Academic Research Supports Industry Trends
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Loading ...As an IFITT member, I’ve had an opportunity to review the materials presented at the Enter 2007 Conference, which took place in Ljubljana. Much of the focus of IFITT is on the research and academic side and I must admit, the quality of the presentations is very impressive. The presentations, which are produced by academics from around the World, reflect research into a wide variety of tourism related areas. One paper I found particularly interesting and relevant to the upcoming Canada-e-connect conference is titled “Assessing eBusiness Models of U.S. Destination Marketing Organizations”. The paper was co-written by Tanvi Kothari and Daniel Fesenmaier at the National Laboratory for Tourism & eCommerce at Temple University. What struck me as most impressive was the quality of the research conducted. Because of the the impartiality of the researchers and the institutions with which they are affiliated, the results are profoundly more credible, in my opinion, then even those provided by industry research firms. This particular paper for example provided the following summary results.
- Internet technologies have been largely unrealized by DMOs and CVBs.
- DMOs need to change the way they conduct business online and provide value.
- DMOs and CVBs need to change their role from being an “information provider” to a “value enhancer”.
Those of us who are active in the community and are on top of the ongoing trends in travel and tourism have realized these points for a while. The value of having independent academic research is that it validates what Industry and DMOs have recognized as a potential trend. That validation and collaboration between Industry, Government, and Academia is one of the key drivers of an organization like IFITT. I expect that as the IFITT North America chapter starts to pick up steam, we can expect more insightful and useful research from both Canada and the U.S.
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