At ENTER25, the International Federation for IT and Travel & Tourism (IFITT) proudly celebrated excellence in research and innovation by recognizing outstanding contributions in the field of IT and tourism. The IFITT Awards honor exceptional scholars, groundbreaking studies, and emerging researchers, reinforcing our commitment to advancing technological innovation in tourism.
🏅 HANNES WERTHNER LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2025
The Hannes Werthner Lifetime Achievement Award is the highest recognition given by IFITT, awarded to an individual whose work has significantly shaped the field of tourism and information technology.
🏆 Ulrike Gretzel
This prestigious award celebrates a lifetime of contributions that have had a lasting impact on academia, industry, and global research communities.
🏅 IFITT JOURNAL PAPER OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2025
Recognizing outstanding academic publications, the IFITT Journal Paper of the Year Award highlights research that has made a significant impact in the fields of IT and tourism.
🏆 Winners:
📖 1st place – Andrei Kirilenko and Svetlana Stepchenkova. Facilitating topic modeling in tourism research: Comprehensive comparison of new AI technologies (Tourism Management)
📖 2nd place – Fachri Eka Saputra, Dimitrios Buhalis, Marcjanna M. Augustyn and Stefanos Marangos. Anthropomorphism-based artificial intelligence (AI) robots typology in hospitality and tourism (Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology)
📖 3rd place – Carlos Flavian, Sergio Ibanez-Sanchez, Carlos Orús and Sergio Barta. The dark side of the metaverse: The role of gamification in event virtualization (International Journal of Information Management)
🏅 JOURNAL OF HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM TECHNOLOGY PAPER OF THE YEAR AWARD 2025
The JHTT Paper of the Year Award celebrates high-impact research published in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology that advances knowledge on technological innovations in hospitality and tourism.
🏆 Winner:
📖 Ismael Gómez-Talal, Lydia González-Serrano, José Luis Rojo-Álvarez, Pilar Talón-Ballestero. Avoiding food waste from restaurant tickets: a big data management tool
🏅 JOURNAL OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & TOURISM PAPER OF THE YEAR AWARD 2025
The JITT Paper of the Year Award recognizes innovative research published in the Journal of Information Technology & Tourism, showcasing advancements in tourism and IT research.
🏆 Winner:
📖 Anna Dalla Vecchia, Sara Migliorini, Elisa Quintarelli, Mauro Gambini & Alberto Belussi. Promoting sustainable tourism by recommending sequences of attractions with deep reinforcement learning
🏆 BEST FULL PAPERS AT ENTER25
The Best Full Paper Awards highlight top-tier research presented at ENTER25, evaluated based on originality, methodological rigor, and potential impact.
🏆 Winners:
📖 1st place – Dandison C. Ukpabi. User roles in blockchain-based tokenization travel platforms
📖 2nd place – Zehui Wang, Sebastian Schwarzenbacher, Wolfram Höpken and Matthias Fuchs. Do Travel Destinations Meet My Expectations? A Comparison of Tourists’ Perceptions and Destinations’ Self-Presentation through Instagram Posts
📖 3rd place – Michael Beier and Katrin Schillo. Sources of Restaurant Recommendations and their Importance for Consumers in Known and Unknown Areas – Evidence from Germany and Switzerland
🏆 BEST WORKING PAPERS AT ENTER25
The Best Working Paper Awards recognize promising research in progress, presenting novel ideas and methodologies that will shape the future of IT and tourism.
🏆 Winners:
📖 1st place – Huy Quan Vu, Baobao Song, Gang Li and Rob Law. Travel experience analysis based on visual concept modelling from travel photos
📖 2nd place – Gus Guanrong Liu, Pierre Benckendorff and Gabby Walters. Robotic Hospitableness: The Role of Nonverbal Communication in Enhancing Guest-Robot Interactions
📖 3rd place – Sergio Ibáñez-Sánchez, Carlos Flavián, Carlos Orús and Carlos Velasco. Virtual reality meets gastronomy tourism: the use of sensory-enabling technologies in tasting experiences
🏆 BEST POSTER AWARD AT ENTER25
The Best Poster Award acknowledges excellence in visual research communication, recognizing the most impactful and well-presented poster at the conference.
🏆 Winner:
📖 1st place – Yoo Ri Kim, Chaithanya Renduchintala and Wei Wei. Conceptualizing Digital Twins in Hospitality and Tourism: Through the Lens of the Social Ecological Framework
🎓 IFITT THESIS EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2025
Recognizing the next generation of research leaders, IFITT honored outstanding Ph.D. and Master’s theses that push the boundaries of IT and tourism research.
🏆 Ph.D. Thesis Excellence Award Winners
🥇 1st Place: Sofia Blanco Moreno: AI-powered insights: Analyzing visual and textual content on social media for destination marketing management
🥈 2nd Place: Mattia Rainoldi: Managing Work and Leisure in the Digital Age: A Practice Exploration of Digital Nomadism
🥉 3rd Place: Marta Flavian Lázaro: Understanding influencer marketing and their impact on consumer behavior: from human to virtual influencers
🏆 Master’s Thesis Excellence Award
🥇 1st Place: Alexander Pippi: Investigating the critical success factors for knowledge management and the impact of knowledge management on financial performance in tourism SMEs: mediating role of organizational learning
🏆 PhD Proposal Awards
🥇 1st Place: Marta Salvador-Almela, Jordi Arcos-Pumarola and Estela Marine-Roig. Title: Social media’s role in shaping tourism imagery and experiences: a case study of volunteer tourism
🥈 2nd Place: Xiaoxi Yu and Mingming Cheng. Title: Developing and empirically testing a multimodal methodological approach in tourism
🥉 3rd Place: Luona Zhao, Jie Wang and Pierre Benckendorff. Title: Balance Risk and Romance: The Role of Emotions in Female Tourists’ Online Self-Disclosure Behaviour
IFITT extends its warmest congratulations to all award recipients and thanks them for their contributions to the field of IT and tourism. Their work advances knowledge, inspires innovation, and shapes the future of technology-driven tourism.
We look forward to continuing to support and recognize excellence in research at ENTER26!
🎉 CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL AWARD WINNERS! 🎉
