Smart destinations gather in Dublin to kick-off its year as the European Capital of Smart Tourism

Dublin’s Lord Mayor, Daithí de Róiste, accepted the award from Andreea Staicu, Deputy Head of Unit at the European Commission, DG GROW. Both sides highlighted the importance of a smarter, greener and a more inclusive destination, and celebrated Dublin’s commitment to improving the city experience for all who work, live and visit the 2024 Capital. Watch the video with the highlights from the ceremony here.

To coincide with the ceremony, the city has announced the creation of a public installation known as ‘The Portal’, which will create a visual bridge between Dublin and New York. "As we celebrate our official handover for the European Capital of Smart Tourism designation, the Portal project symbolises Dublin's commitment to connecting not just within the EU but also with cities like New York, which we share a deep historical and cultural bond with. This project exemplifies the fusion of technology and engineering to bring communities from across the world closer together. One of our key objectives in Dublin is to improve innovation in tourism through a number of initiatives, and this project is an example of the exciting things to expect during 2024 and beyond", said Dublin’s Lord Mayor, Daithí de Róiste.

As the 2024 European Capital of Smart Tourism, Dublin invited previous winners and shortlisted cities from the Smart Tourism competitions to join the celebrations and take part in a Smart Tourism workshop. Representatives from sustainable and innovative European cities shared their best tourism practices, discussed tourism trends and future opportunities for EU-wide cooperation.

Since the start of its year as the 2024 European Capital of Smart Tourism, Dublin has already launched many innovative tourism initiatives that will shape the future of smart and sustainable tourism in Europe. Dublin City Council is partnering with Mastercard, to use its technology to create a better tourism experience. The city is also working together with Google, using the power of Google data and immersive view maps to create customised lists of Dublin. Just last month, the city announced a partnership with OpenAI, leveraging the power of artificial intelligence to enhance the tourist experience. The collaboration will result in an AI-powered itinerary planner that creates travel recommendations based on a visitor’s interests, rather than generic to-do lists. With the aim of sharing its insights with other European destinations, Dublin will host a workshop to explore how AI can be used not only in itinerary planning, but also in city promotion and destination branding.

Dublin was announced as the 2024 European Capital of Smart Tourism at the end of last year, after impressing the European jury with its initiatives in accessibility, sustainability, digitalisation and cultural heritage. To learn more about Dublin and its leading practices in Smart Tourism, watch the destination video that was produced for the title year.