: book presentation “Nuovi media nella comunicazione turistica” - Milan, Italy

May 5-6, 2014 – ISCONTOUR Conference - Krems, Austria

April 11, 2014 – Big data and analytics in tourism research - IFITT hangout on air

March 21, 2014 – Tourism IT Seminar - Brussels, Belgium

March 23, 2014 – IFITT Italy event: Turismo, cambio di passo: flussi internazionali, web e filiere integrate di offerta – Cesena, Italy

March 6, 2014 – IFITT@ITB: eTourism – Social Media and Big Data: In Search of Competitiveness – Berlin, Germany

January 21-24, 2014 – ENTER2014 eTourism Conference – Dublin, Ireland

Already planned upcoming events:April 22-24, 2015 – Tourism Innovation & Business Conference – Ondo State, Nigeria

May 1-3, 2015 – Kos Tourism Conference – Kos, Greece

May 18-19, 2015 – ISCONTOUR Conference - Salzburg, Austria

July 20-21, 2015 – IFITT Doctoral Summer School – Vienna, Austria

August 24-September 6, 2015 – Milan EXPO Summer school: ICTs to Promote Sustainable Tourism: Tangible and Intangible Heritage between Cultural, Leisure, and Gastronomic Tourism - Milan, Italy

Check updated list of upcoming events here: ifitt.org/events

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EducationAs part of its Corporate Social Responsibility and its agenda to further enlarge the global eTourism community, IFITT is keen to disseminate knowledge about Tourism and Technology.

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 sharing of knowledge and of technical skills through a variety of learning experiences enables learning individuals to develop career opportunities in today’s multicultural and technology-driven working society. IFITT supports the challenge of life-long learning by providing an eTourism curriculum.

Further eTourism learning and resource materials can be found in the IFITT Digital Library: full abstracts and bibliographical data from the two major research resources in the field of eTourism, namely the ENTER Proceedings Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism, and the Journal of Information Technology & Tourism (JITT) are accessible in the Digital Library.

In addition, the IFITT eTourism Wiki is a theme-specific Wikipedia, which publishes articles in the field of eTourism, ranging from ICT applications in the various tourism and travel industries, over smart phone applications, recommender systems, data mining, and online auctions in tourism. More than 15 Wiki contributions have been delivered by eTourism scholars and will be continuously extended and updated.

The IFITT eTourism Knowledge Map is a new data base, providing up-dated bibliographical data on eTourism research and eTourism courses offered by academic and non-academic institutions worldwide. This free community service encourages knowledge exchange between eTourism researchers and lecturers, and between the academia and the industry. Currently under construction, the IFITT eTourism Knowledge Map shows bibliographical data on research and teaching activities from ETOUR (Mid-Sweden University) and webatelier.net (USI – Università della Svizzera italiana).

For more information on IFITT Education, please, check here: ifitt.org/resources

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PartnershipsThis year IFITT has successfully collaborated with the following partners:

IFITT is constantly expanding its partnership base with organizations that can add benefits to its members.

If you are interested in developing a partnership with IFITT, please, contact Vice president Iis Tussyadiah.

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IFITT for Innovation & Development Awards, Scholarships, and Innovation Fund

IFITT Awards 2014IFITT Outstanding Industry Contribution Award The Award is given to enterprises that make a significant contribution to the growth and success of technology adoption, integration, or use in the tourism industry.- Small Enterprises: Australian Tourism Data Warehouse- Medium and Large Enterprises: Google

IFITT Innovative Destination’s AwardThe Award is given to the most innovative DMO of the year.- Tourism Bureau of Taiwan

IFITT Hannes Werthner Tourism and Technology Lifetime Achievement AwardThis Award is given to an individual from academia, industry or government who has made significant contributions to the advancement in the field of tourism and technology.- The winner of 2014 has been Pauline Sheldon from the University of Hawaii.

IFITT Thesis Excellence AwardThe Thesis Excellence Award awarded students who successfully defended their theses in the field of tourism and technology between October 1, 2012 and September 30, 2013.

Category Master:1. Annina Reimann, “Hotel Mobile Applications: Analysing the State-Of-The-Art and Proposing a Concept”.2. Anna Schild, “Augmented Reality as Advertising Tool: Perceived Value and its effects provided by AR-enriched traditional print advertisement in the Tourism Industry”.3. Emre Ronay, “NFC Smart City: Cities of the Future: Application of a Scenario Method and a Complex System Framework to Illuminate the Uncertain Future of Tourism Destinations”.

Category PhD:1. Elena Marchiori, “Destination Reputation in Online Media: Covered Topics and Perceived Online Dominant Opinion”.2. Silvia de Ascaniis, “Destination Online Travel Reviews: An Argumentative and Textual Genre Perspective”.3. Anastasia Mariussen, “A Grounded Theory of Affiliate Marketing Performance Measurement in Tourism and Hospitality”.

