He was born on 22 February 1983 in Samsun. He completed his undergraduate education at Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Business Administration, Department of Tourism Management (2005). He completed his master's degree at Ondokuz Mayıs University, Institute of Social Sciences, Department of Business Administration in 2017. Between 2014 and 2019, he worked as a research assistant at the Department of Tourism Management at Ondokuz Mayıs University, and since 2019, he has been working as a lecturer at the Bafra Tourism Vocational School at Ondokuz Mayıs University. His main areas of research include gamification, cryptocurrencies, and the use of robots in tourism. He teaches courses on Tourism Economics, Information Technologies in Tourism, Business Management, Tourism Marketing, and Financial Literacy at various faculties and vocational schools.

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Dr. Cihan Cobanoglu is the Dean and the McKibbon Endowed Chair Professor of the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (SHTM) in the Muma College of Business at the University of South Florida (USF), who also serves as the Director of the M3 Center for Hospitality Technology and Innovation and Coordinator of International Programs for the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. He is a renowned hospitality and tourism technology expert. Dr. Cobanoglu is a Fulbright Specialist commissioned by the Fulbright Commission (2018-2021). He is a Certified Hospitality Technology Professional (CHTP) commissioned by Hospitality Financial & Technology Professionals (HFTP) and Educational Institute of American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA). He is the Editor of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology (JHTT)(Indexed in SSCI IF=4.2) and a co-author of 10+ books and 20+ conference proceedings.

Dr. Erkol Bayram is currently an Associate Professor and vice-dean in tourism faculty, department of tour guiding, University of Sinop, Sinop, Turkey. Dr. Erkol Bayram has worked as an internal trainer and teacher in the tour guiding arena. Her doctorate is in Tourism Management from the Sakarya University, Turkey, and she completed her dissertation research on Tour Guiding in Turkey. Her core subjects are Tourism, tour guiding, tourism policy and Planning, women studies. Erkol Bayram has also worked as a professional tour guide in the tourism sector. She has many book chapters in the international arena and published her books as an editor and author in the national arena. She has been invited for many talks/lectures/ panel discussions by different Universities and countries. She has a member of eminent journals in advisory board editor and she published articles in tourism and Management areas.