Professor Dimitrios Buhalis
deputy director
International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research, Bournemouth University
Professor Dimitrios Buhalis is an innovative tourism and hospitality researcher, teacher and adviser who conceptualises technology-enabled strategic management and marketing solutions for tourism and hospitality organisations on a global scale.
Dimitrios is currently Established Chair in Tourism, deputy director of the International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research at Bournemouth University and Professorial Observer at the Bournemouth University Senate. He is leading e-tourism research and is working with the Bournemouth team for introducing technology in all aspects of tourism research and teaching.
He was previously programme leader MSc in Tourism Marketing and MSc in e-Tourism, reader in Business Information Management, leader of e-Tourism research and member of the Senate at the University of Surrey.
Dimitrios has been Adjunct Professor at ESSEC in Paris, Visiting Professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China, Professor Associado at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, and Visiting Professor and Member of the University Assembly at Modul University in Vienna, Austria. He has written or co-edited a total of 12 books, including Tourism Business Frontiers and Tourism Management Dynamics published by Elsevier; e-Tourism: Strategic Information Technology for Tourism published by Pearson (Prentice Hall/Financial Times); and Tourism Distribution Channels (Thomson); as well as a series of three books on IT and Tourism.
Dimitrios has also 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 and 2009. He has served as vice-president of the International Federation of Information Technology for Travel and Tourism, of which he is a founding member.
He is regarded as an expert in the impacts of ICTs in the tourism industry, the management of tourism distribution channels as well as in 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 e-Tourism.
His industrial experience includes managerial roles in the Aegean tourism industry, as well as 15 years of international tourism and hospitality research and consultancy. His latest assignments include developing an e-Tourism Strategy for the Egyptian Tourism Authority and the Ministry of Tourism in Egypt as part of the Austrian Twinning project, and a project on the development of a hotel school for the Government of Andorra.
Dimitrios is still an active tourism practitioner, including marketing manager and web master for his family Hotel Segas in Loutraki, board director of Aquis Hotels and Resorts and non-executive director of yourholidays.com travel agency among his activities.
