Digital initiatives are extending access to Europe’s rich cultural heritage for people across the globe. As tourism and cultural heritage become increasingly intertwined through technology, new forms of storytelling, novel ways of preserving, protecting and reusing cultural heritage and exciting opportunities for collaboration are emerging. Provocative questions, lively discussions, audience polls and Q&A sessions will keep professionals and students in the cultural heritage and tourism sectors engaged while exploring this world of possibilities together.
Discover what’s planned below!
The sweet spot: digital storytelling where cultural heritage and tourism meet
When: Tuesday, 13 May 2025, 11:40–12:40 CEST
Where: Online at Europeana’s Digital Storytelling Festival
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Cultural tourism now accounts for 40% of tourist activity in Europe, and happily for culturally curious travellers everywhere, technology is keeping pace. One of the most exciting developments is digital storytelling sourced from cultural heritage. In this roundtable, innovators at the intersection of cultural heritage, tourism and marketing will draw on their experience to demonstrate how to ‘speak the language’ of your audience—meeting the age-old appetite for story, no matter how new the technology!
Terrific transformations: how digital creativity is enriching cultural heritage and changing tourism
When: Wednesday, 11 June 2025, 1:45–2:30 CEST
Where: In person at Europeana 2025 - Preserve, Protect, Reuse, Warsaw
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Despite rumblings of discontent among the cultural heritage and tourism communities in recent decades, the two sectors have joined in creating systems, services and products that benefit both camps. And more often than not, digitisation has played a leading role. This roundtable will map the preservation, protection and reuse of digitised cultural heritage onto tourism—with a discussion of best practices and case studies exploring how destinations, tour operators and other tourism professionals have used and reused digital cultural heritage content for experiences and products in Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, 3D, and Artificial Intelligence. Also to be explored is how, in the process of developing these experiences and products, intangible and tangible cultural heritage was preserved and protected.
Cultural heritage and tourism in the digital sandbox: can’t our sectors just get along?
When: Thursday, 3 July 2025, 2:00–3:00 CEST
Where: Online
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While cultural heritage and tourism have always overlapped, digital innovation is enabling an actual convergence of the two spheres—with exciting results. So perhaps it’s time practitioners in both camps follow suit by letting go of mutual suspicions and prejudices. The truth is the sectors need each other, benefit from each other, and can make beautiful music together—if only they’ll trust in the process of creative collaboration. This roundtable will share lessons learned in the collaborative trenches and imagine an amicable way forward for the two communities.
About the Europeana Communicators Community
This roundtable series is organised by the Europeana Communicators Community, one of the seven specialist communities of the Europeana Network Association. Members are professionals who work in and around communications in the cultural heritage sector and are passionate about promoting digital cultural heritage in action. If you would like to get involved with our work, and be the first to hear about initiatives like this, we invite you to become a Member!
