City Destinations Alliance
The alliance of Tourist Boards, Convention Bureaux and Destination Management Organisations in Europe
We are the European knowledge sharing alliance for cities and urban regions. While working on the DNA of our cities, we are committed to a sustainable, inclusive and responsible visitor economy that benefits people, planet and prosperity.
We are much more than a network. We want to publicly advocate for our common goals while still learning from each other.
Our vision is for all cities in Europe to flourish as great places to live, work, meet and explore. As a community of DMO professionals, our promise to each other is to always be curious and forward-thinking, share our inspiration and never stop learning.
Highlights
The reference for Leisure, Meetings Industry and City Marketing in Europe.
Moving Together
CityDNA Autumn Conference, Verona, October 19-21, 2026
Join us to explore how mobility, accessibility, data, AI and business events are reshaping city destinations. Discover how cities can respond to changing visitor flows and move forward together with greater alignment and collective purpose.
CityDNA Committees
Help Shape the Future of CityDNA:
CityDNA is launching six new standing committees, giving members a direct role in shaping the Alliance’s priorities. Bring your expertise, connect with peers across Europe and help turn shared knowledge into action over two years.
The CityDNA Tórshavn Declaration
From Shared Priorities to Action
The CityDNA Tórshavn Declaration is a collective strategic framework developed with and for members. It captures the key priorities shaping the future of Europe’s city destinations and translates them into concrete areas of action.
The Score is Not the Story
VivaCITY Whitepaper from CityDNA & Simpleview
What’s Beyond the Sustainability Score? In a time when certifications and indexes dominate the sustainability narrative, this whitepaper invites destination leaders to look deeper—beyond metrics and toward meaningful, transformative strategies.
Climate Change and the Future of Tourism
Trend Room Whitepaper
The Whitepaper written in collaboration with ETFI is based on findings from a scenario workshop that explored how the impacts of climate change will transform the travel landscape of urban tourism destinations in the long term of 5 to 10 years by means of future scenarios (2035 is taken as time horizon).
City Travel Report by CityDNA 2024-2025
A New Era of Recalibration for European City Tourism
The City Travel Report by CityDNA provides a vital perspective on the volume of urban tourism in Europe, enabling individual city destinations to chart trends and to benchmark themselves in terms of volume and other parameters, especially key source markets. It presents compelling evidence of the economic significance of contemporary urban tourism. Put simply, cities are the dominant geographical focus of European tourism, especially the lucrative (and therefore much sought after!) short break and congress and/or conventions segments.
Featured Events
#CityDNA events provide members with information, contacts and business leads they cannot afford to miss out on.
Members know best…
The CityDNA Knowledge Groups play a strategic role in helping us develop new ideas, products, insights and solutions in the areas of City Cards, Marketing & Communication, Meetings Industry, Research & Insights, Sustainability, Tourist Information Centres or Trends. They are incubators of new ideas and an important source of insights and expertise.
When it comes to looking at the future, the constantly evolving CityDNA Summer School is a unique opportunity for young professionals just entering the Meetings Industry to spend three days with some of the biggest names in our business, to understand the nature of the Meetings Industry, and acquire practical marketing skills. An unforgettable career-defining experience!
By providing data, we can benchmark the performances of our destinations with bednights and in meetings statistics, as well as the financing and spending structures of our organisations. For the 50% of our members who do not have their own research departments, City Destinations Alliance can provide a unique & essential source of information.
City Destinations Alliance knows that we, as members, have specific interests and provides us with the opportunity to have our own platforms, events and forums. CityDNA also helps us members to align our own strategic agenda with whatever demands, challenges and opportunities tomorrow will bring.
Every year, we have more and more City Cards specialists participating in the City Cards Expert Meeting and strengthening the network. Through best practices and knowledge exchange, these meetings allow CityDNA member destinations to fine-tune their City Cards product, the associated communication and sales strategy, with the goal of managing the destination in a sustainable way.
City Destinations Alliance is a member organisation. It is with us members and by the members. Through its strategy, CityDNA explores a more sustainable tomorrow together with a great purpose and appetite for experimenting in the visitor economy that contributes to a better life in the city. This knowledge is essential in my daily job!
Knowledge exchange and best practices’ sessions are core activities in City Destinations Alliance: from meetings statistics to legacy or ambassador programmes, we are always kept up to date by the best examples in Europe and from around the world.
City Destinations Alliance is the only organisation to gather all CEOs of European destinations to discuss the latest market trends and new developments in policy, strategy and operations. But more important: it gives me a network of persons with whom I share challenges and endeavours, be it sustainability challenges, citizens support or how to measure the broader pros and cons of tourism. In short: This meeting is on the very top of my list.
CityDNA Live
![[MOVING TOGETHER 👣] This afternoon in Verona, the conversation moved from how visitors discover and access places to how...](https://citydestinationsalliance.eu/wp-content/plugins/social-wall/img/placeholder.png)
[MOVING TOGETHER 👣] This afternoon in Verona, the conversation moved from how visitors discover and access places to how destinations create value, shape narratives and adapt for the future.
