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.
Leading Europe’s Visitor Economy: Reputation, Community Trust & Global Competitiveness
CityDNA CEO Meeting,
February 9-10, 2026
From budget constraints and political changes, digital transformation in the visitor experience, sustainability and shifting visitor behaviours, the CEO Meeting will explore key challenges faced by our DMOs’ leadership and explore key paths for success and transformation.
The Human Pulse of Place and Purpose
CityDNA International Conference
& General Assembly, April 22-24, 2026
At a time when European destinations are reshaping their visitor economies amid global transformation, the CityDNA International Conference & General Assembly, taking place in Helsinki on April 22-24, 2026, invites members and partners to explore what lies before and beyond the data.
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.
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.
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
![[CVB EXPERT MEETING 🏙️] The 1st CityDNA CVB Expert Meeting in Graz has come to a close, and what a strong first edition it has been! 🎉
A heartfelt thank you to all participants for your energy, openness and generosity in sharing real challenges, practical tools and ideas we can take straight back to our CVBs. This is exactly what a peer-driven space should feel like!
A special thank you to our Graz hosts:
✨ Lisa Legat, Head of Graz Convention Bureau, for her hands-on support and flawless organisation
✨ Dieter Hardt-Stremayr, CEO of Graz Tourismus, for the warm welcome
We’re already looking ahead: the 2nd CityDNA CVB Expert Meeting will take place on January 26-27, 2027 in Timișoara, Romania 🇷🇴✨
See you there!
#CityDNA #CityDNACVB #CVB #ConventionBureaux #MeetingsIndustry #DestinationManagement #BusinessEvents #PeerLearning #Networking #EventProfs Visit Graz](https://citydestinationsalliance.eu/wp-content/plugins/social-wall/img/placeholder.png)
[CVB EXPERT MEETING 🏙️] The 1st CityDNA CVB Expert Meeting in Graz has come to a close, and what a strong first edition it has been! 🎉
A heartfelt thank you to all participants for your energy, openness and generosity in sharing real challenges, practical tools and ideas we can ...take straight back to our CVBs. This is exactly what a peer-driven space should feel like!
A special thank you to our Graz hosts:
✨ Lisa Legat, Head of Graz Convention Bureau, for her hands-on support and flawless organisation
✨ Dieter Hardt-Stremayr, CEO of Graz Tourismus, for the warm welcome
We’re already looking ahead: the 2nd CityDNA CVB Expert Meeting will take place on January 26-27, 2027 in Timișoara, Romania 🇷🇴✨
See you there!
#CityDNA #CityDNACVB #CVB #ConventionBureaux #MeetingsIndustry #DestinationManagement #BusinessEvents #PeerLearning #Networking #EventProfs Visit Graz
[CVB EXPERT MEETING 🏙️] We wrapped up the 1st CityDNA CVB Expert Meeting in Graz with a final **Case Study Showcase, **and a strong reminder that competitiveness is increasingly built on smart funding, academic collaboration, and local expertise.
💶 Vienna (Sophie Albl, Vienna ...Convention Bureau) shared how the Vienna Meeting Fund is strengthening financial resilience and sustainable growth: a €12m programme (2021–2028) designed to incentivise events (including in lower-demand periods), support organisers through clear eligibility criteria, and embed sustainability through mechanisms like Green Event certification.
🧩 Košice (Ivana Kavulič, Visit Košice) showed how smaller destinations can punch above their weight by mapping intellectual capital across academia, healthcare and industry, and strengthening reach through collaboration with Bratislava to target events that truly match local strengths.
🧠 Maastricht (Jurgen Moors, Maastricht Convention Bureau) presented a powerful evolution: from city bureau to a regionally integrated “triple helix” model connecting universities, government and industry, aligning business events with long-term economic goals and leveraging real-time monitoring to demonstrate impact across the wider region.
We then brought it all together with the Interactive Walls' Highlights & Takeaways, spotlighting the most-voted tips, clever hacks and practical tools shared by peers, before closing with final reflections and next steps on how these insights will carry forward beyond Graz.
