Activating Cultural Heritage in Tourism Experiences
Explore how digital heritage is transforming cultural tourism by enhancing storytelling, accessibility and visitor engagement through tools like 3D models and immersive content, highlighting the role of digital collections in creating meaningful and sustainable tourism experiences.
As digital heritage transforms the way people engage with culture, attention is turning to the platforms that support access and discovery. What role does digitalisation play in shaping how visitors experience heritage and explore cultural narratives? In the final episode of our X. Design Week 2025 live webinar series, we were joined by Fiona Mowat, Senior Marketing Intelligence Coordinator, and Julie Van Oyen, Product Designer from Europeana, to explore how to activate cultural heritage in tourism experiences.
Europeana, who is joining X. Design Week as a Culture and Heritage partner, collaborates with over 5,000 network members across Europe and beyond. The platform provides access to more than 58 million items of digital heritage. Much of this content is openly licensed, providing new possibilities for educators, researchers and tourism professionals to use digital heritage for designing meaningful experiences, helping to reshape how culture is being accessed.
Digital Collections Strengthening Tourism Attractions
In the context of tourism today, cultural experiences are being enhanced through the use of digital heritage. These assets provide new ways to engage visitors, transforming passive observation into active discovery. For example, archaeological sites can move beyond just ruins through the help of digital content that has been used to reconstruct the past and bring it to life. Therefore, digital collections serve as a bridge between history and the present. They provide visual and narrative layers that complement what is physically there, which strengthens the overall visitor experience.
However, accessing these collections is not solely about technology. From a service design perspective, it is about how stories are shared and how visitors connect with them. Rather than relying entirely on immersive installations, destinations can layer digital elements onto existing promotional materials or attractions. This helps remove barriers to adoption and makes enhancement more accessible as it brings cultural stories to life while keeping the visitor experience grounded and inclusive.
Exploring the Range of Digital Heritage Assets
Digital collections span a wide variety of formats. These include images, audio recordings, video content and increasingly, 3D models. For example, Europeana provides access to a vast number of artefacts sourced from museums, libraries and archives across Europe. The material ranges from traditional objects to less tangible forms of heritage, including oral histories and natural soundscapes.
This diversity presents valuable opportunities for destinations to craft richer and more engaging experiences. Folklore can be integrated into audio guides, offering narrative depth to walking tours. Historical artefacts can be explored through interactive 3D models, enabling closer engagement with the past. Environmental sounds, such as bird calls, can enhance nature-based experiences by adding sensory context. Together, these assets support both on-site exploration and digital storytelling.
Digital artefacts can also be applied across different stages of the visitor journey. They can inspire interest before a visit, add depth during the experience and serve as a reminder afterwards. This creates a continuous narrative that connects people to place. By linking destinations with iconic artefacts, even in digital form, a more immersive and meaningful discovery process is made possible. Data plays a supporting role in shaping these experiences, as it helps identify what resonates with audiences and guides how content is delivered.
Designing for a Multi-generational Audience
Designing meaningful cultural experiences requires a thoughtful approach that balances creativity with practical methodology. At its core, the process follows established design principles like ideation, prototyping and testing to ensure that outcomes remain visitor-centred. Co-design plays a vital role in this, helping to capture diverse perspectives and build experiences that are both accessible and inclusive.
Different generations engage with heritage in different ways. For example, younger audiences respond to experiences that blend digital and physical touchpoints. They are drawn to hybrid formats that offer location-based interaction while still being rooted in technology. This has led to a growing interest in gamified experiences which require holistic and sustainable approaches that hold long-term value.
Millennials, having grown up during the shift to digital, often expect seamless integration of technology as a standard part of the visitor journey. Gen Z and Gen Alpha, while deeply embedded in the digital world, show a strong desire for experiences that feel more authentic. For these groups, the connection between place and story is key. Designing with this in mind requires careful attention to how both physical and digital elements are integrated together to enhance visitor experiences.
Key Takeaways:
As digital technology continues to advance and visitor expectations evolve, tourism destinations have a significant opportunity to strengthen the integration of digital collections, cultural storytelling and visitor experience design. A connected approach that combines heritage assets, data and inclusive design principles enables destinations to deliver more engaging and accessible experiences. Fostering collaboration across the ecosystem and adopting emerging tools supports this vision:
Enhance Visitor Engagement through Digital Heritage: Cultural sites operate within a diverse and complex landscape where physical artefacts and digital assets must work in harmony. By integrating digital collections into the visitor journey, destinations can extend storytelling beyond traditional boundaries. This creates more engaging experiences that inspire and connect with audiences at every stage.
Leverage Digital Assets Across the Journey: The wide range of digital heritage provides many opportunities to bring culture to life. These assets can be used flexibly throughout the visitor journey, from pre-visit engagement to post-visit reflection, creating seamless narratives that enhance connection to place.
Build Sustainable and Hybrid Experiences: Designing experiences with visitors at the heart requires a clear process of ideation, prototyping and testing. Younger generations seek immersive and hybrid experiences that blend the digital and physical together. Successful design recognises this desire, while focusing on sustainability and long-term value. Thoughtful integration of technology supports authentic engagement and enriches the cultural experience without overshadowing it.
