On January 24th-27th, 2012 Helsingborg, Sweden will be the place to be for eTourism enthusiasts. Organized by the International Federation for Information Technology and Travel & Tourism (IFITT), the ENTER Conference 2012 offers a worldwide and unique forum for attendees from academia, industry and governments to actively exchange, share, and take forward state-of-the-art research and industrial case studies on the application of information and communication technologies in travel and tourism. Detailed information about the line-up of speakers and registration is available on the conference website (http://www.enter2012.org)
ENTER 2012 is supposed to be the largest international IT and tourism related event ever, attracting participants from over 60 countries worldwide. ENTER 2012 will host speakers from national tourist authorities around the globe such as Thailand Tourism, Korea Tourism Organisation, South Africa Tourism, Quebec, German Tourist Board, VisitSweden and VisitBritain. In total more than 150 presenters from both academia and industry will explore a wide range of issues within the field of eTourism. At ENTER 2012 the theme is on future services and applications, thereby considering interactions between information and communication technology use and development in both a supplier and user context within travel and tourism. Leading technology and tourism organisations such as, Google, Facebook, German TripAdvisor and Expedia will share their insights and expertise. Established in 1994, ENTER conferences assemble every year a global audience of 350 people from industry, governments and academia to network and discuss the latest technological advances and impacts of eTourism.
In addition to academic research, ENTER2012 includes the presentation of industry and destination projects primarily aimed at representatives as well as technology and marketing practitioners from companies working in the travel and tourism sector who have valuable experience to report and present. “With this annual forum, gathering experts from all around the globe, we have the opportunity to introduce cutting edge developments to the world of eTourism, which have major impacts and ultimately shape the whole industry” says Bournemouth University Professor Dimitrios Buhalis, the President of IFITT.
IFITT is one of the leading eTourism knowledge-hubs for tourism and technology experts in industry and academia. The Federation extensively discusses and progresses the economic, consumer and organisational impacts of eTourism through events such as the ENTER conference, Workshops and IFITT supported publications. IFITT members include researchers and practitioners of eTourism who treasure the power of networking and global knowledge sharing for improving their competitiveness and innovation. Institutional members include organisations, companies and research institutes active in the eTourism space.