The afternoon sessions explored a wide range of practical questions.
How can digital Read moreexperiences support more sustainable visitor flows and stronger local economies?
New research from Italy and France showed how bookable experiences can influence where visitors go, how long they stay and how widely they spend, with destination practice showing how public-private collaboration can help shape visitor behaviour.
How does access shape destination choice?
The session brought together mobility data, market research and destination practice to explore how access is becoming part of the destination decision itself. For many travellers, transport options influence which places make the final cut, while connectivity can also help cities shape visitor flows and support longer, more sustainable journeys.
What does destination marketing look like in transition?
The latest CityDNA MarCom Survey highlighted a shift away from volume alone towards more engaged visitors, stronger local-sector support, visitor flow management and a growing need to understand how AI is changing search, visibility and measurement.
That same question of visibility continued with Know the Vibe Before Your Visitors Do, exploring the gap between a destination’s intended brand and the story AI tools actually tell about it.
And once again, the learning moved out into the city.
One walkshop asked participants to reflect on what would be missing from Verona if tourism did not exist, opening a wider conversation about the value tourism should really create for cities.
A second, led along the Adige and across Ponte Pietra, used Verona itself to explore climate, resilience and how tourism can help destinations imagine different futures.
The afternoon closed with CityDNA & Granicus Destinations' VivaCITY: The Verona Edition, looking at what long-term destination transformation really requires: identity, stakeholder alignment, perseverance and the confidence to ask difficult questions about what a place wants to become.
Different sessions, but one common thread:
Destination management is not about controlling change. It is about understanding it, shaping it and creating value through it.
With contributions from GetYourGuide, Destination Florence, Rome2Rio, MMGY TCI Research, Stad Antwerpen, Black Diamond, Visit Gent, Visit & Meet in Mechelen, Place Generation and Granicus Destinations, alongside CityDNA Knowledge Groups.
📍 Verona
🗓️ October 20, 2026
#CityDNA #MovingTogether #CityDNAVerona2026 #VisitorEconomy #DestinationManagement #SustainableTourism #DestinationMarketing #UrbanMobility #ClimateResilience #PeerLearning
[MOVING TOGETHER 👣] The conversation is well underway in Verona.
This morning at #CityDNAVerona2026, the programme moved across behaviour, data, AI, accessibility, business events and destination strategy, but one idea kept returning:
understanding movement means understanding more Read morethan numbers.
David Meade opened the day by asking Why We Move?, challenging destinations to look beyond attractions and marketing messages to the deeper motivations behind travel: autonomy, mastery and purpose.
The latest City Travel Report by CityDNA 2025-2026 showed a European city tourism landscape moving beyond recovery towards recalibration and strategic management, with growth becoming more nuanced and destinations increasingly needing to look beyond volume alone.
That question of interpretation continued in the session on destination dashboards and GenAI: AI can reveal patterns and connections that static dashboards cannot, but human judgement remains essential to understand context, causality and what the data actually means.
The CityDNA Trend Room then looked further ahead, exploring four possible futures for DMOs in an AI-driven world, and one clear message emerged: destinations need to prepare for multiple futures, while protecting reliable data, local knowledge and human connection.
And the learning also moved out into the city.
One walkshop, led by Łukasz Wysocki and Filip Wysocki, explored accessibility through the everyday moments that shape whether someone feels truly welcome: from how help is offered to whether people are given real choice.
A second, led by Richard Boardman, used Verona as a live case study to map the many influences shaping today’s visitor journey, from recommendations and reviews to AI and chance discovery, and asked whether destinations are getting better at measuring channels, or need to get better at understanding journeys.
In the business events conversation, conference ambassador programmes were also reframed not simply as a way to win events, but as a tool for moving knowledge, networks and long-term value into a destination.
Different sessions. Different perspectives. One shared challenge:
How can destinations make better choices about where and how they move next?
📍 Verona
🗓️ October 20, 2026
#CityDNA #MovingTogether #CityDNAVerona2026 #VisitorEconomy #DestinationManagement #DataDrivenDestinations #ArtificialIntelligence #AccessibleTourism #BusinessEvents #PeerLearning
[MOVING TOGETHER 👣] From working together in Verona to experiencing the destination together on Lake Garda.
After a full day of meetings, delegates travelled to Peschiera del Garda before boarding the Andromeda for a sunset crossing towards Lazise. 🌅
The journey itself Read morebecame part of the conference experience: time to reconnect, continue conversations and discover another side of the destination hosting #CityDNAVerona2026.
The evening continued at Dogana Veneta in Lazise, where Luca Caputo, CEO of Destination Verona & Garda, and Patrick Bontinck, CEO of visit.brussels and CityDNA Vice President, welcomed attendees with warm opening remarks before the networking reception.
A first day that moved from collaboration to connection and from Verona to Lake Garda.
