The course deals with the importance and role of satisfying the information needs of visitors and tourism professionals as a starting point for the development and design of information services and information management policies in this field. Therefore, students are asked to understand the importance of informational behavior in shaping tourism policies and in making decisions (such as choosing a tourist destination) in the field of Tourism. The topics of the course include the basic theories and models of informational behavior, the identification of informational needs and motivation for searching information in tourism, the exploitation of different sources and channels of information as well as the design of information Behavior Research. Also, the course deals with the concept of digital information education and the corresponding digital skills for Information Management in the modern environment of Tourism. Finally, the course includes research methods on informational behavior but also particularly modern analyses such as the specialization methodology of Wilson's model for searching for information in the context of specific socio-economic roles (visitors and/or tourism professionals).

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Understand by example the concepts and importance of information, information needs, and information behavior in the context of social and work roles.
• Understand with examples the importance of satisfying information needs and investigating the information behavior of individuals in tourism (visitors and / or professionals).
• He understands the importance of modern information services in decision-making in tourism.
• Understand basic theories and explanatory models of informational behavior. He specialized in tourism the models of Wilson and Savolainen.
• Understands the importance of information literacy and the development / formulation of information literacy programs and digital skills enhancement in tourism.
• He participates in the design of information behavior research and information literacy in various contexts in tourism.

1st week: overview of course content and clarifications for assessment-grading

2nd week: information behaviour concepts and their importance for tourism and business in tourism

3rd week: typical scenarios and historical overview of informational behavior: information and decisions / choices in tourism

4th week: information needs, incentives and use of information in tourism: e.g. choice of tourist destination, business decisions 

5th week: models and theories of informational behavior

6th week: Wilson & Savolainen's informational behavior models (specialization in tourism)

7th week: approaches and models of Information Literacy & Digital Information Literacy (specialization in tourism)

8th week: digital information education and digital skills enhancement programs (specialization in tourism)

9th week: databases and sources of operational / scientific information for tourism and tourism enterprises

10th week: Information Management Policies and services for tourism and tourism enterprises (business archives and libraries)

11th week: design and research methodology of information behavior and information education in tourism

12th week: examples of research and applications from the international environment

13th week: course summary & presentations

Case, D.O. & Given, L.M. (2020), Looking for Information: A survey of research on information seeking, needs, and behavior (4^thEdition) ISBN: 978-1-78560-968-8, Επιστ. Επιμ. Κωσταγιόλας, Π.Α. & Λαβράνος, Χ., Αναζητώντας την Πληροφορία: Επισκόπηση ερευνών για την αναζήτηση της πληροφορίας, των αναγκών πληροφόρησης και της πληροφοριακής συμπεριφοράς, ISBN: 978-618-5242-17-6, Θεσσαλονίκη: Εκδόσεις ΔΙΣΙΓΜΑ, σσ. 560

As part of the course, lectures are provided using modern supervisory means, asynchronous platform is used on which material is provided to students, electronic synchronous and asynchronous communication with students, creation of task groups etc. Workshops are also developed and hour-long lectures are provided by guest speakers on subjects related to the course.

Compulsory exams, optional exercises (topicss are provided during the semester) and optional course work.