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Open Network for TourismESPRIT Project No 26956Deliverable D54Public Workshop ReportCirculation: PublicPartners: BIBA, DATI, ICSAuthors: Uldis Reitmanis, Manolis Vavalis, Jörg ZabelDoc. Ref. N°: D54V02S3.14.12.2001.BIBA.OnTourVersion: 02Stage : 3 (100% Final)Date: 14 December 2001

D54 OnTour: ESPRIT Project No. 26956COPYRIGHT© Copyright 1999-2001 The OnTour Consortiumconsisting of :• AP: Autopapas Tourist and Commercial Enterprises, Heraklion, Greece• BIBA: Bremen Institute of Industrial Technology and Applied Work Science at the Universityof Bremen, Bremen, Germany• DATI Deutschland GmbH, Germany• ICS: Foundation for Research and Technology – Institute of Computer Science, Heraklion,Greece• IST: Istron Bay, Agios Nikolaos, Greece• MAR: Tourist Enterprises Akti Volaka TEAB “Creta Maris”, Greece• MOS: Moser Reisen GmbH, Linz, Austria• NE: Viajes Necan, Playa del Ingles, Spain• ZOC: Zeus of Crete Travel Bureau, Heraklion, GreeceThis document may not be copied, reproduced, or modified in whole or in part for any purposewithout written permission from the OnTour Consortium. In addition to such written permissionto copy, reproduce, or modify this document in whole or part, an acknowledgement of the authorsof the document and all applicable portions of the copyright notice must be clearly referenced.All rights reserved.This document may change without notice.14 December 2001 D54V02S3 Page 2

D54 OnTour: ESPRIT Project No. 26956DOCUMENT HISTORYVers. Issue Date Stage Content and changes1 01 December 2001 1 (10%) Draft Document structure2 14 December 2001 2 (100%) Final Document completed by adding the minutesfrom the 1 st workshop and the agendaand purpose of the 2 nd workshopEXECUTIVE SUMMARYThis document contains deliverable D54 of the ESPRIT project OnTour – Open Network forTourism. The objective of the project is to develop and validate new ways of workflow in thebusiness between suppliers, vendors and customers in the tourist value chain.The deliverable D54 – Public Workshop Report – documents the two public workshops for introducingthe OnTour Software System to related tourism initiatives and potential users respectivelycustomers. The deliverable outlines the minutes of the first public workshop held inHeraklion/Crete on December 14 th , 2001 as well as the agenda and purpose of the second workshopto be carried out on February 8 th , 2002 together with the final review meeting in Las Palmas/GranCanaria.Task 5.4 is the forth task of Work Package 5 “Exploitation and Dissemination”. The task is leadby BIBA and is supported actively by ICS, DATI, MOS, ZOC, and NE.14 December 2001 D54V02S3 Page 3

D54 OnTour: ESPRIT Project No. 26956TABLE OF CONTENTS1 INTRODUCTION 52 1 ST PUBLIC WORKSHOP 62.1 PARTICIPANTS 62.2 AGENDA 72.3 MINUTES OF MEETING 83 2 ND PUBLIC WORKSHOP 93.1 PARTICIPANTS 93.2 AGENDA 94 CONCLUSIONS 105 REFERENCES 1114 December 2001 D54V02S3 Page 4

D54 OnTour: ESPRIT Project No. 269561 INTRODUCTIONDeliverable D54 “OnTour Workshop Report” documents the results and activities performed fororganising and carrying out the two public OnTour workshops. While the first workshop wasfocussed on starting co-operations with related tourism initiatives and projects in Greece, thesecond workshop will present the OnTour software system to interested tourism companies (predominatelySMEs on the Canary Islands) and thus potential customers of the developed tools andservices.The two public workshops are important events within the developed exploitation strategy (cf.D51) and information dissemination strategy (cf. D53). Both workshops have been shifted to theend to the project in order to present the integrated and validated pilot system as well as the firstpractical experiences gained by the end users during the pilot phase of the network.Chapter 2 outlines the participants, agenda and minutes from the first public workshop held inHeraklion/Crete on December 14 th , 2001. In chapter 3, the agenda and purpose of the secondworkshop are summarised. This workshop will take place in Las Palmas/Gran Canaria after thefinal review meeting on February 8 th , 2002. Finally, chapter 4 concludes the document.14 December 2001 D54V02S3 Page 5

D54 OnTour: ESPRIT Project No. 269562 1 ST PUBLIC WORKSHOPThe first public workshop took place at ICS-Forth premises in Heraklion (Crete/Greece) withtotally 24 participants. The objective of the workshop was to present the OnTour solution to ITand tourism experts from the University of Crete and Thessaly running own tourism-related initiativesand showing interest in using the OnTour solution. Several pilot users have also beeninvited in order to present the experiences of the pilot network as well as to get direct feedbackfrom the users and to answer open questions.2.1 ParticipantsZeus of CreteGoerge Lambrakis System ProgrammerRosa Loulakaki Reservation managerManolis Maragoudakis Personnel managerGeorge Moulianakis EDP managerManolis Papakaliatis R&D managerAuto PapasHarry Xalampalakis EDP managerGiannis Papakaliatis DirectorGeorge Nixtaris Reservation managerCandia MarisDimitra Pratikaki IT SupervisorMixalis Sfanakianakis IT personelNikos Kontakis Sales & Contract managerIppokratis Messaritakis Groups Sales supervisorIstron BayVassilis Panousos Reservation managerAntonis Panagiotopoulos Hotel manager14 December 2001 D54V02S3 Page 6

