DOKUZ EYLÜL UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF TOURISM and SCHOOL OF APPLIED SCIENCES

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON 

BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN SUSTAINABILITY AND TECHNOLOGY

16 April 2024, Online

Esteemed scholars and researchers,

We are pleased to invite you to the International Symposium on Bridging the Gap between Sustainability and Technology hosted by Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Tourism and the School of Applied Sciences on 16 April 2024.

This symposium is organized with a forward-looking perspective on the convergence of sustainability and technology across the tourism and gastronomy sectors. Recognizing digitalization as a pivotal trend and imperative for sustainable development, our symposium aims to explore the transformative potential of digital technologies in fostering sustainable practices and advancing innovative touristic offerings. These endeavors are envisioned to catalyze economic, social, and environmental benefits for host communities. Bringing together specialists, researchers, consultants, and academics from diverse backgrounds in business, management, and hospitality, the symposium serves as a platform for knowledge exchange and collaborative discourse. Through dialogue, reflection, and the sharing of experiences, we seek to stimulate discussions on the intersection of digital transformation and sustainability in tourism and gastronomy, paving the way for impactful collaborations and the dissemination of insights. Through this symposium, we aspire to bridge the gap between theory and practice, driving positive change for the benefit of present generations and catalyzing transformative change towards a more sustainable future for future generations.

This Symposium is open to all. Participation is free of charge. The Symposium will be hosted online (via Zoom). The Zoom link will be announced via our official social media accounts. Please follow our social accounts for further updates.

Short presentations will be delivered on any topic that fits the symposium’s theme in the field of tourism and gastronomy. Specific examples of relevant topics include the following but are not limited to:

Themes

• Digital Transformation and Innovation of Green Technologies
• Sustainable Tourism Development and Technology
• Information and Communications Technologies
• Circular Economy
• Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs)
• Environmental Technology
• Entrepreneurship
• Tourism Product Innovation
• Smart Cities & Destinations
• Gastronomy and Food Tourism Innovation
• Eco-friendly Hospitality Technologies
• Digital Solutions for Tourism Management and Promotion
• Cultural Heritage Preservation through Technology in Tourism
• Sustainable Tourism Practices and Community Engagement
• Sustainable Gastronomy and Local Food Systems
• Sustainable Event Management and Technology Integration
• Sustainable Transportation Solutions for Tourism Mobility
• Climate Resilient Tourism Strategies Leveraging Technology

Organizing Committee Faculty of Tourism

• Prof. Dr. Ebru GÜNLÜ KÜÇÜLALTAN
• Prof. Dr. Avşar KURGUN
• Prof. Dr. Hülya KURGUN
• Prof. Dr. Yusuf GÜMÜŞ
• Assoc. Prof. Dr. İlkay TAŞ GÜRSOY
• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Emir ÖZEREN
• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Turgay BUCAK
• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pınar IŞILDAR
• Assist. Prof. Dr. Özay Emre YILDIZ
• Assist. Prof. Dr. Demet BAĞIRAN ÖZŞEKER
• Assist. Prof. Dr. Gamze ÖZOĞUL
• Assist. Prof. Dr. Erdem AKTAŞ
• Dr. Nur Ayça ÖZTÜRK
• Dr. Güzide Zeynep EGELİ ÇANKAYA
• Lecturer Uğur LOKMAN (Ph.D. Candidate)

Organizing Committee School of Applied Sciences

• Pof Dr. Yılmaz AKGÜNDÜZ
• Assoc.Prof. Dr. Gözde TÜRKOZ BAKIRCI
• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yeşim KOBA
• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Övünç BARDAKOĞLU
• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özge ADAN GÖK
• Assist.Prof. Dr. Çağlar AKTEPE
• Assist. Prof. Dr. Ceylan ALKAN
• Research Assist. Şeyma ANDAŞ
• Lecturer Görkem GİRGİN

Invited Speakers

Roya Rahimi is a reader in Marketing and Leisure Management. She is the REF coordinator of UoA 17 at the University of Wolverhampton, Business School. Her research interests are Consumer experience, Innovation, Big data, Sharing Economy, CRM, Organisational Culture, Gender Equality, and Tourism Higher Education. She has more than 50 academic publications including 3* and 4* journals with high impact factors. Roya is the Associate Editor for the Journal of Tourism Management Perspectives, book reviews editor for the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management (JHTM), and book review editor for the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology. She sits on the editorial board of different leading journals including the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, the European Management Review, the European Journal of Tourism Research, the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management, and The International Journal of Tourism Sciences. Roya co-edited a special issue on sustainability in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry for the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.

Seden Doğan is an assistant professor of instruction and internship coordinator at the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of South Florida. Dr. Doğan earned her Ph.D. and master’s degrees from Akdeniz University in Turkiye. Her research interest includes how employees and customers perceive emerging technologies such as service robots, 3D food printers, holograms, and many more. Her research has been published in internationally refereed journals, including the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, The Services Industrial Journal, and Tourism Management Perspectives. She has presented her research at various international conferences, including SECSA, MTCON, and EuroCHRIE. Additionally, she has 18 years of hospitality and tourism experience with companies like InterContinental, Renaissance, and Yeego.com.

Rut started her career as a broadcaster and correspondent in the early 2000s and moved to Turkey to complete her MA in International Relations at Istanbul Bilgi University. In subsequent years she completed postgraduate titles on Global Development and Poverty Reduction at the University of London and doctoral studies on Economic Development and the Information Society. Her passion for global development and contributing to advance a better world took her to work for NGOs and international organizations, especially under the UN system.  In the last 16 years, she worked for 5 different agencies but also served as an advisor for governments on crisis management among other themes. To date, she worked in over 30 nations in Latin America, Africa, the Arab region and Asia under bodies like UNESCO, UNDP, UN Women, UNCDF and UN  Tourism. At the latter, she served as a focal point on Crisis Communications, training civil servants from over 20 nations on this discipline and advising governments on this theme. A remarkable experience was her engagement as co-leader of the first National Crisis Communications Strategy for Madagascar, an initiative funded by the World Bank. On the academic front, she served as a Research Fellow at Malmö University, Communications for Development Division, and as a Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University. Her research explores C4D initiatives and the impact of news media platforms in authoritarian regimes, among other themes. She is currently serving as Associate Professor at Shanghai International Studies  University (SISU),. She is also leading a research project that investigates the use of news media by Chinese youth.

Dr. Sattar has been working as an Assistant Professor-Marketing at Sukkur IBA University since 2017. He has completed his PhD recently from Sapienza University in Rome, Italy. His thesis was mainly from tourism and hospitality domain. To date, he has made remarkable contributions to research by making publications in top-ranked journals. He mainly takes an interest in writing research papers in the ‘Tourism & Hospitality’ domain specifically in the area of digital and sustainable tourism.

Permanent State Councilor and Chairman of the Eighth Section of the State Council. MA in Law, University of Virginia (USA). Certified Environmental Manager, School of Business Administration, Bentley College (USA) (1999). Until June 2006, he was UNESCO Professor of Planning and Environment at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos; Professor at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California, at the Marshall-Wythe School of Law of the College of William and Mary (Virginia, USA) and Harvard Law School (Massachusetts, USA).

Contact Information

For further information do not hesitate to contact turizmfakultesi@deu.edu.tr & uby@deu.edu.tr