📍 Verona & Lake Garda
🗓️ October 19, 2026
#CityDNA #MovingTogether #CityDNAVerona2026 #VisitorEconomy #PeerLearning #DestinationExperience
Verona Garda Convention Bureau Destination Verona & Garda Foundation
[MOVING TOGETHER 👣] Day 1 of #CityDNAVerona2026 began where much of CityDNA’s work happens: around the table, across the network.
Meetings across our Knowledge Groups brought members together around the themes they work on throughout the year: Research & Insights, Visitor Read moreExperience, Sustainable Destination Management, Marketing & Communication, Trend Room and CVB.
Alongside them, the CityDNA Board met to progress the Alliance’s strategic work.
And through the Coordination Group, Knowledge Group Chairs, dedicated Board representatives and the CityDNA Head Office came together to connect priorities, share progress and strengthen alignment across the organisation.
This is an important part of CityDNA in practice: member expertise feeding into collective work, and collective work feeding back into the network.
📍 Verona
🗓️ October 19, 2026
#CityDNA #MovingTogether #CityDNAVerona2026 #PeerLearning #DestinationManagement #VisitorEconomy
Verona Garda Convention Bureau Destination Verona & Garda Foundation
[MOVING TOGETHER 👣] Next stop: Verona.
In just a few days, the CityDNA network will come together for three days of exchange, learning and collective work around the questions shaping city destinations today.
From AI, mobility and accessibility to business events, city tax, Read moredestination marketing, climate and resilience, the programme moves between keynotes, panels, workshops, Member-Led Workshops and walkshops across the city.
And Verona itself becomes part of the learning: a place to test ideas, compare perspectives and explore what it means for destinations to move with change while staying aligned.
📍 Verona
🗓️ October 19-21, 2026
Follow the conversation through #CityDNAVerona2026 and #MovingTogether
#CityDNA #MovingTogether #CityDNAVerona2026 #VisitorEconomy #DestinationManagement #PeerLearning #DestinationStewardship
Destination Verona & Garda Verona Garda Convention Bureau
[CITYDNA CVB EXPERT MEETING 🏙️] There is no single model for a successful Convention Bureau. And that is exactly why learning from one another matters.
Across destinations, CVBs operate in very different environments, yet many are facing the same strategic questions:
📌 Which Read moreactivities deserve our resources?
📌 Which relationships create the greatest value?
📌 What do clients really need from CVBs today?
📌 And how can we better demonstrate the impact of our work?
These questions will be at the heart of the 2nd CityDNA CVB Expert Meeting, bringing around 60 CVB professionals together in Timișoara for one and a half days of practical peer learning, candid case studies, outside perspectives and hands-on workshops.
The objective is not to find one model to copy. It is to compare approaches, challenge assumptions and identify what makes sense for each destination and organisation.
📍 Timișoara
🗓️ January 26-27, 2027
Registrations are now open! Join the CityDNA CVB community in Timișoara and be part of the conversation shaping the future of Convention Bureaux.
👉 Register here: https://citydestinationsalliance.eu/event/2nd-citydna-cvb-expert-meeting-2027-timisoara/
#CityDNA #CityDNACVB #ConventionBureau #BusinessEvents #DestinationManagement #VisitorEconomy
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[CITYDNA VISITOR EXPERIENCE EXPERT MEETING ℹ️] ⏳ One month left to register for Valencia!
How can Tourist Information Centres go beyond welcoming visitors and become active contributors to stronger, more connected local communities?
The 13th CityDNA Visitor Experience ExpertRead more Meeting will bring visitor experience professionals together in Valencia to explore exactly that under the theme “How TICs Empower Local Communities.”
Across two days, the programme will look at how TICs can strengthen their role within the destination by connecting visitors and residents, supporting local businesses and neighbourhoods, creating meaningful experiences and demonstrating their wider value to the community.
Expect practical examples, peer-to-peer exchange and plenty of opportunities to learn from colleagues facing similar challenges across Europe.
📍 Valencia
🗓️ November 19-20, 2026
There is just one month left to register, join the CityDNA Visitor Experience community in Valencia!
👉 Register here: https://citydestinationsalliance.eu/event/13th-citydna-visitor-experience-expert-meeting-2026-valencia/
#CityDNA #CityDNAVisitorExperience #VisitorExperience #DestinationManagement #VisitorEconomy #TouristInformationCentres
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[MOVING TOGETHER 👣] Last call for Verona.
Registration for #CityDNAVerona2026 closes today.
From AI, mobility and accessibility to business events, city tax, climate and destination marketing, the programme is designed around the questions city destinations are working through Read morenow.
And in Verona, those conversations will move beyond the stage, into round tables, member-led workshops and walkshops across the city!
📍 Verona
🗓️ October 19-21, 2026
Registration closes today, October 8.
Join the conversation: https://citydestinationsalliance.org/mpage/HomepageCityDNAVerona2026
#CityDNA #MovingTogether #CityDNAVerona2026 #VisitorEconomy #DestinationManagement #PeerLearning