Beyond Visitors Numbers

The VERNE project that participates in the SECreTour Network of Common Interest,has published an interesting news about sustainability measurement methodologies across tourism certification schemes and academic research models.

Traditional tourism metrics prioritize visitor volume and economic output while overlooking environmental degradation and social impacts on local communities.

The VERNE project addresses this analytical gap through the development of a 𝗺𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶-𝗱𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 that integrates environmental, social, and economic factors into a comprehensive evaluation systems.

This evidence-based framework represents a very interesting shift from linear measurement approaches to holistic assessment methodologies, designed for practical implementation by tourism businesses, destination management organizations, and public authorities.

The framework recognizes that sustainable tourism transformation requires balanced consideration of all the sustainability dimensions rather than isolated economic optimization. Supported by a comprehensive review, the VERNE project identifies strengths and limitations of current approaches, enabling integration of most effective elements into a unified assessment system.

The proposed tools will enable stakeholders to quantify transition investments and expected returns across different implementation timescales, providing evidence-based decision support for circular tourism adoption.

 


Follow SECreTour online also on the SECreTour project’s website.

 

 

 

 


Food and Fairytale – creative writing workshop

Organized by Europeana, this creative writing  workshop will use illustrations and imagery from the collections available on Europeana.eu to explore the relationship between fairy tales and food.

Anyone can participate, and no previous experience is required. After some warm up exercises you will able to write your story with no obligation to share it.

Regiter  and find more information here.


EUreka3D paper published on FGCS Journal

Following Michał Orzechowski presentation of the Lambousa fishing boat case study in the context EUreka3D project at the 15th International Conference on Parallel Processing & Applied Mathematics, a paper on the case was written and submitted by part of EUreka3D team and colleagues, later accepted by FGCS Journal.

FGCS (Future Generation Computer System) Journal aims to lead the way in advances in distributed systems, collaborative environments, high performance and high performance computing, Big Data on such infrastructures as grids, clouds and the Internet of Things.

The paper, titled “Cultural Heritage 3D Object Management with Integrated Automation Workflows“, has now been published: find it at this link.


Where to find capacity building and other events from the EUreka3D-XR project

Discover the next appointments from EUreka3D projects: capacity building, conferences, formus and more are waiting for you!

Learn more here.


3D Data in the Data Space for Cultural Heritage

EUreka3D-XR takes part in the Digital Heritage 2025, a widely recognized event dedicated to the advancement of theory and practice within digital cultural heritage.  DH 4th edition brings together leading international scientific organisations, initiatives and events, all in one venue with a prestigious joint publication.

On the first day, Monday 8 September 2025, the project participates in the workshop  3D Data in the Data Space for Cultural Heritage, co-chaired by Sander Münster, Marco Medici, Antonella Fresa, and Alex Stan.

The workshop is dedicated to provide an insight in the Data Space for Cultural Heritage and the supporting projects carried out particularly to deal with 3D assets, to discuss the impact of those endeavours with regards to overarching challenges as data, standards, capacities and XR application,  and to provide a hands-on experience with innovative tools.

DRAFT TIMETABLE OF THE WORKSHOP

8 September 2025 h. 15.30-18.00, Room 4

Introduction by the workshop chairs

Opening: What is the Data Space for Cultural Heritage

Session 1: Preliminary work (20 min each with Q&A)

  • Europeana 3D working group
  • EUreka3D
  • 5D Culture

Break (30 min.)

Session 2: Ongoing work (20 min each with Q&A)

  • XRCulture
  • 3DBigDataSpace
  • EUreka3D-XR

Session 3: Capacity building (20 min with Q&A)

  • 3D-4CH Competence Center

Round table with all participants – Joint endeavours and challenges

>>>

DIGITAL HERITAGE 2025 Overall Programme: https://digitalheritage2025.unisi.it/program-overview/


eu emblemEUreka3D-XR project is co-financed by the Digital Europe Programme of the European Union.


XR in cultural heritage: AR, MR and VR explained

Delve into the world Extended Reality through the new blogpost published on Europeana Pro by Agathe Le Riche-Maugis, in the context of EUreka3D-XR project.

Learn the differences between AR, MR and VR in a “hands on” way, discover the five tools EUreka3D-XR project is currently working on and learn why Extended Reality is a real game changer in the cultural heritage world.

