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 of the field/practice of tourism and technology.The award is named after Hannes Werthner, a pioneer in the eTourism field and founder of the ENTER conference and IFITT community in the 1990s. Hannes influenced the field, both through his extensive scientific and entrepreneurial contributions.
The 2026 Hannes Werthner has been presented to: Roland Schegg
This prestigious award celebrates a lifetime of contributions that have had a lasting impact on academia, industry, and global research communities.
IFITT Journal Papers of the Year Award
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.
📖 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)
IFITT 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 AWARD
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 Award
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 Award 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
ENTER Best Reviewer Award
The Best Reviewer Award honors exceptional dedication and quality in the peer-review process.
🥇 Francesco Ricci
IFITT Ph.D. Thesis Excellence Award
Awarded to Doctoral level thesis following nominations by IFITT community.
🥇 1st Place: Vivian C. Medina-Hernandez: Is There Life Beyond Airbnb? Dynamics of Peer-to-Peer Accommodation Platforms in Spain
IFITT Ph.D. Master’s Thesis Excellence Award
Awarded to Master level thesis following nominations by IFITT community.
🥇 1st Place: Bahram Rahmani: Generative AI’s Role in the Pre-Trip Phase of Visually Impaired Travellers
ENTER26 Conference Best PhD Proposal Award
Awarded annually during the PhD workshop day, which takes place prior to ENTER conference . The winners are selected by the PhD workshop scientific committee and the PhD workshop chairs from the submitted and double-blind reviewed submissions.
🥇 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
Congratulations, well done and thank you for your contribution!
IFITT would like to thank Director of Research Excellence Mattia Rainoldi for overseeing the award identification processes. Last but not least, our sincere gratitude goes to the awards committee and colleagues in it, and, in particular, to Peter O’Connor, Mattia Rainoldi, and Julia Neidhardt (research track chairs), Jacques Bulchand-Gidumal (IFITT president), and Rodolfo Baggio. Jelena Farkić, Kasha Minor, Arkadiusz Tomczyk, Bournemouth University (Ph.D. workshop co-chairs) for organising and supporting the process.