illustrate the incredible growth in research and development in this area and reflect its youth, vitality and at the same time, maturation. Perhaps most important, these papers document how this new technology has changed and, in tum, how the industry has responded. The series of proceedings of which this volume is a part is creating a unique body of knowledge about the intertwined emergence of tourism and technology. There are, perhaps, three overriding themes of this congress. First is the focus on the tourist. Professor Stock's keynote address "Intelligent Interfaces for the Tourist" is a good representative of a series of papers discussing how information systems, electronic markets, and user interfaces have been or can be developed to enhance the tourist experience.