Human still in the loop? - ENTER26 eTourism conference

(Text: Peng Yang | Photo: Juho Pesonen)

It was a great opportunity to attend the ENTER26 eTourism Conference, held from 27–30 January 2026 in Breda, the Netherlands. This was my third time attending the ENTER conference organized by IFITT (International Federation for IT and Travel & Tourism), and once again it was an inspiring experience. More information about the event can be found here: https://ifitt.net/enter-conference/enter26/

During the conference, I had the chance to meet both old and new friends from universities around the world. ENTER26 brought together researchers and professionals from Europe, Asia, America, and Africa, creating an excellent environment for sharing ideas and discussing the latest developments in tourism and technology.

 


 

This year, the conference strongly focused on the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the tourism industry. I presented in the Human-in-the-Loop session, introducing my research on a human-like topic generator. In my presentation, I used Finland, especially Eastern Finland as a key example to demonstrate how the topic generator works and how it can support tourism destination development and research.

Another major theme of the conference was social media, a topic that has been widely discussed for years but still continues to attract strong interest in the academic community due to its evolving role in tourism marketing and traveler behavior.

ENTER26 was an excellent platform to exchange frontier ideas, strengthen international academic networks, and explore new research opportunities. It was especially valuable to meet my co-authors in person and to connect with potential collaborators for future projects.

The conference also provided a great chance to promote Finland as a tourism destination and to highlight the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) as an active and growing tourism research group. At the same time, it offered important insights into the most significant trends in tourism and technology research. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Tourism Education and Research Support Association for their generous sponsorship and support, which made this opportunity possible.

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