MU in Innsbruck: MSc students visit ENTER eTourism Conference

Three students of the MSc in International Tourism Management program hit the Alps to attend the annual Enter Conference (The 18th International Conference on Information Technology and Travel & Tourism). This year's event took place from the 26th to the 28th of January, in Innsbruck, Austria.

Jelena Krnic, Antonia Markoulakis and Stephanie Mezera had this to say about the highlights of the conference:

‘’First of all, the complexity and the multitude of different subjects was very exciting, and a variety lectures on interesting topics in social media as well as E-Tourism related issues were offered. The whole conference was set on three different levels: level one was focused on destinations, level two had an industry and innovation focus, and level three was related to research papers in various subjects. Unfortunately, not everything could be attended as many topics were taking place simultaneously.

Great importance was given to ‘Social Media - Web 2.0’; the way these websites evolve and how much they affect everyday life, and therefore how important it is for modern companies to invest and concentrate on them.

New mobile technologies were also a major topic at the conference. These platforms are currently being used in different ways as a new marketing tool.

The subject of destination marketing organizations (DMOs) in the marketplace fostered lively discussions which arouse contradicting opinions between industry and academic leaders. Interestingly, no concrete conclusion came out, and the subject will be re-discussed in the next year’s conference which will take place in Helsingborg, Sweden from the 24th to the 27th of January, 2012.

Finally, our observation was that this conference was not only remarkable from the content point of view, but also the possibility for networking with different people from the industry as well as from other universities.

We hope to be able to attend this conference again!’’