designed and conducted in cooperation with Booking.com and Expedia we offer the following elective course for our students!

Why to apply?

Tourism is considered to be one of the largest industries worldwide and has witnessed a dramatic change since the emergence of the internet. According to a survey undertaken by TripAdvisor in October 2015, 65% of users (across generations) book their accommodations online. Travel intermediaries have seen disintermediation, followed by reintermediation and new market players have entered the “agora”. Huge mergers & acquisitions are happening on a daily basis and the interconnections are hardly comprehensible.

New circumstances require a new set of skills and give room to new perspectives to all those seeking an international career in eTourism, where analytical thinking, foreign language proficiency as well as sales and negotiation skills are a great asset.

The aim of the Online Travel Distribution elective course is to bring light into this highly complex and fast changing topic, by inviting industry experts giving students the chance to
learn from leading professionals and hear which insights they share with us! The course is designed in close cooperation with our official partners Expedia and Booking.com which are as such also listed on the final certificate that the participants will obtain. Three of the trainers from the mentioned companies will provide a transfer of knowledge straight from practice. Not only does the course offer an in-depth content complementary to the  existing curriculum on the BA and MA level, but can also be seen as a sort of assessment center of two of the largest players in the field of online booking.

What can you expect?

Diverse content with a focus on market structure, analytical skills as well as a sales and communication training which are directly related to the requirements of OTAs.

With the following teachers and trainers:

• Corinna Dullnig: Hotels Senior Account Manager, booking.com
• Fritz Oberhumer: Strategic Account Director, expedia
• Wolfgang Pagl: Director of Market Management Eastern Europe, expedia
• Dominik Sobotka: further information available at: http://onmari.com/ueber-uns/ 

 Component 1: Market Structure

Market structure: Supply – Intermediaries – Demand, benefits of  intermediaries for facility owners and hotels  as well as guests.

Component 2: Analytical Skills

Business case exercise

Session1:                                                                                                                                  

• Business case introduction
• Sharing of techniques on how to build the case & build a strategy
• Research and outline of the case structure (group work)

Session2:

• Checkpoint on the progress of individual groups
• Pitch formalizing

Session3:  Pitch presentation and feedback

Component 3: Sales Training & Communication

• Theory behind sales vs. consulting
• Techniques of starting a conversation (Communication cycle) – group work with practical exercises
• Techniques of handling objections including role plays

Who can apply and how?

Bachelor level: 6th semester students (imtb/imte)

Master level: 2nd and 4th semester students

Admission requirements: GPA 2,2 or more

Please apply by submitting a letter of motivation to office.imte@fh-salzburg.ac.at

by February 28^th, 2017

Online_Travel_Distribution
For further information do not hesitate to contact us at office.imte@fh.salzburg.ac.at

This year, 5 masterstudents presented their papers at the ENTER-Conference in Rome. Here a short video why you should put effort in writing your research paper (2nd Semester – eTourism Theories and 3rd Semester eTourism Research)

The technology wheel seems to spinn fast again, as we are entering the new year soon. Sabre Labs (which is the travel and technology lab within Sabre) just published a new study on emerging technologies, challenging the tourism industry within the next decade. This report is for agencies, airlines, hoteliers and travelers, and aims to provide an overview which specific actions you should consider in the near future.

Download the full report here

During October the first Master-Thesis workshop with the students writing their theses in the division of eTourism took place. The students work on exciting topics such as the incorporation of bots in a hotel communication software, voice assisted search in destinations, a guide for virtual reality in tourism, fairness of online pricing as well as the development of a gamification app for an Austrian mountain destination. The students will surely come up with very interesting findings – we’ll keep you posted!

Here is an interview with Roman Egger from the Salzburger Nachrichten (27th of August 2016) – German Language

After initially kicking off the VR research project with just one bachelor and one master thesis, we have now expanded our team and formed a proper VR Research Division. Philipp has finished his bachelor thesis and will continue to contribute to the team and administrate the website. Julia is writing her master thesis about the perceived emotions of consumers when experiencing VR and the physiological effects. Alina will write her master thesis about what the perfect VR production looks like and will work on establishing a standard for the industry. Two groups from the master program have joined as part of the eTourism class. They are researching 1. the importance of presence and immersion, and 2. the possibilities of VR for destinations.  Furthermore, Tobias, a master student from the MMT program (Multi-Media Technology), is also part of our VR Research Division. He will research 3D models and visualizations and help us with the production of our own content and hardware maintenance. The entire division is led by Prof. Dr. Roman Egger.