Tourism Award for Dublin Council 

Dublin City Council took second place in the European Cultural Tourism Awards (ECTN) for its work in developing the Dublin Discovery Trails platform.  Council officials Tim Graham and Mary MacSweeney are pictured accepting the award in Paphos, Cyprus.

The app took runners-up spot in the category “Digitalisation advances and digital transition in Sustainable Cultural Tourism, including Smart Tourism and Smart Destinations initiatives closely involving culture and heritage”.

The award comes weeks after Dublin was also shortlisted for the European Capital of Smart Tourism award, a designation which recognises outstanding achievements by European cities as tourism destinations in four categories: sustainability, accessibility, digitalisation, as well as cultural heritage and creativity.

The ECTN awards enhance the visibility of European cultural tourism destinations, create a platform for sharing experience and knowledge, and promote networking between destinations. The awards contest is open to tourist destinations across Europe, to showcase their results and outputs in sustainable cultural tourism under several selected categories each year.

The Dublin Discovery Trails app was developed by Dublin City Council in partnership with Fáilte Ireland and launched in January 2023. Since its launch, the app has hosted new immersive experiences from across the Dublin region including Castleknock, Balbriggan and a first of its kind augmented reality map of Dublin City, which was produced using new Google Maps technology by the app developer PeelX.