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This paper aims to provide a framework for benchmarking the eTourism capability of a destination’s tourism industry, understanding the eTourism capability of a destination’s industry as the contribution that the information and communication technologies (ICT) uptake of that industry makes to its own performance. The impact of ICT in tourism has been suggested through extensive research. Previous work has urged the development of wide-angle studies to enable benchmarking of destinations and their industries. However, relevant research is limited. Macro-level studies in the area tend to focus on a single aspect of technology to evaluate adoption, are not sector-specific nor take into consideration the different levels of contribution that systems may bring to performance.

A review of the literature on tourism, eTourism, benchmarking and technology adoption provided the baseline for developing this benchmarking tool.

The literature supported the selection of key tourism industry sectors, i.e. accommodation establishments, visitor attractions and food and beverage; the most suitable methodology, i.e. intermediary performance measures; and the business characteristics that need being taken into consideration when assessing ICT adoption by tourism businesses, e.g. size, type of establishment and area of location.

The framework has not been tested yet. It is based on a review of the literature and needs to be validated through primary research. The framework was developed based on the context of Scotland. Further work should be done to adjust the framework to other destinations worldwide.

The framework enables destinations to benchmark the eTourism capability of their industries.

It provides a comprehensive framework for benchmarking tourism destinations’ industries, which takes into consideration elements of technology adoption, the characteristics of the tourism industry and the particularities of the different ICT elements.

The aim of this research is to foreground information and communication technology (ICT) as an innovative approach for sustainable tourism (ST) development of destinations. ICT is the technology required for information processing which facilitates data processing, information sharing, communication, searching and selection. This paper concentrates on the Abernathy and Clark model and its usefulness in applying ICT as innovative in managing ST.

An online survey was administered to destination managers and to eTourism experts. Destination managers were selected as they were identified as the person responsible for the overall management of a Destination Management Organisation. eTourism experts were identified as someone who possesses special expertise, knowledge and skills on ICT applications to tourism and offered expertise on which ranged from such areas as electronic distribution, recommender systems, user-generated content, online communities, mobile technology, technology acceptance, tourism networks and Web 2.0. This was followed by semi-structured interviews.

These ICT tools were found to be innovative for information management and distribution for critical decision-making. Innovation was fostered through the use of ICT for ST by leading to a better understanding of the tourism product, monitoring, measuring and evaluating, forecasting trends, developing partnerships and engaging and supporting stakeholder relationships. ICT would provide novel ways of approaching marketing, energy monitoring, waste management, and communication for destinations.

This research is important in demonstrating the value that technology can have to ST and further develops the work on tourism innovation theory.

The work described in this paper is of direct relevance to those with an interest in the phenomena surrounding information and communication technologies adoption by the rural accommodation sector. The paper aims to provide the results from a preliminary study, which examined differences in the level of inter‐firm technology adoption between rural and urban accommodation establishments within a major tourism destination, Scotland.

A survey was conducted, and the results set out here suggest that these differences are only presented with two types of technology, i.e. systems requiring networking infrastructure and sector‐specific applications.

The discussion suggests that the neoclassical theory of growth and theory of development are contradictory but that they complementarily explain different levels of adoption between rural and urban setting.

Not only theoretical, but also industry implications and suggestions for further research are presented.

Previous studies examining these phenomena within other industries suggest that rural businesses tend to have weaker technology adoption than those located in urban settings. However, they fail to provide any conclusive theoretical explanation for these differences.

January 26th — 28th 2004 — Cairo, Egypt ENTER2004@Cairo celebrates the 11th anniversary of the ENTER conference and an established history of innovation in thinking in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Tourism and Travel. ENTER is recognised as the annual international conference where practitioners and researchers in the ICT in Travel and Tourism domains meet. The event is organised by the International Federation for Information Technology and Travel & Tourism (IFITT). ENTER 2004 will continue this tradition of providing a unique forum of exchange among academics, industry and government. The conference has continued to attract growing numbers of participants and ENTER 2003 set new attendance records — we expect Cairo to continue this excellent tradition! See http://www.ifitt.org/enter to keep current with Conference details. We have a broad theme for ENTER 2004 — “Consumer focused technologies and applications”, however, papers are invited across the widest spectrum of ICT in Travel and Tourism, including but not limited to the areas below. Basically if it is good, interesting work in the ICT/Tourism domain it should be at ENTER! Areas might include:

This paper aims to discuss the role of a grassroots initiative in engaging local people in an innovative place-making fringe festival. Festivals such as the Carnival of Flowers are a major tourism event for regional cities like Toowoomba and contribute to place-making through marketing and engagement. Within the professional management of such events, there exists space for innovation and genuine community involvement, which can assist in authentically reflecting place identity. Avant Garden (2007-2008) models a successful grassroots fringe festival, initiated by community members in response to the challenge of long-term drought. Avant Garden engaged locals and tourists in a positive re-imagining of place via site-specific public artworks generated by the community.

