28 Jun Digital solutions for tourism at UIST
The Program for increasing market employability of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, in partnership with the University of Information Science and Technology “St. Paul the Apostle” – Ohrid and the Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality – Ohrid; University “St. Kliment Ohridski”- Bitola on 07 June 2022 organized the event “Digital solutions for tourism”. Prof. dr. Ustijana Reckoska Shikoska, Vice- rector for international cooperation at UIST, gave an opening speech at the event and welcomed the participants wishing them a fruitful discussion.
At the event, a panel discussion was held on the topic “Digitalization – a prerequisite for the development of the tourism sector”. The speakers were Mr. Lucien Aggerter, Deputy Ambassador of Switzerland to the Republic of Northern Macedonia, Ph.D. Ljupco Janevski, director of the Agency for Promotion and Support of Tourism, prof. dr. Cvetko Andreeski, Dean of the Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality – Ohrid and assistant professor dr. Aleksandar Karadimce, Dean of the Faculty of Information and Communication Sciences at UIST “St. Paul the Apostle” – Ohrid. The participants in the panel discussion concluded that all stakeholders in tourism, including state institutions, chambers of commerce and associations, private businesses and academia representatives have a shared responsibility to establish a better developed and sustainable tourism sector.
The panel discussion was followed by a presentation of digital solutions developed by startups, micro and small ICT companies, which are intended for digitalization of the operations of companies in the tourism sector. Solutions included digital products and services in the segment of e-bookings, e-payments, e-shops, digital menu, digital reception, websites, digital marketing and promotion, as well as human resource management and finance.
Finally, all participants in the event actively engaged in a discussion with the present guests from the tourism sector entitled “Challenges on the road to digitalization for the tourism sector”. Overall, the digital solutions for tourism was a very successful event that shed light on challenges in the tourism sector, digital solutions and ways forward as well as interaction, experience sharing and networking opportunities among participants.