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IFITT Journal Paper of the Year Award 20141. Germann Molz, J. and Paris, C.M. (2013). Social Affordances of Flashpacking: Exploring the Mobility Nexus of Travel and Communication. Mobilities, 24(1).2. Park, S., Nicolau, J.L. and Fesenmaier, D.R. (2013). Assessing Advertising in a Hierarchical Decision Model.Annals of Tourism Research, 40, 260-282.3. Nicolau, J.L. and Santa-María, M.J. (2013). The Effect of Innovation on Hotel Market Value. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 32.71-79.

ENTER Best Paper Award 20141. Matthias Fuchs, Wolfram Höpken, Alexander Eybl and Andreas Flöck. “Online Auctions for Selling Accommodation Packages – A Readiness-Intensity-Impact Analysis”.2. Jeongmi Jamie Kim and Daniel R. Fesenmaier. “Measuring Emotions in Real Time: Implications for Tourism Design”.3. Roland Schegg and Miriam Scaglione. “Substitution Effects across Hotel Distribution Channels”.

IFITT Best PhD Proposal Award 20141. Yeongbae Choe. “Why do Travellers Change their Trip? Effects of Information, Situation, and Individual Factors”.2. Seyed Shahabeddin Pourfakhimi Abarghouei. “The Impact of Users’ “Online Reviews” and “Ratings” on Consumers’ Behaviour toward Hotel Selection Factors”3. Barbara Neuhofer. “The Technology Enhanced Tourist Experience”.

IFITT Awards 2015 winners will be announced in Lugano (Switzerland) during the ENTER2015 Conference.Check the details at ifitt.org/awards-and-scholarships

ICT4D ScholarshipIn 2014, the first edition of the IFITT ICT4D scholarship has collected 14 submissions from 12 countries. Two top students have been chosen through a rigorous peer-reviewed selection process by a panel of academic experts:Mrs. Konosoang Mipti, from Cape Peninsula University of Technology (South Africa).Mr. Atanu Garai, from Indira Gandhi National Open University (India).Check the details at ifitt.org/ict4d-scholarship

Innovation FundThe Innovation Fund is aimed to foster innovation and strengthen the strategic development of IFITT. IFITT will fund projects or initiatives, proposed and executed by IFITT members (the call for proposals is open to non-IFITT members, too; successful applicants have to become IFITT members before starting the project), with the clear intention to deliver innovative services to the IFITT and/or eTourism community and increase existing or generate new revenue streams.In 2014 it has not been awarded, and a new call will be opened in 2015.Check the details at ifitt.org/innovation-fund

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ENTER eTourism ConferencesThe Major Annual Event of the IFITT CommunityThe conference offers a worldwide and unique forum for attendees from industry, academia, government, and other organizations to actively exchange, share, and challenge state-of-the-art research and industrial case studies on the application of information and communication technologies in travel and tourism.

The conference brings together the research community with industry, and it is organized in three streams: industry, destinations, and research tracks. The conference also features several world-class keynote speakers.

ENTER conference proceedings are published by Springer. The full list of them can be found on the members-only section of IFITT website. ENTER Proceedings are ranked among the 20 “Top publications – Tourism & Hospitality” by Google Scholar.ENTER research notes and short papers are published by the e-Review of Tourism Research.

Previous ENTER Conferences1994 Innsbruck, Austria ¦ 1995 Innsbruck, Austria ¦ 1996 Innsbruck, Austria ¦ 1997 Edinburgh, UK ¦ 1998 Istanbul, Turkey ¦ 1999 Innsbruck, Austria ¦ 2000 Barcelona, Spain ¦ 2001 Montreal, Canada ¦ 2002 Innsbruck, Austria ¦ 2003 Helsinki, Finland ¦ 2004 Cairo, Egypt ¦ 2005 Innsbruck, Austria ¦ 2006 Lausanne, Switzerland ¦ 2007 Ljubljana, Slovenia ¦ 2008 Innsbruck, Austria ¦ 2009 Amsterdam, Holland ¦ 2010 Lugano, Switzerland ¦ 2011 Innsbruck, Austria ¦ 2012 Helsingborg, Sweden ¦ 2013 Innsbruck, Austria ¦ 2014 Dublin, Ireland

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2015 Lugano, Switzerland

More than 350 international attendees / 85 research papers / 9 Keynotes

2016 Bilbao, Basque Country, SpainENTER 2016 hosted by CICtourGUNE, in collaboration with Bilbao Tourism, Bilbao City Council and Basquetour - Basque Tourism Agency, will be taking place February 2nd to 5th 2016.

Please visit www.enter2016.orgEN

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IFITT GadgetsTo promote a stronger identity and sense of belonging IFITT Board has introduced two gadgets in 2014: IFITT pin and IFITT Moleskine blocknote.

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IFITT SecretariatIn 2014 IFITT Secretariat has moved to Switzerland

IFITTc/o webatelier.netUSI – Università della Svizzera italianavia Buffi 136900 Lugano (Switzerland)Tel: + 41586664649 fax: + 41586664647 email: ifitt@ifitt.orgwebsite: www.ifitt.org

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IFITT c/o MCI Management Center InnsbruckUniversitätsstr. 15A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria

www.ifitt.orgifitt@ifitt.org