IFITT is hosting “Technology and Social Media enabled Real-Time Service Management in Hospitality and Tourism”, a seminar at the World Travel Market in London on Monday, 7th November, from 10:00 am to 12:00am. The event is supported also by Tnooz.com editor and co-founder Kevin May.

(TRAVPR.COM) UNITED KINGDOM - September 27th, 2011 - BOURNEMOUTH, UK – IFITT is hosting “Technology and Social Media enabled Real-Time Service Management in Hospitality and Tourism”, a seminar at the World Travel Market in London on Monday, 7th November, from 10:00 am to 12:00am. The event is supported also by Tnooz.com editor and co-founder Kevin May.

The event will be moderated by Professor Dimitrios Buhalis (IFITT President, Deputy Director ICTHR, Bournemouth University) and Professor Andrew Frew (Queen Margaret University). Presenters are eTourism experts from industry and academia, including Tinkara Pavlovčič Kapitanovič (Head of e-Business and Strategic Projects, Slovenian Tourist Board), Nate Bucholz (Industry Manager, Google), Joanna Matloka (Account Manager, 77Agency), Rohit Talwar (CEO, Fast Future Research), Nicolas Gregori and Zornitza Yovcheva (both John Kent Institute in Tourism - Bournemouth University).

Presentations and discussions will focus on the major developments in the area of social media enabled real-time technologies and their profound impacts on the management and marketing of tourism and hospitality services.
IFITT President Professor Dimitrios Buhalis states that “increasingly competitive advantage will depend on the ability of organisations to engage interactively with their global consumers. This event will discuss and demonstrate how organisations can use social media interactively to engage with their stakeholders and to adapt their products dynamically to ever-changing market conditions and customer requirements.”

As shown in recent studies by Bournemouth University eTourism experts, social media play an ever-greater role for consumers at all stages of the travel planning process. The increasing adaptation of dynamic social media and real-time social media tools by tourists, challenges the traditional approaches to managing and marketing services in tourism and hospitality. For business it means that leveraging and embracing the new developments of social media enabled real-time technologies is key to achieving growth and service excellence in a highly competitive market.

About the International Federation for IT in Travel & Tourism (IFITT)

IFITT is one of the leading eTourism knowledge-hubs for tourism and technology experts in industry and academia. The Federation extensively discusses and progresses the economic, consumer and organisational impacts of eTourism through events such as the ENTER conference, Workshops and IFITT supported publications. IFITT members include researchers and practitioners of eTourism who treasure the power of networking and global knowledge sharing for improving their competitiveness and innovation. Institutional members include organisations, companies and research institutes active in the eTourism space.

For more information contact Professor Dimitrios Buhalis (IFITT President) at ifitt@ifitt.org or visit http://www.ifitt.org/home/view/IFITT@WTM

http://www.ifitt.org ifitt@ifitt.org

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