During the conference, tourism projects from different European countries were presented, aimed at a better use of data, from collection to processing and development of the story for a strategic positioning on the market. Also at the centre of the conference were several case histories on the use of data regarding the legacy of some European Capitals of Culture, such as Matera and Kosice.

The European Capitals of Culture in the coming years should, in fact, be able to benefit from the momentum and knowledge gathered by the CulTourData project. Perspectives on the creation and enhancement of tourism and cultural value to take the data flame forward for the next phases.

The final conference of the project was divided into several thematic slots.

In the part dedicated to the role of the European Commission in relation to the digital transition and the use of data, speakers included Alan Vella from EISMEA and Sylvain Pasqua from the Directorate-General for Culture. Both focused on the importance of data to make the legacy of major events more lasting. In this regard, Beatriz Garcia, University of Liverpool, spoke about some of the strategies adopted to measure the impact of projects as was the case for Liverpool, European Capital of Culture in 2008.

And it was precisely to the European Capitals of Culture that the ECoC Watch session was dedicated.

One of the project partners, the Politécnico de Leiria, paved the way for the development of comprehensive analyses and a set of methods to analyse and interpret data in the context of tourism business models and urban development perspectives. Povilas Mintautas, monitoring and information technology specialist-Kaunas 2022, Rita Orlando, head of the Matera 2019 planning area, Jaques Maquet, quantity and impact research coordinator-Esch 2022, then spoke,  Dóra Kanizsai Nagy, monitoring office-Veszprém-Balaton 2023, Rui Barroso, digital transformation-Evora 2027, Dora Gomes, researcher-Politécnico de Leiria, Nuno Almeida, coordinating professor-Politécnico de Leiria.

Another session was dedicated to policies for sustainable development and tourism promotion through data.

Speakers in this regard were, MariaTeresa Cascino, who brought her experience as marketing manager of Matera 2019, Boris Kaiser, Project Officer-CWE Chemnitz, Iveta Niňajová, Strategy Advisor & Project Manager-Visit Kosice and Beatriz Garcia answering these questions: How can we make the use of data in tourism simpler, more results-oriented and also more secure?What role do promotion and training play in the development of the tourism sector? And what policy amendments are needed for this complex?

In the last session, some new best practices were presented. Serafino Paternoster presented the online newspaper EcocNews, the only one in Europe devoted entirely to cultural capitals. Manos Vougioukas, ECTN Secretary General, and Emiliano Deferrari, executive board-ENAT, then spoke. In a world where data is the beating heart of progress, the project invited to explore the central role of data and analytics integration in tourism business strategies and urban and regional development.  The final conference was an opportunity to understand how this dynamic change can propel organisations to new levels of competitiveness, sustainability and attractiveness.