Meet Industry and Academic Leaders at ENTER21 Virtual Conference 2021

Have you heard of ENTER21? It’s a three-day conference that brings together industry professionals, entrepreneurs, destinations, policy-makers, researchers, and students.

We talk with Prof. Dr. Claudia Brözel – Director of Education and Overall Chair at the Enter21@yourplace conference, and professor at Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development.

Check our interview below to learn more about ENTER21:

How long has ENTER21 been running?

For the last 27 years, the International Federation for Information Technologies and Travel & Tourism — known as IFITT — has organised an annual conference called ENTER21. Each year, we organize the conference in a chosen destination that we’re working with.

As part of our tradition, we add the name of the destination to the title — our last in-person conference was ENTER20@Surrey. Next year’s conference will be held virtually, we’ve decided to call it ENTER21@yourplace since we’re hosting the event “at your place”.

How does ENTER21 connect tourism academia with industry?

At ENTER21, researchers from all over the world submit their latest research papers in a “double-blind entry process”. This year, we had approximately 100 paper admissions, and 60 papers are scheduled to be presented at the conference by the researchers in 30-minute slots.

We also have many industry talks and several workshops, award ceremonies, and a Ph.D. workshop.

The hashtags of this year’s conference are Change – Future – Matter. As an academic community, we want to highlight that we are not sitting in the “Ivory Tower” – we are open to discussion and collaboration in order to find new solutions in these difficult times.

What is this year’s conference theme?

This year’s theme is titled:

“eTourism: Development Opportunities and Challenges in an Unpredictable World”.

The conference will have papers about strategies, crisis management, technologies, e-tourism, management, marketing, tourist behaviour, experiences, and many more educational topics.

We have many paper authors and industry speakers that will talk about the COVID-19 crisis and the role of information and communications technology (ICT). We’re focused on how ICT can support tourism, travel, and society across a number of key areas.

Who should attend ENTER21?

You should attend if you are interested in the latest tourism innovation research from either an academic or industry perspective.

🎓 Academics — Ph.D. students, masters students, and university professors.

🏨 Travel industry — in-house researchers within tourism companies, and professionals looking for the latest research and new tourism topics to learn about.

What are your highlights of the conference?

Participants will be able to choose from four virtual rooms — Main Hall, Air, Water, and Earth. All talks at the Main Hall will be recorded so attendees can access the on-demand replays.

The program has something for everyone — here’s a few highlights:

Charlotte Lamp Davies will introduce the program and moderate the overall event which will start at 11 am CET (Central European Time) each day.
Business travel and mobility will focus on the future of business travel. We then have presentations of research papers, short and full, every day in 3-4 parallel sessions.
How Covid-19 is changing travel patterns by Anna Au-Yeung — the Global Head of Destination Marketing at Travelport.
Using Digitisation to Make Tourism More Sustainable — from Dirk Schmücker of the German Institute of Tourism Research
Which Future Moves Us by innovation coach Oliver Puhe.

👉 Attendees will have access to the complete conference proceedings from the ENTER21.

How can attendees get the most out of ENTER21?

Here’s how attendees can get the best value from attending:

Study the program, so you can attend sessions most relevant to you.
Use the opportunity to ask questions to speakers.
Join our destination evening programs — we’ll be covering Europe, Africa, and China.

— Thanks Professor Claudia, for sharing your insights with us!

💻 Learn more at enter-conference.org and get your early bird ticket before December 12.