The eTourism Conference ENTER 2014, organized by the International Federation for Information Technology in Travel & Tourism (IFITT) and held between January 21-24, 2014 in Dublin, Ireland was a great success with record-breaking outcomes and more than 350 delegates from all over the world.
eTourism Conference ENTER 2014 – chaired by professor Wolfram Hopken – started with an interactive PhD workshop where doctoral students had the opportunity to present their current research projects and discuss them in a very challenging environment. The workshop was also used to award those students who have submitted exceptionally high qualitative theses.
Over following days the conference continued with the discussion of some of the most cutting-edge tourism and technology topics by academics from all continents, and representatives from technology-savvy tourism organisations and enterprises, such as Tourism Ireland, TripAdvisor, Realex Payments, Taiwan Tourism Bureau and Wyndham Hotel Group. The discussions took place in form of interesting presentations, interactive workshops and vibrant panel discussions. Keynote speakers this year were, among others, Aoife Desmond from Facebook, Jenny Taaffe from iZest, Des O’Mahony from Bookassist, and Nate Bucholz from Google.
For people that could not attend the conference, an online live streaming channel was offered to provide an opportunity to follow the main presentations in real time. This was used more than 2,500 times within the three days of the conference.
In addition to the presentations, conference delegates were constantly updated via IFITT’s social media channels about the latest information regarding the conference and interesting facts from the presentations. The rate of engagement by delegates and non-delegates in these social media channels was very impressive. On twitter alone the #enter14 hashtag generated 3,482,799 impressions with 1,332 tweets.
Apart from interesting presentations, panels and workshops, ENTER 2014 was underlined by an exciting social programme, which started on Wednesday night with a tour through the Guinness Storehouse and a welcome reception in its famous gravity bar. The conference was rounded off on Thursday night with a jolly ‘Shindig’ party in the Jameson Distillery with Irish dance, food and a taste of the best Irish whiskey.
Former IFITT President Professor Dimitrios Buhalis says: “The conference was an absolute success. I am extremely proud of the ENTER 2014 team for organising such a fabulous event. ENTER 2014 broke records in many areas and has proven the width of IFITT’s reach. The wide range of topics covered in several workshops, panel discussions and presentation sessions as well as the exceptional number of paper submissions clearly shows the tourism and technology issues that will dominate in the near future.”
The newly appointed IFITT President Professor Lorenzo Cantoni says: “At ENTER 2014 we could see an increased importance in combining academic research on eTourism with the industry perspective, a balance very peculiar to the character of ENTER. Beside a focus on main trends within the tourism experience and industry, ENTER 2014 has also covered emerging niches (e.g.: gamification, moocs) to provide to both researchers, practitioners and policy makers a comprehensive overview on the state of the art and on possible future developments.”
ENTER 2015 will take place in Lugano, Switzerland from 3-6 February 2015.
Tatiana is the news coordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes monitoring the hundreds of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skimming the most important according to our strategy.
She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
