The University of the Aegean, the TEI of Thessaloniki and the Greek Research and Technology Network established a forum on e-Tourism aiming to examine the development of Destination Management Systems…
The University of the Aegean, the TEI of Thessaloniki and the Greek Research and Technology Network established a forum on e-Tourism aiming to examine the development of Destination Management Systems (DMS) and promote their exploitation in the Greek tourism industry.
Destinations and their tourism resources represent one of the major motivating factors creating and instilling tourism demand. Therefore, the sustainable management and marketing of destinations is critical for the survival as well as the competitiveness of all their tourism enterprises.
New technologies and particular Internet advances empower Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) (irrespective of their size and accessibility to resources) to reach the global market in a cost effective way and promote their tourism resources. DMS can also have a tremendous impact in diffusion the tourism demand in different geographical and temporary areas, and thus, avoiding tourism seasonality and the concentration of masses of tourists in tourists’ getos.
In this way, DMS can be regarded as an alternative strategic distribution channel that can also empower small and medium tourism enterprises. Moreover, through the development of DMS, DMOs can develop several other collaborative services for their tourism firms such as e-learning and e-procurement systems, while at the same time DMOs can also develop tools for managing and catering for tourists’ needs throughout their whole travel cycle (before the trip, while on the destination, after the trip). In this vein, DMS have become critical for the marketing, sustainable management and development of tourism destinations.
The proceedings of the e-Tourism forum in DMS are co-ordinated by a strong team of highly esteemed academics with a great experience in tourism that is consisted of the following members: Dr Marianna Sigala and Dr Evangelos Christou (University of the Aegean), Dr Panagiotis Kassianidis and Spyros Avdimiotis (TEI Thessalonikis).
During the proceedings of the e-Tourism forum, four meetings and one international conference will be organised whereby tourism experts and important tourism policy makers will gather to discuss and examine DMS developments and their exploitation within the Greek Tourism industry. The meetings and the conference are open to any tourism expert, and anyone from the academia or the industry that is interested to contribute to the e-Tourism forum is welcome to participate to its events.
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