Dr Dimitrios Buhalis : interview d’un des grands experts du eTourism et du eMarketing
C'est avec plaisir que je vous propose un échange de points de vue et l'interview du Dr. Dimitrios Buhalis, un des grands esprits du e-tourisme !
Dimitrios, can you tell some information about you?
[Dimitrios:]
Hi, I specialise in eTourism and have been working on Tourism Strategic Marketing and Management and Information Communication Technologies. I am currently Programme Leader MSc in Tourism Marketing at the University of Surrey. My book on eTourism is widely used in most tourism courses around the world and it has also been translated into Chinese.
You are Programme Leader for the MSc in Tourism Marketing at School of Management, University of Surrey.
Can you tell us some fact about it and the students profil of this training ?
[Dimitrios:]
The University of Surrey is a recognised as a key Education and Training centre by the World Tourism Organisation (W.T.O.) and was the first UK centre to receive TedQual certification from the W.T.O. for both its undergraduate and postgraduate tourism courses. This programme is designed to give you the skills to pursue a career in marketing a tourism product. The modules are designed to incorporate established principles of marketing as well as current specialist issues. Basic understanding of the Marketing Concept leads to opportunities to apply theory to a wide variety of tourism situations. This programme will provide students with a specialist marketing qualification from a well established and highly regarded university. At the completion of the programme not only will students have an opportunity to be at the forefront of latest tourism marketing thinking and practice. Undoubtedly, this programme will enhance career opportunities and gain graduates an internationally recognised transferable qualification.A successful Marketer will have a thorough understanding of his/her product as well as the functions of other departments within his/her organisation. The Marketing modules are backed by the well established management and tourism modules offered by the School thus allowing students to gain a quality degree that is highly relevant to the modern tourism world.
Our students are coming from a wide range of backgrounds from around the world. Most have several years of managerial experience and are looking to boost their careers in the future.
You are involve in great tourism european project (Ossate and other) some news about this ?
[Dimitrios:]
On behalf of the University of Surrey I am leading a very successful team of people working on issues related to eTourism.I am the Principle Investigator for a number of projects including the European projects FP5 SMART-UP (eCommerce and eLearning for hospitality SMEs, Harmonise (harmonisation of standards in tourism), FP6 NoE EPOCH (ICTs for Cultural Heritage), OSSATE (eContent) www.ossate.org as well as for the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project eLearning for Hospitality Professionals and the World Travel Tourism Council project eTourism Stakeholders. All projects are at different stages and are progressing well building a portfolio of expertise and experience that are used in our teaching and also research publications.
What are your taste for:
Travel: [Dimitrios:] SINGAPORE AIR
Travel destination :[Dimitrios:] MAURITIUS
Hotel:[Dimitrios:] SHANGRI LA
Business: [Dimitrios:] BRITISH AIRWAYS
For Travel and e-tourism, do you think Men are from Mars and women from Jupiter 
)
[Dimitrios:]
There is no evidence that men and women operate differently on eTourism, although it is well documented that women lead most of the travel and tourism decisions. However I feel that some web sites attract more women than men and there are different design prototypes for each sex.
Internet is going faster and we talk now about Web 2.0, what do you think about this evolution in the tourism market place ?
[Dimitrios:]
the penetration of broadband and fast internet enables people to spend more time online and gradually move us to digital living where a lot of daily professional and personal functions move online. This evolution will increase the transparency of the marketplace and will force tourism organisations to integrate their online and off line offerings, branding and pricing.
Consumers are the main winner in this process.
We see important impact of news technologies (RSS, AJAX, podcast, etc), what is your point of view ?
[Dimitrios:]
There are lots of new technologies that will enable a better interaction between tourism suppliers and consumers
Increasingly technologies will understand better consumer needs and will offer personalised suggestions and recommendations as well as experiences
At a cost effective way
Blogs are also a new media and new part of Internet, we talk about "blogosphère". With 7 bloggers (all from e-tourism) we lunch "les Trophées du e-tourism 2006" only with our passion.
http://www.actuvoyage.com/trophees-etourisme
What about your students and the blogs trend ?
[Dimitrios:]
Blogs are a great way for individuals to publish their views. In their current form they remind me of the web sites in 1996 where lots of sites appeared. In my view the main benefit is that individuals can publish their views on the internet in minutes, without having to strangle with html and ftp uploads. Tourism organisations have to manage how blogs represent them and also engage in producing their own blogs online
Ecotourism seem a trend in tourism industry and we see some great initiative like EcoMilles or other Tour Operator who have specialized their products.
What do you think about this trend ? Do you think this trend will change the way of how we buy tourism product from big travel agencies?
[Dimitrios:]
Gradually the world is start realising its environmental responsibility. Many organisations introduce Corporate responsibility programmes that also incorporate environmental programmes. Large travel agencies and tour operators also gradually move towards that direction too
DMO's are in process to re-invented themselves, what is your vision about it and the trend we see about more and more booking engine in their web site ?
[Dimitrios:]
DMOs should use technology to network local suppliers and to represent the tourism product as an amalgam of individual products and services
They should also concentrate as a distribution channel for all tourism products offering a booking engine for all local services
I am an entrepreneur mind and men, you are more academic mind, what can be the bridge between this 2 worlds to build together the next e-tourism?
a e-tourism Web 2.0 compliant )
[Dimitrios:]
Academics and researchers often identify opportunities for the future which entrepreneurs can implement for their benefits.
Do you will be present at Eyefortravel in London ? Tell us some information about this big event in our e-tourism industry.
[Dimitrios:]
Unfortunatelly i will miss the June event as we celebrate the 40 years of tourism at the University of Surrey with a tourism conference on the same days but I am absolutely certain that it will be a great event. Many of my students and colleagues will be attending
You have the micro !!!
[Dimitrios:]
eTourism is my passion and I surprised that issues and ideas I was putting forward as early as 1992 have still not been implemented. We need to make sure that eTourism penetration increases rapidly to maximise the benefits of the technologies for both the macro and micro level.
Vous pouvez retrouver le site personnel du Dr. Dimitrios Buhalis ICI
A lire d'urgence, ses derniers livres sur le eTourism disponible sur Amazon.
