11th annual TourMIS Conference focuses on sustainability in tourism

MODUL University Vienna was pleased to host two major events on September 10th and 11th, 2015: the 11th TourMIS Users’ Workshop and Monitoring Sustainability: International Seminar on Environmental and Social Tourism Indicators for Measuring Tourism Development.

Seventy-three delegates from 21 countries attended this year’s events, the majority of whom represented city and national tourist organizations, as well as international tourism organizations, universities, and companies from the hospitality and tourism industry.

The first day’s workshop provided an introduction and discussion of important TourMIS features and focused primarily on the topic knowledge sharing for tourism destinations. The workshop was led by Dr. Karl Wöber, President of MODUL University and developer of TourMIS, and was further enriched by the contributions of Tünde Mester (Hungarian Tourism Plc.). The workshop was a unique outlet to provide training on how to use TourMIS and for discussion on possible future steps in developing the system.

Moreover, Irem Önder (MODUL University) presented how TourMIS supports users to analyze the success of a destination by benchmark techniques. The International Seminar focused on monitoring sustainability and indicating environmental and social tourism indicators for measuring tourism development.

Workshops provided practitioners insights on how to identify indicators to monitor sustainable performances and development; thus, these presentations focused on projects analyzing indicators and stakeholder management to support sustainable tourism development.

Stefan Gössling (Lund University) opened the session discussing the need for change in attitudes towards destination management. Furthermore, he highlighted the need for monitoring the resource use in destinations and focusing on optimization instead of maximization.

Continuing on this theme, a number of speakers from academia and the industry took the floor: Massimiliano CobaZabetta (Torino University), Silvia Barbone (FEST, London/Brussels), Clemens Költringer (Vienna Tourist Board), Lidija Lalicic (MODUL University Vienna), Frédéric Cornet (VisitBrussels), Bozana Zekan (MODUL University Vienna), Ulf Sonntag (NIT, Germany) and Michel Julian (UNWTO) contributed their own case studies and shared expertise within this research area.

‘’Tourmis was very interesting this year, especially with the focus on sustainability,’’ says MU Research Associate Tina Tiller. ‘’I got a lot out of listening to the talks on the second day’’.

Both events were generously sponsored by the Austrian National Tourist Office (ANTO), Vienna Tourist Board, and we would like to thank them for their continuous support. For more information about these events, a detailed program, speakers’ information handout, and all presentations are available for download on the TourMIS webpage.