19th TourMIS Users’ Workshop & International Seminar – Sustainable Tourism Indicators: Data Driven Strategies for Destinations

Master of Ceremony

Climate action specialist at the Travel Foundation

Jeremy Smith is an award-winning writer and strategist with over 20 years experience in sustainability, tourism and climate action. In 2020, he co-founded Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency, a grassroots initiative calling on tourism destinations and businesses to work together and develop climate action plans. In 2021 he was co-author of the Glasgow Declaration for Climate Action in Tourism and he continues to collaborate with UN Tourism to ensure the implementation of the declaration’s commitments. He currently works with the Travel Foundation developing their Climate Action Programme for destinations and collaborating on Climate Action Plans with many organisations including Visit Finland, Visit Scotland and the European Travel Commission. Recent publications include An Introduction to Climate Justice and Tourism – a guide for Travel Businesses and The Blueprint for Tourism Climate Action Plans. A Guide for Regional Authorities and Destination Management Organizations. He is a member of Travalyst’s Independent Advisory Group.

Deputy Director of the Directorate Spatial Statistics at Statistics Austria

Mr. Laimer is a highly experienced statistician specializing in Tourism and Travel Statistics. After completing courses in Export and Tourism at the University of Economics Vienna and studying Geography at the University of Vienna, he began his career at Statistics Austria in 1993 and became responsible for the official “Tourism and Travel Statistics” in 1998. Currently, he serves as Deputy Director of the Directorate “Spatial Statistics,” overseeing various statistical domains, including tourism, road safety, and environmental statistics.

An active member of several international working groups, Mr. Laimer has contributed to projects with EUROSTAT, OECD, and UN Tourism, including work on Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSA) and methodological frameworks. He has provided consultancy on tourism statistics in multiple countries and has presented at numerous international conferences.

In addition to his professional work, Mr. Laimer teaches Tourism Management at the University of Linz and the University of Applied Sciences for Management and Communication in Vienna. He is a member of the International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism and has held leadership roles in the UN Tourism Committee on Statistics.

Head of Business Intelligence at Visit Finland

Katarina Wakonen works with Visit Finland’s sustainability team and Statistics Finland to develop a Sustainable Tourism Indicators framework based on international practices. Engaging DMO’s with indicators is at the core of Visit Finland’s sustainability work.

Policy Analyst in the Tourism Policy and Analysis Unit at the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE)

Eva co-ordinates EU-funded project components on measuring and monitoring the sustainability of tourism, working closely with five countries to develop a core set of tailored indicators. Prior to joining the OECD, Eva worked in sustainability reporting, trade and investment promotion as well as social entrepreneurship development. She holds a dual Master’s degree in International Development and Business & Management from Sciences Po Paris and Stockholm School of Economics, and a Bachelor’s degree in Culture & Economy from the University of Mannheim.

Research project leader at the European Commission Joint Research Centre, in Ispra, Italy

Filipe’s work focuses on the use of geospatial data for territorial development issues at European level. He currently manages several projects, including the EU Tourism Dashboard. Filipe graduated in Geography in 2006 and obtained a MSc in Geographical Information Systems by the University of Porto in 2009. In 2022, he obtained a PhD by the School of Business and Economics by the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. Filipe regularly contributes to technical and scientific reports and papers.

Data Analyst – European Projects at Turismo Andaluz

Ana Moniche Bermejo is an expert in tourism statistics and sustainable tourism with extensive project management and international collaboration experience. She is the Head of European Projects and International Networks at Empresa Pública para la Gestión del Turismo y del Deporte de Andalucía. In her role for the Regional Government, she supports Andalusia’s Vice Presidency of NECSTouR, advocating for effective tourism statistics to monitor policies across European regions. Ana is also part of the NECSTouR Tourism of Tomorrow Lab, working on data-driven solutions for Destination Management Organizations (DMOs). She holds a PhD in Data-Based Policymaking from Universidad de Málaga and an MSc in Urban Planning and Environmental Management from Oxford Brookes University. Ana is actively involved with UN Tourism and various European projects, promoting the use of data for more sustainable tourism and policy-oriented indicators.

Research expert at KU Leuven and Visit Flanders

Bart Neuts has a background in applied economics and in tourism. His research mainly focuses on sustainable development of tourism destinations, particularly urban areas. His topical interest lies in tourism externality studies in general, and social carrying capacity studies in particular. He has been involved in multiple international research projects on tourism impacts.

Managing director at NIT, Institute for Tourism Research in Kiel, Germany

Ulf Sonntag studied geography, political science and business administration at the University of Bonn, with international semesters in the USA and Switzerland. The general focus of his work is the analysis of tourism market data and statistics, as well as the implementation of quantitative and qualitative market research projects. The insights regarding the dynamics of tourism at different spatial levels (regional, national, international) are then applied in strategic planning and marketing processes of destinations and travel companies.

