IFITT @ENTER2014 Prizes and Awards

IFITT AWARDS 2014 – CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

The International Federation for Information Technology and Travel & Tourism (IFITT) is pleased to announce that it will sponsor a series of awards to be presented at the ENTER 2014 conference in Dublin, Ireland to be held January 21-24, 2014. See the conference website for details: http://www.enter2014.org. Please find below detailed information about each of the awards and the respective submission deadlines.

Hannes Werthner Tourism and Technology Lifetime Achievement Award

This award will be given at the ENTER 2014 conference to an individual from academia, industry or government who has made significant contributions to the advancement of the field/practice of tourism and technology. Representatives of the IFITT Board will make the selection. The winner of the award will receive an award trophy, a ticket to the ENTER 2014 conference gala dinner, an acknowledgement on the IFITT and ENTER websites, and an individual IFITT membership for one year.

Individuals have to be nominated by an IFITT member. Please submit nominations with a biographical statement about the nominee to Ulrike Gretzel (ugretzel@uow.edu.au) by October 15, 2013.

The winner of this year’s Hannes Werthner Tourism and Technology Lifetime Achievement Award is Pauline Sheldon from University of Hawaii.

Thesis Excellence Award

Award presented at the ENTER 2014 conference to a Master or PhD thesis in the field of tourism and technology successfully defended between October 1, 2012 and September 30, 2013. The selection will be made by the ENTER PhD workshop committee. The winner will receive an award trophy, a certificate, an acknowledgement on the ENTER website, and an individual IFITT membership for one year. The winner has to attend the ENTER 2014 PhD workshop and present the winning thesis there. If the winning author is not able to attend the PhD workshop, the award will be given to the next ranked thesis.

Students may be nominated by IFITT members and non-members. To nominate a student for this award, send a 1000 word thesis abstract (in English), a brief biographical note about the student and a recommendation letter from the advisor to Ulrike Gretzel at ugretzel@uow.edu.au by October 1, 2013.

Winners:

Category Master:

1.    Amina Reimann who presented his thesis on " Hotel Mobile Applications: Analysing the State-Of-The-Art and Proposing a Concept".
2.    Anna Schild who presented her thesis on "Augmented Reality as Advertising Tool: Perceived Value and its effects provided by AR-enriched traditional print advertisement in the Tourism Industry"
3.    Emre Ronay for her thesis about "NFC Smart City: Cities of the Future: Application of a Scenario Method and a Complex System Framework to Illuminate the Uncertain Future of Tourism Destinations".

Category PhD:

1. Elena Marchiori who presented her thesis "Destination Reputation in Online Media: Covered Topics and Perceived Online Dominant Opinion"
2. Silvia de Ascaniis who presented her thesis on "Destination Online Travel Reviews: An Argumentative and Textual Genre Perspective"
3. Anastasia Mariussen who presented her thesis "A Grounded Theory of Affiliate Marketing Performance Measurement in Tourism and Hospitality"

Outstanding Industry Contribution Award (2 Categories: Small and Medium/Large Enterprises)

This award will be presented at the ENTER 2014 conference in two categories, one for small enterprises (less than 50 employees and/or less than Euro 10 million turnover) and one for medium/large enterprises (more than 50 employees and/or more than Euro 10 million turnover). The award will recognize companies/organizations that have made a significant contribution to the growth and success of technology adoption, integration, or use in the tourism industry. The winning organizations will be selected in an open voting process (details below). The award involves an award trophy, a certificate, a ticket to the ENTER 2014 conference gala dinner, an acknowledgement on the IFITT and ENTER websites, and corporate IFITT membership for one year.

Organizations may be nominated by IFITT members and non-members. To nominate a company send a short description of the company (~100 words), a description of the innovation (~250 words), and contact details to Ulrike Gretzel at ugretzel@uow.edu.au by November 10, 2013.

Selection Process: A two-stage open voting process will be conducted on the IFITT Website. The first round from November 11-15 will select the top three organizations in each category. The second round of voting and awards ceremony will be held during the ENTER 2014 conference in Dublin. To select the winner, the top three nominees in each category will be asked to prepare a short video presentation featuring their innovation to be shown during the ENTER 2014 conference in Dublin. The top three nominees will receive a 50% discount on exhibition space during the ENTER 2014 conference. Please contact Patrick Horan at patrick.horan@dit.ie for details regarding the exhibition space.

The voting is closed now (deadline was November 30, 2013 at 5pm Greenwich Mean Time). The winner will be announced soon!

Winners in 2014:

Small Enterprises:

The winning enterprise in the category of small enterprises is Australian Tourism Data Warehouse that has clearly demonstrated how technology can successfully be integrated in the tourism industry. 

Medium/Large Enterprises:

The winner of the category for medium or large enterprises is Google, the world's largest search engine for travel and tourism.

