IFITT Awards were presented to the winners during ENTER2015 eTourism conference in Lugano (Switzerland).
See here pictures from the ENTER2015 conference and awards ceremony.
IFITT Outstanding Industry Contribution Award
The Award is given to enterprises that make a significant contribution to the growth and success of technology adoption, integration, or use in the tourism industry.
– Small Enterprises: Athens Destination Specialist Program and Yonderbound
– Medium and Large Enterprises: Bravofly
IFITT Innovative Destination’ Award The Award is given to the most innovative Destination Management Organization of the year.
– Vienna Tourism Board
– Zermatt Tourism
– Egyptian Tourism Authority
IFITT Hannes Werthner Tourism and Technology Lifetime Achievement Award
The Hannes Werthner Tourism and Technology Lifetime Achievement Award is given to an individual from academia, industry or government who has made significant contributions to the advancement in the field of tourism and technology.
– The winner of 2015 is Professor Josef A Mazanec from MODUL University (Vienna, Austria)
IFITT Thesis Excellence Award
The Thesis Excellence Award awarded students who successfully defended their theses in the field of tourism and technology between October 1, 2013 and September 30, 2014.
Category Master: Alessia Borré, Università della Svizzera italiana (Switzerland), for her thesis on “Listening and dialogue practices in online travel reviews: the case of hotels in Lugano (Switzerland)”
Category PhD: Estela Mariné Roig, Universitat Rovira I Virgili (Spain), for her thesis “From the projected to the transmitted image: The 2.0 construction of tourist destination image and identity in Catalonia”
IFITT Journal Paper of the Year Award 2015
1. Yoon Jung Lee and Ulrike Gretzel. (2014). Cross-cultural Differences in Social Identity Formation through Travel Blogging. Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, 31(1), 37-54
2. Barbara Neuhofer, Dimitrios Buhalis and Adele Ladkin. (2014). A typology of technology enhanced experiences, International Journal of Tourism Research, 16, 340-350
3. Jason Stienmetz and Daniel R. Fesenmaier. (2014). Effects of channel, timing, and bundling on destination advertising response. Tourism Analysis, 19(1), 97-104
ENTER Best Paper Award 2015
1. Chulmo Koo, Youhee Joun, Heejeong Han and Namho Chung. “Mediating Roles of Self-Image Expression: Sharing Travel Information of SNSs”
2. Adem Sabic and Markus Zanker. “Investigating User’s Information Needs and Attitudes towards Proactivity in Mobile Tourist Guides”
3. Anja Dinhopl and Ulrike Gretzel. “Changing Practices/New Technologies: Photos and Videos on Vacation”
ENTER Best PhD Proposal Award 2015
1. Daniel Leung. “Perceived Usefulness of Online Hotel Reviews: Influence of Review Content and Review Source”
2. Sunyoung Lee, Chulmo Koo, Seunghun Shin and Namho Chung. “Online Tourism Review: Three Phases for Successful Destination Relationships”
3. Eliane Maalouf. “RDF Analytics for Tourism Linked Data Decision Support”