D54 OnTour: ESPRIT Project No. 26956ICS/FORTH & University of CreteManolis Vavalis Researcher (Contact Person of ICS for OnTour)Catherine Houstis Leader of the Distributed Systems LaboratoryDimitris Pleksousakis Project manager of EPET tourism programMarios Pitikakis Chief System ProgrammerHaris Gikas System ProgrammerManolis Stamatogianakis System ProgrammerAntonis Smardas Graduate StudentKiriakos Kritikos Graduate StudentUniversity of ThessalyElias Houstis Professor of Computer ScienceSpyros Lalis Assistant Professor of Computer Science2.2 AgendaTable 1 depicts the agenda of the first OnTour Workshop on Crete which has been scheduled ashalf-day event.Description Speaker Schedule1 Welcome Prof. Catherine Houstis 2:302 Overview of OnTour Prof. Manolis Vavalis 2:35 - 3:003 OnTour OSA Demo Haris Gikas 3:00 - 3:454 Discussion - 3:45 - 4:155 OnTour DB Server Demo Dimitra Patrikaki 4:15 - 4:356 Coffee Break - 4:35 - 5:007 Seller’s View Point George Moulianakis 5:00 - 5:308 Discussion - 5:30 - 6:00Table 1: Agenda of 1 st Public OnTour Workshop14 December 2001 D54V02S3 Page 7

D54 OnTour: ESPRIT Project No. 269562.3 Minutes of MeetingAuthor: Manolis VavalisThe workshop started with a welcome note by Prof. Houstis who she thanked the people whohave participated in the pilot phase.We continued with a short overview of the OnTour project. Prof. Vavalis stated the main objectivesof the project, described the general architecture of the OnTour software system, brieflypresented the Computer Science Technology involved and highlighted the functionality of thesoftware tools developed. Finally he gave several definitions of terms and he elucidated severalnotions involved.Then Haris Gikas (who was the main person involved in the development of OSA – OntourServer Access application) gave a comprehensive on-line demonstration of the OSA. In particularhe:1. Visited the software page and download the OSA installation package and the OSA manual.2. He briefly explained the main parts of the manual and installed OSA on the demonstrationmachine.3. He registered a new user and logged him into the OSA system.4. He created several allotments saved them and updated the booking server.During the discussion that followed some of the participants asked for clarifications on certainkey issues and expressed their concerns. The most important questions asked are summarizedbelow:1. They asked us to repeat what allotment is, how it is related to products, and how numberof allotments and number of products are related.2. They asked for clear identification of required and non-required fields.3. They asked which fields are searchable and which are not.4. They asked to view the contents of the database after the registration of new allotments.Mrs Patrikaki presented a demo concerning the OnTour database. The main objectives of thisdemo were to (1) demonstrate its philosophy and functionality and (2) to confirm that the OSAhave been successful in uploading the products generated in the OSA demo.Finally, Mr. Moulianakis made a short presentation on the particular capabilities, benefits andimpacts of the OnTour System as far as the sellers are concerned.During the general discussion that followed the participants agreed that the OnTour system providesfeatures that are both unique and useful in particular for sellers. Preliminary specific comparisonsto other similar to OnTour systems have been made.Information concerning the workshop has also been published on the following web-page:http://www.ics.forth.gr/~mav/ontour/.14 December 2001 D54V02S3 Page 8

D54 OnTour: ESPRIT Project No. 269563 2 ND PUBLIC WORKSHOPThe objective of the second workshop is to present and discus the OnTour solution with smalland medium sized tourism companies and organisations on the Canary Islands. The event isscheduled for February 8 th , 2002.3.1 ParticipantsAbout 50 companies (especially SMEs providing accommodation and car rental services) allover the Canary Islands have been invited to participate in the OnTour workshop. Additionally,the consortium contacted and invited local tourism organisations as potential multiplicators.3.2 AgendaThe following agenda presents the topics to be presented on the 2 nd public workshop on the CanaryIslands:Description Speaker Schedule1 Welcome, Key Note NE 10:00 – 10:20 (20min)2 OnTour Vision and Benefits BIBA 10:20 – 11:00 (40min)3 Coffee Break - 11:00 – 11:15 (15min)4 OnTour Demo MOS, NE, ICS 11:15 – 11:45 (30min)5 OnTour Products DATI 11:45 – 12:15 (30min)6 Panel Discussion All 12:15 – 13:00 (45min)Table 2: Agenda of 2 nd Public OnTour Workshop14 December 2001 D54V02S3 Page 9

D54 OnTour: ESPRIT Project No. 269564 CONCLUSIONSDeliverable D54 documents the two public workshops on Crete and Gran Canaria by outliningthe purposes, participants, agendas, and as far as available minutes of the events.The results of the first workshop are quite positive. Although no concrete business co-operationscan be reported yet, the meeting revealed that several initiatives are ongoing and planned bypartners from ICS-Forth in Greece. The external participants could be convinced about thereadiness of the OnTour solution and stated to will consider the platform as basis for their applications.Other co-operation requests from the “TourServ” project and “GuideFree” project confirmthat there is a strong need for a flexible electronic tourism marketplace focussing on thebusiness-to-business market.Since the 2 nd workshop is still to be carried out no related results or collaboration requests can bereported at the time of writing this paper.14 December 2001 D54V02S3 Page 10

D54 OnTour: ESPRIT Project No. 269565 REFERENCES[D51] OnTour consortium: ESPRIT Project No 26956, Deliverable 51: OnTour ExploitationStrategy, 2001.[D53] OnTour consortium: ESPRIT Project No 26956, Deliverable 53: Information Dissemination,2001.[D55] OnTour consortium: ESPRIT Project No 26956, Deliverable 55: Best Practice Report /OnTour Final Report, 2001.14 December 2001 D54V02S3 Page 11