Senior Programme Officer at the Market Intelligence, Policies and Competitiveness Department, UN Tourism

His work covers the analysis of current and future tourism trends, reflected in the
preparation of the World Tourism Barometer and other key UN Tourism intelligence
reports. His field of work also includes the study of tourism products and segments,
outbound markets, marketing techniques and competitiveness factors of destinations.

He coordinates research projects with national tourism organizations, UN agencies,
international bodies and the private sector. He has led initiatives promoting knowledge
exchange on data and market intelligence such as the DataLab initiative with the
European Travel Commission.

Mr Julian (Dominican Republic) studied economics and holds Masters degrees in
International and Tourism Economics from Toulouse School of Economics – Sciences
Po (Toulouse, France), as well as an Advanced Studies Diploma in International
Economics, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

Co-Founder and CEO at MURMURATION

Tarek comes from an aerospace engineering background. He cofounded Murmuration in 2019 to provide measurable environmental indicators for sustainability in the tourism industry. Building on the wealth of satellite data and state-of-the-art artificial intelligence, Murmuration delivers innovative tools to support destinations and private businesses to integrate the environment into their operational workflows. Murmuration has been recognized by leading institutions such as UN Tourism which underlines its operational ability and value in supporting the transition of the tourism sector towards more sustainability. The team is based in Toulouse, France, and works with leading European destinations and businesses.

Senior Director for Strategy & Knowledge Management at Turismo de Portugal

Sérgio Guerreiro is currently being in charge of statistics, business intelligence, sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation. He is also responsible for the program Tourism 4.0, an integrated program to foster innovation in the tourism sector involving more than 350 startups. He represents Portugal at several international working groups at UNWTO, OECD and European Travel Commission. He is currently Chairman of the OECD Tourism Committee and former Chairman of the European Travel Commission’s Market Intelligence Group

President – Rektor, Modul University Vienna

Chair of the Austria Private University Conference (ÖPUK)

Member of the Board of the European Union of Private Higher Education (EUPHE)

Chair of the Executive Board of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism (The Academy)

Karl Wöber is Full Professor and Founding President of Modul University Vienna (www.modul.ac.at). He is also the chairman of the Austrian Private University Conference since 2012. From 2019-2024 he was the elected President of the International Academy for the study of Tourism, the worldwide leading network of Tourism Professors and chairman of the Expert committee of the World Tourism Cities Federation. For more than 20 years he is a Technical Advisor of European Cities Marketing and the European Travel Commission, the two leading professional tourism networks in Europe. Since 2017 he also serves on the Strategy Advisory Board of the Vienna Tourism Board.

Full Professor, Dean of the Graduate Degree Programs, School of Tourism and Service Management, Modul University Vienna

Ulrich Gunter is a Full Professor at the School of Tourism and Service Management of Modul University Vienna and Dean of the Graduate Degree Programs. His research interests are in tourism economics, sustainability of tourism and beyond, and in applied econometrics (time-series analysis, forecasting, panel-data analysis).

Associate Professor, School of Tourism and Service Management, Modul University Vienna

Dr. Bozana Zekan is an Associate Professor at the School of Tourism and Service Management, Modul University Vienna. She holds a Doctor of Social and Economic Sciences (with honors) degree from the Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria, and a Master of Science in Service Management degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York. Her research interests are in the fields of tourism economics and destination management. Her research has been published in leading international scholarly journals and has received external funding from various bodies. Bozana is a member of the International Association for Tourism Economics (IATE), the International Institute of Forecasters (IIF), the City Destinations Alliance (CityDNA) Knowledge Group Research & Insights, and the City Travel Report Steering Group. She serves on the editorial boards of Annals of Tourism Research, Annals of Tourism Research Empirical Insights, Journal of Travel Research, and Tourism Economics.

Assistant Professor in Tourism Information Technology and Digitalization, Modul University Vienna

Treasurer International Federation of IT and Travel & Tourism

Dr. Jason L. Stienmetz is an Assistant Professor of Tourism Information Technology and Digitalization for the Department of Tourism and Service Management, Modul University Vienna. His research interests include measuring, modeling, and managing tourism destination systems; marketing evaluation; visitor experience and value creation; “smarter” tourism management; and big data. Prior to joining academia, Dr. Stienmetz worked for the U.S. Travel Association, and he is proud to have served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica, where he was involved in a number of community-based projects related to eco-tourism, technology education, and micro-finance. Dr. Stienmetz is the Treasurer for the International Federation of IT and Travel & Tourism and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Travel Research, Annals of Tourism Research Empirical Insights, and the Journal of Information Technology and Tourism.