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As digital heritage transforms the way people engage with culture, attention is turning to the platforms that support access and discovery. What role does digitalisation play in shaping how visitors experience heritage and explore cultural narratives? In the final episode of our X. Design Week 2025 live webinar series, we were joined by Fiona Mowat, Senior Marketing Intelligence Coordinator, and Julie Van Oyen, Product Designer from Europeana, to explore how to activate cultural heritage in tourism experiences.
Europeana, who is joining X. Design Week as a Culture and Heritage partner, collaborates with over 5,000 network members across Europe and beyond. The platform provides access to more than 58 million items of digital heritage. Much of this content is openly licensed, providing new possibilities for educators, researchers and tourism professionals to use digital heritage for designing meaningful experiences, helping to reshape how culture is being accessed.
Digital Collections Strengthening Tourism Attractions
In the context of tourism today, cultural experiences are being enhanced through the use of digital heritage. These assets provide new ways to engage visitors, transforming passive observation into active discovery. For example, archaeological sites can move beyond just ruins through the help of digital content that has been used to reconstruct the past and bring it to life. Therefore, digital collections serve as a bridge between history and the present. They provide visual and narrative layers that complement what is physically there, which strengthens the overall visitor experience.
However, accessing these collections is not solely about technology. From a service design perspective, it is about how stories are shared and how visitors connect with them. Rather than relying entirely on immersive installations, destinations can layer digital elements onto existing promotional materials or attractions. This helps remove barriers to adoption and makes enhancement more accessible as it brings cultural stories to life while keeping the visitor experience grounded and inclusive.
Exploring the Range of Digital Heritage Assets
Digital collections span a wide variety of formats. These include images, audio recordings, video content and increasingly, 3D models. For example, Europeana provides access to a vast number of artefacts sourced from museums, libraries and archives across Europe. The material ranges from traditional objects to less tangible forms of heritage, including oral histories and natural soundscapes.
This diversity presents valuable opportunities for destinations to craft richer and more engaging experiences. Folklore can be integrated into audio guides, offering narrative depth to walking tours. Historical artefacts can be explored through interactive 3D models, enabling closer engagement with the past. Environmental sounds, such as bird calls, can enhance nature-based experiences by adding sensory context. Together, these assets support both on-site exploration and digital storytelling.
Digital artefacts can also be applied across different stages of the visitor journey. They can inspire interest before a visit, add depth during the experience and serve as a reminder afterwards. This creates a continuous narrative that connects people to place. By linking destinations with iconic artefacts, even in digital form, a more immersive and meaningful discovery process is made possible. Data plays a supporting role in shaping these experiences, as it helps identify what resonates with audiences and guides how content is delivered.
Designing for a Multi-generational Audience
Designing meaningful cultural experiences requires a thoughtful approach that balances creativity with practical methodology. At its core, the process follows established design principles like ideation, prototyping and testing to ensure that outcomes remain visitor-centred. Co-design plays a vital role in this, helping to capture diverse perspectives and build experiences that are both accessible and inclusive.
Different generations engage with heritage in different ways. For example, younger audiences respond to experiences that blend digital and physical touchpoints. They are drawn to hybrid formats that offer location-based interaction while still being rooted in technology. This has led to a growing interest in gamified experiences which require holistic and sustainable approaches that hold long-term value.
Millennials, having grown up during the shift to digital, often expect seamless integration of technology as a standard part of the visitor journey. Gen Z and Gen Alpha, while deeply embedded in the digital world, show a strong desire for experiences that feel more authentic. For these groups, the connection between place and story is key. Designing with this in mind requires careful attention to how both physical and digital elements are integrated together to enhance visitor experiences.
Key Takeaways:
As digital technology continues to advance and visitor expectations evolve, tourism destinations have a significant opportunity to strengthen the integration of digital collections, cultural storytelling and visitor experience design. A connected approach that combines heritage assets, data and inclusive design principles enables destinations to deliver more engaging and accessible experiences. Fostering collaboration across the ecosystem and adopting emerging tools supports this vision:
Enhance Visitor Engagement through Digital Heritage: Cultural sites operate within a diverse and complex landscape where physical artefacts and digital assets must work in harmony. By integrating digital collections into the visitor journey, destinations can extend storytelling beyond traditional boundaries. This creates more engaging experiences that inspire and connect with audiences at every stage.
Leverage Digital Assets Across the Journey: The wide range of digital heritage provides many opportunities to bring culture to life. These assets can be used flexibly throughout the visitor journey, from pre-visit engagement to post-visit reflection, creating seamless narratives that enhance connection to place.
Build Sustainable and Hybrid Experiences: Designing experiences with visitors at the heart requires a clear process of ideation, prototyping and testing. Younger generations seek immersive and hybrid experiences that blend the digital and physical together. Successful design recognises this desire, while focusing on sustainability and long-term value. Thoughtful integration of technology supports authentic engagement and enriches the cultural experience without overshadowing it.
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