X. Design Week 2025 brings together tourism, tech and creative professionals to co-design the future of tourism through hands-on design sprints. Taking place in Newcastle, UK, from 3 - 6 June 2025 with a focus on innovation and digital transformation, the event provides a platform to explore how destinations can create more connected and accessible visitor experiences. X. Design Week also dives into AI and tourism marketing strategies aimed at younger generations, ensuring a diverse and varied programme for attendees.
At Europeana, we are excited to work with X. Design Week as the event’s official culture heritage partner. Read on to discover how we’re involved and what we’ve got planned!
Connecting tourism with cultural heritage - a priority in the data spaces
Making the connection between digital cultural heritage and tourism is a goal which Europeana is well placed to achieve in our role at the heart of the common European data space for cultural heritage. Building on more than fifteen years of experience, we deploy the cutting-edge infrastructure, community and suite of products, frameworks and tools which make up the data space and facilitate the open and trustworthy sharing of heritage data across Europe. We also utilise our experience as a partner of the DEPLOYTOUR project which is building the European Tourism Data Space, ideally placing us to bring together these two vibrant sectors.
Our new and exciting partnership with X. Design Week is a fantastic opportunity to leverage our expertise, engage an international audience of tourism, tech and creative leaders and invite them to co-design the future of tourism - with digital heritage in mind.
A partnership and programme of events
The partnership will see colleagues from Europeana Foundation deliver keynotes at X. Design Week on digital service design and immersive storytelling, as well as shape a hands-on design sprint focused on digital service design. Throughout the event, Europeana colleagues will invite participants to discuss and explore how cultural heritage can be reused by delegates in their work.
Designing digital services in tourism
Julie Van Oyen, Product Designer at Europeana Foundation, will present the keynote, ‘Design matters: enriching visitor experiences with artefacts. How can digital design unlock the storytelling potential of cultural archives and museum collections?’ Her talk will take participants on a journey through innovative web-based interfaces which bring heritage to life, covering design techniques, narratives, storytelling and cultural heritage with user experience research.
A separate design sprint will further explore designing digital services in tourism - and consider how to apply the knowledge imparted by Julie and other speakers.
Immersive storytelling and spatial computing
Europeana Foundation’s Editorial Advisor Beth Daley and Senior Marketing Intelligence Coordinator Fiona Mowat will present the keynote, ‘Telling stories with digital heritage: unlocking immersive visitor experiences.’ Their talk will highlight how cultural heritage can be used to tell stories about destinations, taking the form of analogue to digital, 3D and immersive experiences to transform the visitor experience. They will also be present for another design sprint on designing a roadmap for spatial computing (augmented or extended reality) in tourism.
Digital cultural heritage at the centre of digital tourism
Through these events, and the wider partnership, Europeana is committed to supporting the European tourism sector through digital cultural heritage and with the various creative activities and events our collections enable. We firmly believe that digital cultural heritage can play a pivotal role in designing the future of digital tourism through storytelling and immersive experiences (from guided tours and talks to XR) and we can’t wait to get started!
Get involved
Would you like to attend X. Design Week to enjoy what’s planned? Get your tickets now.
We are delighted that as a benefit of our partnership, Europeana Network Association members receive up to a 75% discount on tickets. To benefit from the discount, select ‘Europeana’ when booking your tickets. If you work independently, or at an organisation with up to 15 employees, select the 'For independents and SMEs with up to 15 employees' option. If you work for an organisation with more than 15 employees choose the second option, ‘Network partners with more than 15 employees.’
Are you or your organisation involved in tourism or touristic activities and would you like to work together with Europeana on an event or activity? Contact us at [email protected].
Finally, if you are not yet an ENA Member and would like to access the benefits of membership, join today!