• The D3HUB project will create a self-sustainable European Tourism Data Competence Centre to support tourism destinations in developing their green and digital transitions.
• Around 240 European DMOs and SMEs will benefit from the competence centre’s services, such as training, capacity building, awareness and more, by the end of 2027.

The D3HUB – Tourism of Tomorrow Data-Driven Destinations Hub (D3HUB) team had its kick-off meeting yesterday in Brussels to officially launch the D3HUB project. The project will design, test, and pave the way to create a self-sustainable European Competence Centre. Such Centre aims to solve EU destinations’ challenges to accurately measure tourism impacts for systematic decision-making based on sound data, leading to more sustainable tourism management and marketing.

By the end of the project in November 2027, around 240 Destination Management and Marketing Organisations (DMOs) and tourism Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) from all over Europe will benefit from the Centre’s service portfolio, measurement methodologies, tools and technology that the D3HUB project will test and consolidate. Such is the commitment of this project partnership, led by AnySolution that it will foster collaboration and knowledge-sharing between tourism stakeholders and destinations and build the necessary strategic alliances to enable the Centre to run self-sustainably.

Dolores Ordóñez, D3HUB’s Project Coordinator and Director of AnySolution mentioned that

the Competence Centre presents a great opportunity to bolster Europe’s prominence in tourism by advancing data management within destinations and their ecosystems. This endeavour will contribute to heightened competitiveness and sustainability within the industry, aligning seamlessly with the green and digital transitions outlined in the Tourism Transition Pathway

when talking about the project.

The D3HUB has six main objectives:

• Build a knowledge support scheme to assist tourism destinations across the European Union.
• Provide tailor-made digital solutions and data for DMOs and tourism SMEs.
• Test the already developed framework through a pilot run by a critical mass of DMOs.
• Integrate results and learnings into a business plan to set up and sustain the Centre.
• Upscale beyond the partnership and build a data-driven tourism community.
• Implement the Centre and ensure its continuity.

Several European tourism actors will be part of the D3HUB project. AnySolution, an innovative and dynamic SME dedicated to developing methodologies and strategic projects in fields such as tourism or smart destinations, will lead the project with the help of NECSTouR’s Tourism of Tomorrow Lab. In addition, the project is backed up by some of Europe’s leading data-based DMOs, such as Turismo Andaluz, Visit Flanders and the Italian Ministry of Tourism, which will produce and provide official statistics, and other official institutions such as Spain’s Instituto Nacional de Estadística. From the private sector, the project will have the assistance of Arctur, a private organisation aligned with the Slovenian Tourist Board, the Slovenian Ministry of Economy, Tourism and Sport and the Slovenian Enterprise Fund, Asesoría Jurídica Balear, a multidisciplinary law firm in the Balearic Islands, and the New Insights for Tourism (NIT), a privately organised institute focused on tourism research from Northern Germany. The partnership is proud and grateful to count on the support of the Centro de Inovação do Turismo (NEST), Portugal’s tourism innovation centre, the European Tourism Association (ETOA), in addition to seventy organisations from sixteen different EU countries, which have formally shown their support for the D3HUB project.

Disclaimer

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.