Faculty Member, School of Services Management
Deputy Director ICTHR
School of Services Management
Thesis Title: The impact of information technologies upon tourism distribution channels: Strategic implications for small and medium sized tourism enterprises' management and marketing in the European periphery
About
Dimitrios Buhalis is a Strategic Management and Marketing expert with specialisation in Technology and Tourism. He is currently Established Chair in Tourism and Deputy Director of the International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research (ICTHR) at the School of Services Management, Bournemouth University. Professor Buhalis is responsible for eTourism research and for incorporating eTourism in all aspects of tourism teaching and research. In recognition of his contribution, he was elected in August 2009, as a member of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism.
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 is also Adjunct Professor at the MBA in Hospitality Management at the IMHI (Cornell University-Ecole Superieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales ESSEC) in Paris and 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. 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. Dimitrios is still an active tourism practitioner, listing the positions of Marketing Manager and web master for his family Hotel Segas and non-Executive Director of yourholidays.com online travel agency in his activities.
He has written or co-edited a total of 14 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. He served as Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the ENTER'98, ’99, and 2000 conferences on Tourism and Information Technology, as well as ENTER Destinations Chair for 2002 and ENTER Overall Chair in 2003. He has served as the Vice President of the International Federation of Information Technology for Travel and Tourism (IFITT) and as Chair of Events and Meetings and a Member of the Executive Committee and Council of the Tourism Society. Dimitrios is the immediate past Chairman of the Association of Tourism Teachers and Trainers (ATTT).
Dimitrios has also served as a Specialist Reviewer in Hospitality, Leisure, Recreation, Sport and Tourism for the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education in the UK (QAA) and as External Examiner for the University of Wales, Swansea Institute. He is currently External Examiner at the University of Greenwich and the Les Roches Hospitality School in Switzerland. He has a very active role in scientific publications: Reviews Editor of the International Journal of Tourism Research; Books Editor of the IT and Tourism Journal; and Books Editor for Tourism, the Tourism Society journal. He also serves on the Editorial Boards of the Current Issues in Tourism; Anatolia-International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research; Journal of International Hospitality, Leisure and Tourism Administration, the Journal of Sport Tourism; the Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education; the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, as well as the International Journal of Hospitality Information Technology. He is Associate Editor for the Encyclopaedia of Tourism, ICT section Editor for the Encyclopaedia of Hospitality and Adviser for the Leisure Recreation Tourism Abstracts (LRTA). He is Editorial Adviser for several tourism and hospitality publishers. He served as Assistant Editor of the “Progress in Tourism and Hospitality Research” until its transformation to the IJTR.
Prior to returning to the University of Surrey in 2000, Dimitrios was Senior Lecturer in Tourism, University of Westminster in London, where he was Module Leader for several Tourism, Business, Marketing, and Technology modules. He also played a critical role to the development of the MBA in Tourism and the MSc in Tourism Management at the University, as well as acted as liaison with the industry, and led Departmental research.
His industrial experience includes managerial roles in the Aegean tourism industry, as well as 15 years of international tourism and hospitality research and consultancy. For several years he contributed to projects undertaken by the Surrey Research Group, ConTour Consultants at the University of Surrey, England, and the University of the Aegean in Greece. He has also been involved in teaching, advising and developing distance learning material for Universities and other organisations in Greece, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Austria, Portugal, France, Finland, United Arab Emirates, Romania, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Andorra, Mauritius and Indonesia.
Dimitrios graduated in Business Administration from the University of the Aegean in Greece, where he was also a Researcher specialising in Tourism and Technology. He gained his MSc in Tourism Management (with Distinction) and PhD (in Tourism Management and Marketing) degrees from the Department of Management Studies for the Tourism and Hotel Industries, University of Surrey, where he contributed to the teaching, research and international consultancy undertaken by the tourism team. His research concentrated on the impacts of technology on the distribution channels of tourism and the implications for the strategic management and marketing of small and medium sized tourism enterprises in the European periphery. The research was financed by the Surrey Research Group, Contours Consultants, while the field research was sponsored by the Universities of Surrey (UK) and Aegean (Greece), as well as the Greek National Tourism Organisation.
Whenever, he finds some free time he goes to the “lab”, as he calls the tourism industry. He plays waiter at his family hotel in Loutraki, Greece (Hotel Segas) and loves travelling, swimming, snorkelling, scuba diving, exploring local cultures and cuisines. As ex-professional photographer he is a photography maniac.
Contact Information
ICTHR, SM, Bournemouth University,
BH12 5BB, UK
+44 1202 961517
http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/icthr
http://buhalis.blogspot.com
http://www.buhalis.com
http://tinyurl.com/5hdwrt
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=727527526
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dimitriosbuhalis
http://buhalid.spaces.live.com/
