Bart Neuts, Visit Flanders
As part of its continued support to data-driven and green transitions of European Destinations, the D3HUB Competence Centre launched the D3HUB Academy in the autumn of 2025. The aim of the D3HUB Academy is to provide exclusive tailored online web lectures and exchanges of best practices and ideas within the D3HUB pilot destination ecosystem.
Multiple topics have already been covered, ranging from technical approaches to data collection and visualization, to best practices on strategy and policy implementations and introducing both internal expertise and invited external professionals. These have taken either the form of a longer webinar format (approximately 1h) or shorter knowledge clips (approximately 10 min).
Past sessions include:
| General theme | Topic | Date | Speaker |
| Data collection | Visitor satisfaction and sentiment via Google Reviews | 26/03/2026 | Bart Neuts (Visit Flanders) |
| Data visualization & interpretation | Data & Dashboards for Smart Destinations | 27/10/2025 | Juan Ortells (Anysolution) |
| Dashboards: Do’s and Don’ts | 10/02/2026 | Dirk Schmücker (NIT) | |
| Making maps: two simple and free tools to generate data-based maps (IMAGE Eurostat Map Generator & QGIS) | 02/12/2025 | Dirk Schmücker (NIT) | |
| Data-driven implementation | Tourism taxation: Example of the Balearic Islands | 21/10/2025 | Miquel Rosselló, General Director of Tourism, regional Government of the Balearic Islands |
Sessions focusing on transforming raw data into actionable strategy highlight the shift from simply “having data” to “using data” for policy. Technical sessions—like calculating seasonality indicators or sentiment analysis via Google Reviews—empower destinations to move away from guesswork. By understanding seasonality and visitor sentiment accurately, destinations can implement information-based interventions. Similarly, introducing tools like the IMAGE Eurostat Map Generator and QGIS support broad implementation with limited budgets, allowing destinations to better communicate their progress and challenges to local residents and stakeholders, fostering a more inclusive tourism model.
Looking ahead, the Competence Centre will offer additional D3HUB Academy webinars with a specific focus on EU tourism strategies and implementations. This supports the alignment of local pilots with the European vision. The D3HUB Academy isn’t just teaching skills in a vacuum, it is helping pilot destinations align their local green and digital transitions with the broader European Smart Destination roadmap. This ensures that local data collection directly supports the larger EU-wide transition to sustainable travel. Sessions in this regard include:
General theme | Topic | Date | Speaker |
EU tourism strategies and implementations | EU Tourism Dashboard | 14/04/2026 | Joint Research Centre |
European Smart Destination Roadmap | 25/05/2026 | Anysolution | |
European Strategy on Sustainable Tourism | TBD | European Commission |
The D3HUB Academy’s mix of long-form webinars and short knowledge clips supports a continuous engagement with data-driven destination support that is a cornerstone of the D3HUB Competence Centre and which supplements the cross-cluster, cluster-specific, and one-on-one meetings. The exchange of best practices between internal experts and external professionals creates a resilient network. In a rapidly changing industry, this shared competence-building is what will allow destinations to remain competitive and environmentally responsible in the long term.
Data-driven tourism is often seen as a technical challenge, but through the D3HUB Academy, we are proving it is actually a human one. By equipping destinations with the right tools we are ensuring that the green and digital transition is backed by evidence and shared expertise.