ENTER2013 Chairs

 

IFITT President

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis (Bournemouth University)

 

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis is a Strategic Management and Marketing expert with specialisation in Information Communication Technology applications in the Tourism, Travel, Hospitality and Leisure industries. He is currently Deputy Director of the International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research & Leader of the eTourism Lab, at Bournemouth University in England. Dimitrios is also the President of the International Federation for Information Technologies in Travel and Tourism (IFITT). Dimitrios is researching, lecturing, advising and facilitating progress in organisations globally, whilst his books and publications are studied widely by both students and professionals around the world. He is frequently delivering keynote presentations, speeches, seminars and workshops in both academic and professional conferences globally.

 

 

 

 

ENTER 2013 Chair

Tinkara Pavlovcic Kapitanovic (Slovenian Tourism Board)

 Tinkara is a Head of e-Business and Strategic Projects at the Slovenian Tourist Board (STB) with over 13 years hands-on experience in tourism and online marketing. She is responsible for strategic, planning, development and implementation of the Slovenian Tourism online presence and selected other strategic developments. In the past Tinkara has also been accountable for Development and Research operations at the STB. Prior to joining the STB Tinkara has been working for Cap Gemini Consulting and Schering AG (Switzerland) and acquired her Masters in Tourism Marketing and Management as best student with distinction at Bournemouth University, UK. Tinkara acts as Director of Marketing in the IFITT (International Federation of Information technology in Travel & Tourism) Board. She is also a member of Marketing Technology Network of the European Travel Commission and Board member of IOETI, the International Organisation for the Electronic Tourism Industry. After her additional experience as ENTER2009 Destination Co-chair, ENTER2012 Destination Chair she was appointed as ENTER2013 Chair.

 

 

 

 

Industry Chair and Co-Chair: Nicholas Hall (ETC) and Giancarlo Carniani (BTO and Hotel Mulino di Firenze) 

 

Nicholas Hall

Nicholas Hall has extensive experience working in the European travel industry and is known in particular for his thought leadership in destination marketing strategies, having worked extensively with a range of DMOs at Board level.
Over the past ten years, Nicholas has gained a wealth of experience as a tourism marketer, most recently working as the European Travel Commission’s (ETC) Executive Director a.i,. After spending more than four years working for ETC in Brussels. Nicholas is responsible for leading the organisation to develop a completely new strategy in which its Board opted to centralise the organisation’s marketing activities and resources, whilst helping the organisation to gain the highest level of political recognition by international partners such as the European Commission and UNWTO.
Nicholas fosters close working relationships with many destination marketing organisations in Europe and has worked in major outbound travel markets around the world. Most recently Nicholas was responsible for launching ‘Travel Destination Europe’ and the visiteurope.com portal in China and coordinating the launch of the first Global NTO Think Tank with UNWTO.
Nicholas is also an expert for the Council of Europe, where he is responsible for the overseeing the branding, marketing and promotion within the framework of the enlarged partial agreement on the promotion of European Cultural Routes.
 

Giancarlo Carniani

 

Giancarlo Carniani is the founder of BTO Buy Tourism Online the biggest trade show of Online Tourism in Italy and co-fouder of BTO Educational. He is also General Manager of 2FlorenceHotels a company managing a five stars hotel (Villa Olmi Resort) and a four star hotel (Mulino di Firenze). Giancarlo is an expert in Revenue Management and has teach in various courses in Italy. He has worked in the past for international chains like Starwood and Sonesta International Hotels.

 

 

 

Destination Chair and Co-Chair:  William Bakker (Think! Social Media) - TBC

 

William Baker

 

William Bakker is partner and Chief Strategy at Think! Social Media, a boutique marketing agency for the tourism industry. William has been a key member of the tourism industry for over 10 years and is considered a leader in the world of digital destination marketing.
William worked at Tourism British Columbia for 11 years as director of eMarketing. Amongst his achievements is the creation of the digital strategy for Tourism BC related to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.
His opinions on the direction of marketing in the tourism industry are widely respected globally. William is a well-recognized keynote speaker and is invited to speak at a wide variety of tourism conferences worldwide.

 

 

 

Research Chair and Co-Chair: Lorenzo Cantoni (Università della Svizzera italiana) and Phil Xiang (University of North Texas, USA)
 

Lorenzo Cantoni

 

Lorenzo Cantoni is full professor at the Faculty of Communication Sciences of the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI – Lugano, Switzerland). There, he serves as Dean of the Faculty, and scientific director of webatelier.net and NewMinE – New Media in Education Lab, research and development labs working in the field of eTourism, eLearning, and ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development). L. Cantoni has been chair of ENTER2011, and member of IFITT Board.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PhD Workshop: Rob Law (Hong Kong Polytechnic University) and Matthias Fuch (ETOUR Mid-Sweden University), Carlos Lamsfus (CICtourGUNE), Barbara Neuhofer (Bournemouth University)

 

Rob Law

 

Rob Law is a Professor of Technology Management at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He has worked in Canada and Hong Kong in both industry and academia. Prior to joining the Hong Kong PolyU, he worked in the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology, University of Regina, and Bell Northern Research/Northern Telecom. Dr. Law is an active researcher. He has received many research related awards and honors, as well as external and internal research grants. In addition, he has authored many research articles and his publications have received thousands of citations. To serve the international academic community, Dr. Law has provided service to many research journals and international conferences.

 

 

 

 

 

Matthias Fuchs

  

 

Matthias Fuchs is full professor at the European Tourism Research Institute (ETOUR) at Mid-Sweden University (Östersund, Sweden). Matthias was granted with the Austrian State sponsored Rudolf-Sallinger Price and was awarded by the International Research Promotion Council (IRPC) for the Eminent Scientist of the Year 2003. Matthias serves as editorial board member for the Journal of Travel Research, Annals of Tourism Research, Tourism Analysis and the Journal of Information Technology & Tourism. Since 2011 he is a board member of the International Federation for IT and Travel and Tourism (IFITT).

 

 

 

 

Barbara Neuhofer

 

Barbara Neuhofer is a PhD Researcher at the eTourismLab and John Kent Institute in Tourism at Bournemouth University, UK. In 2011, Barbara received the John Kent Institute in Tourism Scholarship to undertake her doctoral research on the cutting-edge topic “Technology Enhanced Tourist Experiences: a holistic exploration of how technology can enhance tourist experiences”, which is supervised by Prof. Dimitrios Buhalis and Prof. Adele Ladkin. Barbara has been attending ENTER conferences since 2010 and presented her current research at the PhD Workshop at ENTER2012 in Helsingborg.