Find the blogpost at this link.


Driving digital transformation in Cultural Heritage Institutions

Wednesdays: 19 November, 26 November, 03 December 2025 at 3-5pm CET

EUreka3D-XR is focused on transforming cultural contents such 2D or 3D into extended reality scenarios, and provides capacity building to cultural professionals and managers. After two series of open access webinars in 2023 and in 2024 co-organized by EUreka3D consortium, Photoconsortium and ICA, the 2025 edition goes a step forward and offers an online training programme that provides knowledge and practical experiences to cultural heritage professionals.

The programme includes 3 online sessions of 2 hours each. Each session is organised in two parts: a keynote speech from different domain experts, open to a wide group of participants, and an interactive working session offered to a selected group of learners who will have the opportunity to discuss, engage and share experiences, moderated by a facilitator.

Wednesday 19 November 2025
Heritage Policies and strategies for the digital transformation of practices
Keynote speech by Dr. Antonella Fresa (Photoconsortium)

 

Wednesday 26 November 2025
The impact and transformative power of Digital Cultural Heritage
Keynote speech by prof. Fred Truyen (KU Leuven) and Dr. David Iglésias Franch (CRDI – Ajuntament de Girona)

 

Wednesday 3 December 2025
Good practices and experiences for creation, access and re-use
Keynote speech by prof. Frederik Temmermans (VUB – imec) and prof. Eirini Kaldeli (National Technical University of Athens)

 

The three interactive working sessions will be facilitated by Prof. Dr. Peter Fornaro (Head Research Projects at the Digital Humanities Lab – University of Basel). The selected participants will receive a certificate of participation.

Places for the interactive sessions are limited – application form available from https://eureka3d.eu/online_training_programme2025/.

For more information, please contact info@eureka3d.eu.

About the speakers:

Antonella Fresa is an ICT expert, Vice President of Photoconsortium and Director of Implementations at Promoter Srl. She has been working on European cooperation projects since 1994 as Technical Coordinator and Communication Manager in the domains of digitisation of cultural heritage, access and creative re-use of digital content, long-term digital preservation, smart cities, citizen science, cultural tourism, eInfrastructures and cloud technologies. From 2002 to 2012, she was advisor of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and from 1999 to 2002, Project Officer at the European Commission. She regularly serves as an independent expert for the European Commission and national and regional research programmes. Since 2022 she is contracted professor at the University of Pisa.

Frederik Truyen is full professor at the Faculty of Arts, KU Leuven. He publishes on digitalization, photographic heritage and e-learning. He is in charge of the multidisciplinary innovation centre DigitGLAM, which focuses on Digital Transformation in the Library, Archive and Museum sector. He is experienced in data modelling and metadata development for image databases in the cultural-historical field. He is co-founder and former president of Photoconsortium. Prof. Truyen teaches courses on digitisation and data for heritage institutions in the MA degrees of Cultural Studies and Digital Humanities. He is a member of Clariah-VL.

David Iglésias Franch is the head of the Photographic and Audiovisual Documentation Section of Girona City Council. He coordinates and teaches the postgraduate course in Management, Preservation and Dissemination of Photographic Archives at the Higher School of Document Archive and Management of Catalonia (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) and, since 2018, he has also been a lecturer of the Master’s degree in Archaeology at the same school. On an international level, he has been the president of the Group of Experts in Photographic and Audiovisual Documents of the International Council of Archives since 2016. He is the President of Photoconsortium Association.

Frederik Temmermans is guest professor in multimedia at the Department of Electronics and Informatics (ETRO), associated with the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and imec. His research focuses on media privacy, security, authenticity, and integrity. He has been involved in various research projects in the medical, mobile, and cultural domains. Frederik is an active member of the JPEG standardization committee (ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG1) where he currently chairs the JPEG Systems and Integration subgroup and leads the JPEG Trust (ISO/IEC 21617) standardization activities. Frederik is also co-founder of the VUB spin-off company Universum Digitalis and member of the Photoconsortium Steering Committee.

