On December 7, the Department of Tourism and Hotel Management hosted the 12th Bilkent Tourism Forum. This traditional, prestigious and yearly event brings together national and international industry leaders, academics from higher education institutions, corps and students to discuss current issues in tourism. With a theme of the \u201c100th Year of Our Republic and the Eclectic Future of Tourism,\u201d this year\u2019s forum opened the floor for distinguished panelists to discuss opportunities and challenges facing tourism conjunctively with various emerging technologies and industries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The panelists included H\u00fclya Aslanta\u015f of Universal Turizm, a leading tourism entrepreneur with four decades of experience, including chairwomanship of T\u00dcRSAB and SKAL International among others; Prof. Beykan \u00c7izel (THM\/\u201996) of Akdeniz University, with a research record focused on destination management and technology; Dr. Tufan K\u0131ymaz, of the Department of Philosophy, actively involved in various educational programs across the country, such as the \u201cNesin Matematik K\u00f6y\u00fc;\u201d and Nasuh Mahruki (MAN\/\u201992), the renowned civil society activist, pioneering mountaineer. The panel was moderated by Prof. Engin Deniz Eri\u015f, an established tourism scholar who holds various executive roles in the Vocational School of Dokuz Eyl\u00fcl University. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Artificial Intelligence (AI) was both at the forefront and the backstage of this year\u2019s forum. The poster of the forum as well as the music list played before and after the panel discussion were AI-assisted creations. In the interactive panel, H\u00fclya Aslanta\u015f presented a historical panorama of the technologies\u2014from the advent of mass communication to AI\u2014that have shaped and continue to shape various sectors of tourism. Dr. Tufan K\u0131ymaz elaborated on the ethical dilemmas that we may face in tourism with a specific focus on \u2018slum tourism.\u2019 Prof. Beyzan \u00c7izel\u2019s presentation delved deeper into some of the breakthrough AI advancements as well as their potential effects on tourism demand and supply. Finally, Nasuh Mahruki evaluated the current reality of travel and traveler experience based on his pioneering expeditions around the world within the last few decades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Welcoming remarks were delivered by Prof. Altay G\u00fcvenir, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences, and Vice Rector Prof. Erdal Erel. Rector Prof. K\u00fcr\u015fat Aydo\u011fan awarded plaques to the panelists at the end of the forum. Ankara Hilton and Turkish Airlines, the official sponsors of this year\u2019s forum, provided the prizes for a raffle organized specifically for the student attendees. The forum concluded with an exceptional coffee hour hosted by Ankara HiltonSA. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On December 7, the Department of Tourism and Hotel Management hosted the 12th Bilkent Tourism Forum. This traditional, prestigious and yearly event brings together national and international industry leaders, academics from higher education institutions, corps and students to discuss current issues in tourism. With a theme of the \u201c100th Year[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6015,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[80,148,133],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6016,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6014\/revisions\/6016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}