TOMTE

The Competence Centre in Tourism Management and Tourism Economics

Scientific coordinator: Oswin Maurer

The Competence Centre in Tourism Management and Tourism Economics was founded in 2008 and regroups researchers based at unibz and in other institutions that work on various aspects of the sector of tourism and published in international journals.

TOMTE organises several seminars and workshops every year, including the Consumer Behaviour in Tourism Symposium (CBTS) which takes place every year since 2008 in the month of December in Brunico.

TOMTE has developed an extensive international network and activities, further improving and fostering its reputation in Europe and overseas. Major activities include work on research projects, the development of new projects, publication activities, community service in terms of advice and liaison, the organisation of workshops and international conferences, as well as planning and delivering major research related events.

TOMTE is managed by Prof. Oswin Maurer (director) and Prof. Serena Volo (vice-director), it involves more researchers from the Faculty as well as a network of colleagues world-wide, and it is guided by an international advisory board of highly reputed scholars from Europe, the US, Australia, and Argentina.

TOMTE is mainly self-funded. It generates its operating budgets from competitive research project funding, the organisation of conferences, symposia, events, and advisory work for industry. The Free University of Bozen-Bolzano has also financially supported the competence centre by having made funds available for CBTS from 2008 to 2017, as well as providing secretarial support for the organisation of events as an in kind contribution. Some smaller amounts have also been drawn from sponsorship activities of local companies. Large and externally funded research projects are ruotinely carried out TOMTE members.

TOMTE members have published extensively in international journals such as Tourism Management, Journal of Travel Research, Tourism Analysis, Tourism Economics, Journal of Vacation Marketing, International Journal of Tourism Research, International Journal of Leisure and Tourism Marketing, TOURISMOS: An International Multidisciplinary Journal of Tourism, Journal of Wine Economics, Social Science Computer Review, etc.