Eirini Kaldeli is a senior researcher at the Artificial Intelligence and Learning Systems Laboratory of the National Technical University of Athens.  She is also co-founder of the university’s spinoff Datoptron. Her most recent work focuses on the design of techniques and tools that make use of state-of-the-art digital technologies for data management, information retrieval, and crowdsourcing in the field of cultural heritage and beyond. She holds a PhD from the University of Groningen and an MSc in AI from the University of Edinburgh. She is the coordinator of the AI4Culture project and has led several projects in the intersection of IT and cultural heritage, including the CultureLabs Horizon RIA project and the CEF projects EuropeanaTranslate and Crafted.

Moderator and facilitator of the interactive session: Peter Fornaro

Peter Fornaro is Head Research Projects at the Digital Humanities Lab. With his scientific background in electrical engineering and physics, he worked, among others, for NASA. Thanks to his many years of experience in humanities research, Fornaro masters the conception and implementation of interdisciplinary research projects from scratch. As a trained scientific photographer, he experienced the change of the photographic image from the analogue to the digital domain in detail. This vast range of experience not only allows him to develop new, innovative solutions but also allows him to conduct a profound transdisciplinary dialogue. With a doctorate in experimental physics, he was habilitated at the University of Basel’s humanities faculty.
In his research, Fornaro focuses on visual media and the linking of digital infrastructures with digital curation and collection management. This connection is key to making our cultural memory available for research and contributing to the successful digital transformation of our society, in which tradition and heritage go hand in hand with technology and innovation.

 


eu emblemEUreka3D-XR project is co-financed by the Digital Europe Programme of the European Union.


Reframing culture: creative reuse of cultural heritage

Reframing culture: creative reuse of cultural heritage is an event organised by Europeana Foundation, the first of a webinar series exploring how creatives and cultural heritage institutions collaborate to bring audiovisual heritage into new media works.

This event highlights how creatives working on Europeana’s Online Creative Residency and Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (NISV) projects, have transformed archival and heritage material into new cultural stories, blending aesthetics, memory and critique. Participating creators and colleagues will share:

  • What makes heritage material usable for creative production

  • Challenges in access, attribution and media literacy

  • Lessons cultural institutions can apply to support high-impact reuse

This event is for media content creators, cultural heritage professionals, creatives, rights and access coordinators, educators, and anyone interested in the intersection of heritage and digital storytelling.

Register at this link.


Kicking off Cross-Re-Tour: Shaping Sustainable Tourism Together

The Cross-Re-Tour project is member of the SECreTour Network of Common Interest.

From May 6 to 8, 2025, Cross-Re-Tour hosted the workshop Kicking off Cross-Re-Tour: Shaping Sustainable Tourism Togetherin Riga, Latvia.

This event was part of the Cross-Re-Tour series of capacity-building workshops but especially dedicated to fostering knowledge sharing and collaboration opportunities between the beneficiaries of the Open Innovation Programme, where 87 SMEs were awarded financial support and mentoring to implement their innovative projects, transforming their tourism businesses towards the twin transition.

The encounter provided a valuable platform for exchange, throughout its various sessions, which accounted for an inspiring keynote speech from Nicholas Hall, founder of the Digital Tourism Think Tank (UK). The event represented a practical workshop on Client and Staff Nudging, where participants were encouraged to share their challenges and find innovative solutions.

On the last day, participants visited five different site of the most groundbreaking tourism businesses in Latvia.

You can look below at some pictures of the event.

 

 


 

Follow SECreTour online also on the SECreTour project’s website.

 

 

 

 


AIPAI Photo Exhibition 2025

img. courtesy: AIPAI Photo Exhibition

On 18th July 2025, “AIPAI PHOTO EXHIBITION. Geometries of Aridity and Other Visions” exhibition will open to the public at the Valcamonica Hydroelectric Energy Museum in Cedegolo and will be visitable until August 31st.

This photography exhibition showcases the best shots from the third edition of the AIPAI PHOTO CONTEST, the photography competition conceived by the Italian Association for Industrial Archaeological Heritage to raise awareness and promote the culture of industry, the memory of work, and the architectural, technological, and landscape heritage of industrial archaeology.

The exhibition, organized in collaboration with a vast network of Italian universities, associations and organizations, will also be be hosted in the AEMuseum of the AEM Foundation in Milan from September 11th to October 3rd 2025.

Download and read the full press release here<<<< (IT).