12th annual TourMIS Users’ Workshop and International Seminar on Consumer Trends & Tourism

MODUL University Vienna was pleased to host two major events on September 08 and 09, 2016: the 12th TourMIS Users’ Workshop (day 1) and International Seminar on Consumer Trends & Tourism (day 2). 89 delegates from 25 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. In addition to the regular workshop attendees we happily welcome every year, there were many new faces in the audience, eager to learn about TourMIS and the new trends in tourism.

The first day’s workshop provided an introduction and discussion of important TourMIS features, and focused primarily on the topic of benchmarking tourism destinations. The workshop was led by Dr. Karl Wöber, President of MODUL University Vienna, and developer of TourMIS, and was further enriched by the contribution of Tünde Mester (Hungarian Tourism Agency). As such, this workshop was particularly interesting for people sharing their tourism statistics on TourMIS as it provided an extensive training on how to use TourMIS, as well as the overview of the latest extensions to the database. Further, a discussion on various options for the future development of TourMIS concluded this day.

The International Seminar on Consumer Trends & Tourism focused on the overall theme of travel transformation and whether we are ready for it. Ian Yeoman (Victoria University of Wellington) opened the seminar day by discussing the tomorrow’s tourist and introducing the simple and fluid identities. In continuation, Nick Hall (Digital Tourism Think Tank), Sebastien Pichon (Google), Dirk Schmücker (New Insights for Tourism), and Ramon Sanchez (Amadeus) introduced their work on the digital transformation in tourism, whereas Nick Chiarelli and Shaina Yang (Future Foundation) presented the ETC study on consumer lifestyle trends and tourism. Caroline Couret (Creative Tourism Network) and David Ward-Perkins (TEAM Tourism) elaborated on the concept of creative tourists, transnational experiences, and customer value. Lastly, Cristina Cerutti (Turismo Torino), Piia Raitavuo (City of Helsinki), Sasa Popovac, and Boris Pavlin (Croatian National Tourist Board) contributed with their own case studies and shared their expertise concerning the trends research and the impact on the DMOs’ strategic thinking.

‘’I have been working on organizing this event for many years now and I am happy to see many people coming back to us, as well as many new faces!’’ says principal organizer Bozana Zekan from the Department of Tourism and Service Management.

‘’This is an extremely important event as we bring together the members of the leading tourism organizations, industry, and academia. As such, we are trying to find the way to address the trends and tackle the challenges that tourism faces from every possible angle, which in my view, is of an immense value. I love working with our partners UNWTO, ETC, and ECM, and am sure that we will again come up with an exciting topic for the next year's event!’’

Both events were generously sponsored by Amadeus, Austrian National Tourist Office, and Vienna Tourist Board, and we would like to thank them for their continuous support!