Dimitrios Buhalis keynote speaker

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis is Established Chair in Tourism and Deputy Director of the International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research (ICTHR) Director of the eTourismLab and Director of the John Kent Institute in Tourism at the School of Tourism,  Bournemouth University and Professorial Observer at the Bournemouth University Senate. Professor Buhalis is leading eTourism research and is working with the Bournemouth team for introducing technology in all aspects of tourism research and teaching. In 2009 he led Bournemouth University successfully through the UNWTO.TedQual Certification Process and is the BU representative to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation. In recognition of his contribution, he was elected in August 2009, as a member of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism. In April 2010, Dimitrios was elected President of International Federation for Information Technologies in Travel and Tourism (IFITT) for two terms up to 2014. He also served as Professorial Observer on the Bournemouth University Senate for four years.

Dimitrios has been involved with a number of European Commission FP5 and FP6 projects and regularly advises the World Tourism Organisation, the World Tourism and Travel Council and the European Commission in the field of information technology and tourism. His latest assignment with Government and Public Sector organisations was to develop an eTourism Strategy for the Egyptian Tourism Authority and the Ministry of Tourism in Egypt as part of the Austrian Twinning project, whilst he recently completed a project on the development of Hotel School for the Government of Andorra. Dimitrios is still an active tourism practitioner, listing the positions of Marketing Manager and Web master for his family Hotel Segas, Board of Directors with responsibility for strategy and marketing for Aquis Hotels and Resorts SA, the fastest growing hotel chain in Greece managing 15 hotels in January 2010 in his activities. He has also been advising private sector organisations such TUI, Pestana, Opodo.com, YouTravel.com, Aliathon, on the strategic aspects of their business.

His industrial experience includes managerial roles in the Aegean tourism industry, as well as 25 years of international tourism and hospitality research and consultancy. In his research, advisory, consultancy career Dimitrios has worked around the world and has delivered projects, presentations, conferences, consultations in the UK, Ireland, France, Portugal, Spain, Andorra, Greece, Serbia, Italy, Malta, Cyprus, Turkey, Romania, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Slovenia, Estonia, Egypt, Mauritius, United Arab Emirates, Ghana, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Australia, Chile, Mexico, Brazil. He has delivered projects for the governments of Andorra, Egypt, Cyprus and Malta. He was recently appointed in a group of experts to assist the tourism development of the Hainan region in China.

Dr Dimitrios Buhalis was previously Programme Leader MSc in Tourism Marketing, Leader of eTourism Research, Reader in Business Information Management at the School of Management, University of Surrey and elected member of the University Senate (2003-2007). Until September he was also Course Leader, MSc in eTourism and Director of the Centre for eTourism Research (CeTR). Dimitrios has also been Adjunct Professor at the MBA in Hospitality Management at the IMHI (Cornell University-Ecole Superieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales ESSEC) in Paris, Visiting Professor at School of Hotel and Tourism Management at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chinaand Professor Associado at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. He has been teaching tourism related subjects in more than 30 Universities around the world. He is regarded as an expert in the impacts of ICTs in the tourism industry and eTourism, the management of tourism distribution channels as well as strategic tourism marketing and management.

He has written or co-edited a total of 18 books, including two books on the Future of Tourism, namely: Tourism Business Frontiers, Tourism Management Dynamics published by Butterworth-Heinemann, eTourism Case Studies, published by Butterworth as well as eTourism: Strategic Information Technology for Tourism published by Pearson (Prentice Hall/Financial Times) and Tourism Distribution Channels (Thomson), Managing alliances in the global hospitality and tourism industry as well as  a series of three books on IT and Tourism. He has also published more than 80 articles in scholarly journals, books, conference proceedings and consultancy reports.