Innovative Destination Award

IFITT will present an award to the most innovative destination marketing organization (DMO). The award will be given to a DMO at a local, regional or national level that has successfully integrated technology. The winning DMO will be selected in an open voting process (details below). The award involves an award trophy, a certificate, a ticket to the ENTER 2014 conference gala dinner, an acknowledgement on the IFITT and ENTER websites, and corporate IFITT membership for one year.

Organizations may be nominated by IFITT members and non-members. To nominate a DMO send a short description of the DMO (~100 words), a description of the innovation (~250 words), and contact details to Ulrike Gretzel at ugretzel@uow.edu.au by November 10, 2013.

Selection Process: A two-stage open voting process will be conducted on the IFITT Website. The first round from November 11-15 will select the top three DMOs. The second round of voting and awards ceremony will be held during the ENTER 2014 conference in Dublin. To select the winner, the top three nominees will be asked to prepare a short video presentation featuring their innovation to be shown during the ENTER 2014 conference in Dublin. The top three nominees will receive a 50% discount on exhibition space during the ENTER 2014 conference. Please contact Patrick Horan at patrick.horan@dit.ie for details regarding the exhibition space.

The voting is closed now (deadline was November 30, 2013 at 5pm Greenwich Mean Time). The winner will be announced soon!

The winner this years 'Innovative Destination Award' is the Tourism Bureau of Taiwan for demonstrating a successful integration of technologies in its destination marketing activities.

Journal Paper of the Year Award

This award will be given at the ENTER 2014 conference to the most innovative and scientifically rigorous information technology and tourism-related paper published in an academic journal during the year 2013. The winning paper will receive one award trophy and certificates for all authors.

Nomination process: Papers may be nominated by IFITT members and non-members. One nomination only per person. Self-nominations are allowed. A complete citation for the paper in APA style together with a pdf file of the article should be sent by January 1, 2014 to Ulrike Gretzel at ugretzel@uow.edu.au. To qualify, the paper needs to have a tourism and technology focus and must have been published between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2013 (online pre-publication is ok).

Selection process: The IFITT awards committee will select the Top 10 papers. The IFITT Board will identify the winning paper out of these Top 10 papers.

In addition to these awards, ENTER 2014 will also present awards to the best research papers and the best PhD proposal. To qualify for the best paper award you need to submit a full paper and register for the conference by the indicated deadlines. To be eligible for the PhD proposal award, you need to be a PhD student at a recognized university-level institution and submit a proposal to the PhD workshop by the deadline indicated on the respective call for proposals.

Winners in 2014:

1.     Germann Molz, J. and Paris, C,M. (2013). Social Affordances of Flashpacking: Exploring the Mobility Nexus of Travel and Communication.Mobilities 24 (1).
2.     Park, S.. Nicolau, J.L. and . Fesenmaier, D.R. (2013). Assessing Advertising in a Hierarchical Decision Model.Annals of Tourism Research40, 260-282.
3.   Nicolau, J.L. and Santa-María, M.J. (2013). The Effect of Innovation on Hotel Market Value. International Journal of Hospitality Management32.71-79.

IFITT Best Paper Award 2014

The ‘IFITT Best Paper Award 2014’ was given to individuals who presented the best papers related to technology and tourism during the ENTER 2014 conference. The winners of the ‘IFITT Best Paper Award 2014’ are:

1. Matthias Fuchs, Wolfram Höpken, Alexander Eybl and Andreas Flöck for their paper about ‘Online Auctions for Selling Accommodation Packages – A Readiness-Intensity-Impact Analysis"
2. Jeongmi Jamie Kim and Daniel R. Fesenmaier for their paper about "Measuring Emotions in Real Time: Implications for Tourism Design".
3. Roland Schegg and Miriam Scaglione for their paper about "Substitution Effects across Hotel Distribution Channels".

IFITT Best PhD Proposal Award 2014

The ‘IFITT Best PhD Proposal Award 2014’ awarded PhD students who presented an outstanding proposal for their research project. The winners of the ‘IFITT Best PhD Proposal Award 2014’ are:

1. Yeongbae Choe who presented his research proposal about "Why do Travellers Change their Trip? Effects of Information, Situation, and Individual Factors".
2. Seyed Shahabeddin Pourfakhimi Abarghouei for his research proposal about "The Impact of Users’ “Online Reviews” and “Ratings” on Consumers’ Behaviour toward Hotel Selection Factors"
3. Barbara Neuhofer for her PhD research proposal about "The Technology Enhanced Tourist Experience".

The IFITT ICT4D Scholarship Award

In 2014 IFITT offered for the first time scholarships to two students from developing or emerging countries who are currently researching on a topic in the area of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) and Tourism and who want to provide a positive impact onto their respective communities. The winners of the IFITT ICT4D Scholarship are:

• Atanu Garai from India for his thesis on "Improving Carrier Access during Rural Emergencies (I‐CARE)"
• Konosoang Mipti from Lesotho investigating "The potential use of ICT enhancing agrotourism in Lesotho".

Both winners presented their theses during the PhD Workshop at ENTER 2014.

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