IFITT

it is a great honour, responsibility and pleasure to take over as President of IFITT and I am grateful to the support I have received from the membership as well as the newly elected Board. Being the fourth President after Hannes Werthner, Josef Margreitet and Andrew Frew is a great privilege and I look forward to work with every single member and stakeholder to take IFITT higher and also to make a great contribution to the world of eTourism globally. IFITT has never been in a stronger position, mainly due to its very positive financial position, the excellent global reputation we enjoy and the increase of importance of technology for the world of tourism and travel. We need to record out appreciation to the work that the previous Board had done under the leadership of Andrew and the very successful ENTER conference in the last years for bringing IFITT to such an excellent position.

We are not complacent; there are a lot of challenges ahead and we need to work hard to ensure that IFITT goes further and that each member gains a range of benefits to become an ambassador for the Federation, With this in mind I am particularly pleased to present to you the new IFITT Board and each person responsibilities. I am really glad to welcome Andrew Frew back on the board and to take advantage of his experience on a on a number of areas. We have decided that every person on the board will lead on one area and will support a second area. This will ensure that the board will be flexible and subgroups will work efficiently together to resolve issues and progress effectively. The IFITT Board is therefore:

Dimitrios Buhalis: President and Strategy/ International Liaison (1) / Marketing (2)
Wolfram Höpken: Vice President / Treausurer
Aurkene Alzua Sorzabal: Membership / Industry and Commercial (2)
Rodolfo Baggio: Industry and Commercial (1) / Treausurer (2)
Lorenzo Cantoni: Communication and Website / Archive (1)
Andrew J. Frew: Membership and Benefit / Product Development / Chapters (2) / Website(2)
Ulrike Gretzel: Governance Modernization / Education Director (1)
Rob Law: Research/ ENTER research chair
Jamie Murphy: Marketing Director (1) / Education Director (2)
Paul Barron: Chapters

As I said in my election pledge I would like to drive IFITT towards a direction of:

• A global forum for tourism and technology on a global basis that brings together members
• that create and disseminate innovative knowledge in ITT
• An inclusive organisation where each member is equally informed about the key
• developments and opportunities available
• A depository of literature and contemporary developments on ITT
• Collaboration with Tourism and Technology Organisations globally
• Respect as an one stop shop where expertise can be found
• Strengthening ENTER to become THE tourism and technology event in the world
• Organising regional events on specialised issues
• Strengthening of regional chapters to support our global recruitment
• Use Web 2.0 and other off the self technologies for sharing resources, discussions and
• More collaboration with the Journals that are relevant to our areas
• Support for new/young researchers to follow Tourism and technology
• Empower PhD students in these areas
• Competitions to support excellence in Tourism and Technology
• Build consensus effectively through membership and deliver results
• Establish trust between members and co-destiny
• Seek inspirations and turn ideas into reality efficiently
• Leading from the heart with a passion for IFITT

Please feel free to engage in conversation with me or any Board members to suggest things and to offer your services.

Join us on 

IFITT on tweeter http://twitter.com/IFITTorg

IFITT on facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8292984021

ENTER2011  http://www.enter2011.org and http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=112531752123934&ref=ts

Join us and encourage others to join
 

I believe strongly that YOUR Federation can only go forward with your involvement and -support.

Dimitrios Buhalis
IFITT President