Why Study eTourism?         

Our programme is designed to give you the skills that you will need to succeed in eTourism. The modules are specially focused on the ways that tourism and hospitality organisations can utilise the latest information communication technologies to achieve competitive advantages in the exciting new world of eTourism. The course will cover ePlanning, eManagement, eMarketing, eCommerce and eProcurement and will elaborate on the implications of the ICT developments for all tourism, hospitality, transportation and leisure sectors.

In general the course illustrates how tourism and hospitality organisations can take advantage of the new tools in order to face the challenges, capture the opportunities and avoid the threats emerging as a result of the information communication technologies revolution.

The MSc in eTourism is bringing together some of the most rapidly developing industries including Information Communications Technologies/eCommerce, Tourism/Travel/Hospitality and Strategic Management/Marketing/Planning. It will look into all types of innovative technologies and their application in tourism, hospitality, transportation enterprises and destinations. The course will cover issues related with the Internet, extranets, intranets and will explore electronic commerce for these sectors through internet mobile devices, digital television and other appliances.

Three main areas will be covered during the course: Business-Management-Marketing; Tourism-Travel-Hospitality; and Information Communication Technologies. The employability of its graduates is enhanced by the increasing demand in industry for specialised graduates who have knowledge and experience in these three areas.

The programme will explain the new tools as they become available as well as their implications for the strategic positioning and the competitiveness of organisations. The concepts of info-structure and tourism business info-space will mark the boundaries of your learning experience.

Graduates of the programme will be able to strengthen the competitiveness of tourism organisations by providing solutions and answers to the following critical questions.

• How can I take my business on line?
• How can I strengthen the competitiveness of my organisation through the new IT tools?
• How can I generate new niche markets and products?
• How can I strengthen the profitability of my organisation?
• How can I avoid the many threats to my business?
• How can I deal with online and offline competition?
• How can I establish and develop my brand on line?
• How can I create new processes and markets?
• How can I integrate destinations through technology to optimise the tourism impacts?

Academic Staff
The academics on this course are leading academics in their field. The course is led by Dr Dimitrios Buhalis and is supported by Dr Panos Louvieris and Jan Powell-Perry. They have produced many books and other publications and are active researchers on the issues of eTourism. They are also heavily involved with International Associations such as the International Federation of Information Technology and Tourism and other leading organisations on this field.

The University of Surrey is the foremost tourism centre in the UK and one of the world’s leading universities for the study of tourism, and is designated by the World Tourism Organization as a Centre of Excellence for education. International in focus, the course draws on examples from around the world and is taught by a highly talented, international team, many of whom are world experts in their fields of specialism. The nationalities of the academics in the School of Management include Canadian, Chinese, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Indian, Ghanian, Turkish as well as British. This combination provides the basis for a highly stimulating course delivered by some of the world’s leading tourism educators and researchers.

In addition to their teaching interests, academic staff are actively engaged in research and consultancy, which contributes directly to the postgraduate programmes. This ensures that students are exposed to the very latest thinking in the field.

In addition to permanent staff at the School, the MSc in eTourism is supported by a great number of industry leaders and academics. They form the eTourism Expert Panel and are closely associated with the programme by contributing case studies as well as lectures in specialised topics. Collaboration with the industry will enable students to specialise further to aspects of ICTs for tourism, travel, and hospitality.