Each year, the International Federation for IT and Travel & Tourism (IFITT) recognises individuals, researchers, and organisations that are shaping the future of tourism through technology. These honours highlight work that pushes boundaries and helps the tourism sector evolve in the digital age.
🏆 Lifetime Achievement: A Top Honour
One of the most respected awards is the Hannes Werthner Lifetime Achievement Award. This award goes to a person whose work has made a lasting impact on tourism and technology. It honours a long and influential career that has helped define the field.
In 2026, the award was given to Prof. Dr. Roland Schegg, in recognition of his significant contributions to e-Tourism research and education. His work has helped advance understanding of online distribution, eService metrics, technology adoption, web 2.0 and mobile technologies in tourism.
📄 IFITT Journal Papers of the Year
These awards recognise the most impactful academic articles published during the year.
2026 winners:
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📖 1st place – Daniel Belanche, Sergio Ibáñez-Sánchez, Pau Jordán, and Sergio Matas. Customer Reactions to Generative AI vs. Real Images in High-Involvement and Hedonic Services (International Journal of Information Management)
📖 2nd place – Mattia Rainoldi, Adele Ladkin, and Dimitrios Buhalis. Digital Nomads’ Work-Leisure Management Practices (Annals of Tourism Research)
📖 3rd place – Aarni Tuomi, Mark Ashton, Alexander Lennart Schmidt, and Erin Chao Ling. After the Hype: Managerial Impacts of Planned (Dis)continuance of Service Robot Usage(Cornell Hospitality Quarterly)
🏭 Industry Contribution Award
The IFITT Industry Contribution Award recognizes outstanding contributions by industry professionals who have significantly advanced the application of information technology in travel and tourism.
Recipient:
Mirko Lalli (Data Appeal)
📊 Journal of Information Technology & Tourism – Paper of the Year
The JITT Paper of the Year Award recognizes innovative research published in the Journal of Information Technology & Tourism.
📖 Ashmi Banerjee, Tunar Mahmudov, Emil Adler, Fitri Nur Aisyah, and Wolfgang Wörndl.Modeling Sustainable City Trips: Integrating CO₂e Emissions, Popularity, and Seasonality into Tourism Recommender Systems
📝 ENTER26 Conference Best Full Paper Awards
Awarded annually at the ENTER conference since 2013. The winners are selected by the conference scientific committee and the conference research track chairs from the submitted and double-blind peer reviewed papers.
📖 1st place – Analysing Visual User-Generated Content for Destination Management. Matthew Sacco, Mark Dalli, Leander Grech, Chantelle Saliba, Martina Mangion, and Dylan Seychell
📖 2nd place – Can Travel Motivations Be Identified from User-Generated Content? Muqiu Du, Juho Pesonen, and Raffaele Filieri
📖 3rd place – Travelers and Generative AI: Understanding Personalization and Task-Technology Fit in Trip Planning
Rasoul Mahdavi, Katerina Berezina, Mahsa Talebi, and Halyna Horpynich
📚 ENTER Conference Working Paper Awards 2025
The award has been created in 2020 following an introduction of new format of submissions in 2020. The winners are selected by the conference scientific committee and the conference research track chairs from the submitted and double-blind peer reviewed papers.
📖 1st place – Making Effort Visible: Restoring the AI Source Penalty. Yerin Yhee, Kichan Nam, and Chulmo Koo
📖 2nd place – Human or AI? Navigating Contradicting Travel Recommendations. Khaoula Akdim, Héctor González-Jiménez, and Jungkeun Kim
📖 3rd place – Short-Form Video Narratives and Their Impact on Heritage Tourism Among Generation Z. Stephanie Zuley Bohorquez-Duran, Eva Martin-Fuentes, and Estela Marine-Roig
🎓 Thesis and Doctoral Awards
IFITT also supports emerging scholars through dedicated awards:
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Ph.D. Thesis Excellence Award (1st Place): Vivian C. Medina-Hernandez: Is There Life Beyond Airbnb? Dynamics of Peer-to-Peer Accommodation Platforms in Spain
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Master’s Thesis Excellence Award (1st Place): Bahram Rahmani: Generative AI’s Role in the Pre-Trip Phase of Visually Impaired Travellers
🎓 ENTER26 Ph.D. Proposal Awards
These awards recognise strong doctoral research proposals presented at ENTER26.
2026 winners:
- 🥇 1st Place: Jiajia Liao. Title: Evaluating the Impact of Visitor Restrictions on Mount Fuji: Causal Evidence from Mobile Phone Big Data
🥈 2nd Place: Anton Pustovalov. Title: Experience Economy Dimensions and Guest Satisfaction in Peer-to-Peer Accommodation
🥉 3rd Place: Veronica Bova. Title: Balance Risk and Depopulation of Rural Areas and Digitally Led Agency of Communities
🌍 Celebrating the IFITT Community
The IFITT Awards 2026 showcase the diversity, quality, and global reach of research and innovation in tourism and technology. IFITT congratulates all awardees and thanks the community for continuing to push the field forward.
Well done to all winners and nominees!
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