A survey of 504 visitors to Toowoomba’s public gardens during the first weekend of the 2007 Carnival of Flowers examined how Avant Garden was received by the community.

The paper suggests that fringe festivals can provide place-making capacity in broadening festivals as an expression of local identity. Fringe festivals can allow authentic community engagement within a mainstream festival and can indicate longer-term innovations to place branding.

The paper includes implications for festival managers about effective ways to engage community in grassroots initiatives which reflect innovation, authenticity and greater diversity.

The paper provides a study of a visual arts fringe festival in the context of place management. The project described allows a “bottom up” approach to engaging the local community which provides authenticity and broadens the scope of an existing mainstream garden festival.

Do these reference requests sound familiar? “I need to know what has happened on this day in history. Can you help me?” Or, “I'm doing a paper on Thornton Wilder. He was born on 17 April. Can you tell me who else was born on that day?” Or, “Are any national or regional anniversaries coming up next Friday?” These questions call for a special type of reference work—a book of days. A book of days (or day book) lists important events that have occurred on each day of the year throughout history, and is arranged by month and day. These works often include not only historical, cultural, and literary events, but also the dates of the births and deaths of notable people, commemorative days of saints, and special anniversaries. A book of days, for example, can reveal that historians Will and Ariel Durant were married in New York City Hall on Halloween in 1913, or that Hart Crane and Ernest Hemingway were born on the same day in 1899 (21 July). This article will review some of the more useful books of days that are often found in reference collections—works that are uniquely suited to answer questions about each day of the year.

Destination management organizations perform a very important role regarding the management of tourism destinations. Destination management systems are a key technological infrastructure for these organizations. However, in the literature, it is not clear what are the factors that promote the implementation of these systems, neither what are the factors that contribute to their success. This study aims to propose and test two research models to overcome these research gaps.

The first model refers to the determinants of the implementation of destination management systems, and the second model refers to the determinants of the success of those systems. The models are tested with data collected through a questionnaire survey from destination management organizations of five European countries, which are among the leaders in international tourism receipts.

Concerning the factors that promote the implementation of destination management systems, this study reveals the importance of the diversity of partnerships that the private sector establishes in the destination, of advantages resulting from governance and of partners' involvement in the functions of destination management organizations. Concerning the factors that promote the success of these systems, this study highlights the importance of a phased implementation, the fact that a high number of functionalities in the system prevents success and the importance of having a revenue model that can support financial and operating costs.

The study provides important theoretical and practical contributions to the successful implementation of destination management systems by destination management organizations.

In this study, as part of an attempt to foster sustainable development, the aim is directed at understanding the perspectives of domestic economic, financial and political risks in tourism development. On the other hand, the role of other agents of sustainable development: innovation, infrastructure, health and primary education and global crisis in tourism development, was illustrated.

To achieve this objective, the current study explored the (system) SYS-Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) technique for a panel of selected 73 economies over the period 2006–2017. This GMM approached is not undertaken without first establishing the stationarity (a preliminary test) of the employed dataset by utilizing the relevant unit root techniques.

First, the study found that minimizing risks from economic, financial and political aspects is significant and vital to the attractiveness of the tourism destinations and the eventual development of the tourism sector. Second, the study presents innovation or technological readiness and health and primary education as agents of sustainable development through the growth of international tourism arrivals while global crisis is significantly detrimental to tourism inflow.

Overall, the study presents the contribution of tourism as a pathway to sustainable development from unique dimensions. Investigating a large panel (of 73 countries) is a unique approach. In addition, considering the economic vulnerability of the panel countries from the aspects of risk arising from economic, financial and political aspects is another interesting dimension to the novelty of the study. Thus, this study offers relevant policies for tourism stakeholders.

That the introduction of the Control system should have given rise to a considerable amount of criticism, both appreciative and adverse, was naturally to be expected. The appreciative remarks which have appeared in the press, and those also which have been privately communicated to the directors, indicate that the subject has been intelligently considered, and in some cases carefully investigated and studied. The opinions given are worth having on account of the position and influence of hose who have given them, and on account of the obvious freedom from bias which has characterised them. This is so far satisfactory, and goes to show that the success which has attended the working of the Control system abroad may well be expected to attend it in this country as soon as it is sufficiently well known to be appreciated by the manufacturers and vendors of good and genuine products, and by the general public, whose best interests it cannot but serve.