The award for 2013 went to Paavo Olavi Sonninen who wrote the dissertation "Tour Guide Competencies and Training Needs. Focus on the tour guides of Arctic Adventures". The award was given at the annual meeting of The Icelandic Tourist Industry Association on April 10th 2014 at the Grand Hotel in Reykjavík.

Two peer-reviewed articles and one conference paper were published this month detailing Icelandic tourism research in the Nordic and international context.

For the third time the ITRC hosts its annual micro-conference at he University of Iceland on 24th October 2013. The theme is on the state of knowledge on tourism in Iceland.

In August 2013 the publishing house Forlagið, published a book on tourism in Iceland written by Edward H. Huijbens and Gunnar Þór Jóhannesson.

ITRC research seminar in Húsavík: From 9th to 11th October the ITRC hosted the second research seminar for projects that received funding in 2012. The seminar was intended for those running the projects to share notes and information about how their projects are progressing in addition to providing feedback on other projects.The seminar was a resounding success with very fruitful discussions and a critical dialogue.

Improving Guest satisfaction with the Meal Experience Model: Reidar Johan Mykletun from the Norwegian School of Hotel Management, Faculty of Social Science at the University of Stavanger in Norway gave lectures on tourism and hotel management at Hólar University College and the University of Akureyri. His focus was on the challenges in the food and accommodation sector that are many and often complex.

The Icelandic Tourism Research Centre has launched a new webpage as of 15th August.

The director of the ITRC was opponent to the first doctoral defence from tourism studies in Sweden late last month. Tourism has indeed been the topic of numerous PhD dissertations in Sweden, mainly from geography and business departments. Patrick Brouder’s PhD is however the first from a tourism studies department.

The board of the Icelandic Tourism Research Centre has decided to support five project ideas proposed in relations to an advert posted in March. A total of 11 project ideas were proposed and thereof the director of the ITRC has been granted permission to negotiate the terms of a full project with five.

The Icelandic Art Academy for the second time invited speakers to their conference Brain storming 15th to 16th May 2013. This time two sessions on tourism were held under the title cultivating rhizomes: tourism from a new perspective.