Thank you to every participant who contributed so openly: this is peer learning at its best!
#CityDNA #CityDNACVB #CVB #ConventionBureaux #MeetingsIndustry #DestinationManagement #BusinessEvents #PeerLearning #Networking #EventProfs #Funding #AcademicCollaboration #Legacy #Sustainability #KnowledgeEconomy
[THE HUMAN PULSE OF PLACE AND PURPOSE 💓] ✅ Registration is now open for the CityDNA International Conference & General Assembly 2026!
📍 Helsinki | April 22-24, 2026: https://citydestinationsalliance.eu/event/citydna-international-conference-general-assembly-2026-helsinki/
...
Join us to explore the people behind the data, and how understanding human behaviour, motivation and emotion can strengthen policy-making, governance and innovation, helping cities build more resilient, meaningful and competitive visitor economies.
And because Helsinki always comes with something special…
✨ The Helsinki Happiness Challenge: Win a weekend in Helsinki!
When you register, you can also take part in our creative challenge: design your perfect weekend in Helsinki.
How to participate:
1. Get inspired by MyHelsinki.fi (local tips, hidden gems, restaurants, saunas, design & culture)
2. Write a short story or itinerary (max 300 words)
3. Submit via the competition form
🏆 Prize (right after the Conference: April 24-26, 2026):
• 2 hotel nights for 2
• 2 Helsinki Cards (attractions + transport)
• Dinner for two at one of Helsinki’s top restaurants
📅 Key dates
Deadline: January 31, 2026
Winner announced: February 3, 2026
👉 Register + enter the challenge: https://citydestinationsalliance.eu/event/citydna-international-conference-general-assembly-2026-helsinki/
See you in Helsinki! 🇫🇮
#CityDNA #MeetingsIndustryProfessionals #VisitorEconomy #DestinationManagement #Conference #ExperienceDesign #Innovation
[CVB EXPERT MEETING 🏙️] Day 2 in Graz started with a clear message: data is no longer a “nice to have”, it’s a strategic capability for CVBs.
📊 In Smart Data for Smarter Decisions, Jens Ihsen (Düsseldorf Convention Bureau) joined Tobias Tegetmeyer and Marion Gösweiner ...(SeeRIO) to explore how real-time analytics and European benchmarking can strengthen decision-making, from forecasting and lead-time analysis to smarter resource planning, clearer stakeholder communication, and stronger evidence when talking about economic impact and investment.
We then took it straight into practice with Making Sense of Meetings Data, a structured roundtable where CVBs compared what they already track, and what they wish they could track next. Across the tables, the same priorities surfaced:
✅ benchmarking destinations and improving market visibility
✅ using data as a storytelling and marketing tool to “sell the city”
✅ improving data consistency and relevance (especially on the hotel side)
✅ supporting bids, low-season planning, and stakeholder alignment, including sustainability indicators (certified venues/hotels) and local context that data alone can’t capture.
The takeaway from the morning: better data doesn’t just improve reporting, it improves influence.
#CityDNA #CityDNACVB #CVB #ConventionBureaux #MeetingsIndustry #DestinationManagement #BusinessEvents #PeerLearning #Networking #EventProfs #Data #Analytics #Benchmarking #EconomicImpact #CRM Visit Graz
[CVB EXPERT MEETING 🏙️] Yesterday evening in Graz, we wrapped up Day 1 the best way: together, on the ground, and around the table.
🚶 A relaxed 1-hour guided city tour took us through Graz’s charm, history and hidden corners: a light, informal moment to keep conversations flowing... while discovering local stories along the way, ending right at our evening venue.
🍽️ We then continued with a Networking Dinner at Aiola Upstairs, perched atop Schlossberg hill. With panoramic views over the city, floor-to-ceiling glass and an open terrace, it offered a bright setting for elegant cuisine, and exactly the kind of atmosphere where professional connections quickly become trusted peer relationships.
#CityDNA #CityDNACVB #CVB #ConventionBureaux #MeetingsIndustry #DestinationManagement #BusinessEvents #PeerLearning #Networking #EventProfs Visit Graz
[CVB EXPERT MEETING 🏙️] We closed Day 1 in Graz with a highly practical format: Lead Market: Sharing Opportunities Across Europe.
In this interactive session, CVB peers exchanged qualified leads and compared insights on potential (or past) events: spotting common prospects, learning ...from each other’s approaches, and identifying where collaboration across destinations can unlock new business opportunities.
A strong reminder of the CVB value proposition: when we share smartly, we don’t just compete, we strengthen Europe’s meetings ecosystem together.
#CityDNA #CityDNACVB #CVB #ConventionBureaux #MeetingsIndustry #DestinationManagement #BusinessEvents #PeerLearning #Networking #EventProfs #Sales #LeadGeneration #Collaboration Visit Graz
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[CVB EXPERT MEETING 🏙️] This afternoon in Graz, we shifted into “learning from practice” with a powerful Case Study Showcase on partnerships, regional collaboration and impact, featuring Rotterdam, Helsinki and Ireland.
🤝 Rotterdam Partners (Jurgen Hoekstra) shared how the Make... It Happen brand alliance is evolving partnerships from transactional sponsorship to mission-driven, long-term collaboration, backed by dedicated account management, sector “team captains”, and Knowledge Ambassadors linking academic expertise to city goals.
🧩 Helsinki Partners / Helsinki Convention Bureau (Karoliina Ala-Opas, Antti Lumiainen, Johanna Grönberg) highlighted the Helsinki–Espoo–Vantaa regional collaboration, showing how a unified narrative and joint actions can turn local strengths into global advantage, with a Legacy Toolkit in development to measure long-term outcomes.
🌍 Fáilte Ireland (Grace O’Shea) brought legacy to life through Ireland’s restructured business events strategy across economic, social and environmental pillars, including an inspiring example from the Autism-Europe Congress, where inclusive design tools (like sensory mapping and accessibility checklists) helped deliver measurable social value and lasting awareness.
A rich Q&A followed, packed with ideas CVBs can adapt immediately.
#CityDNA #CityDNACVB #CVB #ConventionBureaux #MeetingsIndustry #DestinationManagement #BusinessEvents #PeerLearning #Networking #EventProfs #Partnerships #Legacy #Sustainability #SocialImpact #AI Visit Graz
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[CVB EXPERT MEETING 🏙️] The Tuesday morning roundtables in Graz were where the CVB community really did what it came for: compare realities, share fixes, and challenge assumptions, in small groups built for trust and candour.
A few themes that resonated across the room:
🤖 ...AI in daily work is moving from “nice to have” to operational support: peers shared use cases to speed up RFP responses and improve workflows, alongside ideas to build adoption through internal challenges and team training.
🏛️ Legacy & destination impact remains difficult to evidence beyond economics, so participants exchanged ways to structure evaluation (including CRM-based tracking) and communicate outcomes through stories, awards, and case examples.
🌱 Sustainability is no longer a trend conversation: it’s a delivery challenge. Discussion focused on real blockers (cost, bureaucracy, infrastructure gaps) and levers that help (subsidies, clearer requirements, dedicated roles and partnerships).
💶 Funding & financial pressure came up repeatedly, with peers comparing models and the growing importance of data to negotiate with stakeholders and defend strategic choices.
Conversations also touched on visibility and competitiveness 📣 (how to stand out with small teams and tight budgets), the evolving role and structure of CVBs 🧭 (collaboration models and mandates), data/CRM and digital tools 📊 (dashboards, reporting, decision support), and new market trends and client behaviour 📈 (changing expectations and travel patterns).
The biggest takeaway: when CVBs share openly, solutions travel fast, and collective learning becomes a competitive advantage.
#CityDNA #CityDNACVB #CVB #ConventionBureaux #MeetingsIndustry #DestinationManagement #BusinessEvents #PeerLearning #Networking #EventProfs #AI #Sustainability #Legacy #Data #CRM Visit Graz