Fáilte Ireland · FDB 2026

Supplementary briefing · February 2026

Future. Destination. Brand. — Event History & Track Record

A short overview of Future. Destination. Brand. and its longer event lineage going back to 2012, demonstrating the consistency, scale and calibre of the destinations and partner brands the event convenes year on year.

At a glance
14
Years of continuous delivery
200+
Destinations represented
35+
Countries
15+
Recurring industry partners
A recurring leadership convening since 2012

Future. Destination. Brand. is the latest evolution of the Digital Tourism Think Tank's flagship annual event for senior destination marketing leadership, a tradition that has now run continuously for 14 years.

2012 to 2019 · DTTT Global
Hosted in partnership with the local DMO across eight editions: four years in Barcelona (Catalan Tourist Board), two years in Brussels (visit.brussels and Toerisme Vlaanderen) and two years in Helsinki (Helsinki Marketing and Espoo Marketing). Established the format of an annual senior gathering for European DMOs.
2016 · Brussels
143 delegates · 91 organisations
2017 · Brussels
210+ delegates · 120+ organisations
2019 · Helsinki
206 delegates · 115 organisations
2020 to 2022 · X. Festival
Three fully online editions through the pandemic period, gathering hundreds of tourism leaders virtually each year and maintaining the continuity of the convening when in-person events were not possible.
2023 to present · Future. Destination. Brand.
Reformatted as a tighter, in-person leadership summit focused on senior destination marketing decision-makers, supported by industry partners (Google, Bloomberg, Skyscanner, Airbnb) and the X. Awards evening. While recent editions have been deliberately tighter in scale, the underlying community continues to grow through DTTT's wider programme.

Recurring participating organisations across multiple editions include Tourism Ireland, Fáilte Ireland, VisitBritain, VisitDenmark, Visit Sweden, Visit Norway, Visit Finland, Visit Greenland, Visit Faroe Islands, Marketing Greece, Catalan Tourist Board, Vienna Tourist Board, Wonderful Copenhagen, Helsinki Marketing, Aruba Tourism Authority, Singapore Tourism Board, Skyscanner, Sojern and Switzerland Tourism — among many others.

2026 — returning to scale
With Fáilte Ireland as host partner, the addition of the EU Presidency Executive Briefing and the Dublin tech ecosystem, the 2026 edition is structured to return to the scale of the pre-pandemic editions — projected at 150 to 200 senior delegates at the main programme, plus 30 to 40 NTO CEOs and ministerial-level participants in the Executive Briefing. The X. Awards evening returns as the social programme on Day 1.
The FDB era · 2023 to 2025
Edition · 2023
London
Brand Impact and AI-Generated Storytelling
Venues Google & Skyscanner offices
Format Summit + Roundtables + X. Awards
Senior delegates 90+
Organisations 60
Co-hosts & partners Google, Skyscanner, YouGov, TXGB
Edition · 2024
London
Building Brands in the Attention Economy
Venues Bloomberg & Skyscanner offices
Format Summit + Roundtables + X. Awards
Senior delegates 135+
Organisations 75
Co-host Bloomberg Media
Edition · 2025
Barcelona
The Rural Advantage — Brand in an AI-Mediated World
Venues Talent Garden + Catalan Pyrenees
Format Summit + Workstreams + Retreat + X. Awards
Senior delegates 85+
Organisations 45
Headline partner Airbnb (Rural Renaissance)

Delegate figures reflect senior in-person attendance at the core summit programme. They exclude DTTT staff, speakers, observers and X. Awards-only guests, and do not capture the wider engagement reached through the event's published outputs and online programme.

Examples of the keynote programme

FDB's keynote stage has consistently brought senior practitioners onto the same programme as headline industry voices. A short selection from the last three editions:

2025 · Barcelona — selected sessions
Ireland's Shifting Brand Narrative — Tourism Ireland Helsinki Partners' Evolving Brand Visit Portugal — Consistency with Nuance Visit Benidorm — Taking Risks with AI Visit Norway's Fairytale Finder The Rural Advantage — DTTT & Airbnb Visit Faroe Islands — Vibing with the Algorithm Iceland's Brand Evolution — Business Iceland Trends Shaping 2026 — Skyscanner, Visit Sweden, Fáilte Ireland, Visit Greenland
2024 · London — selected sessions
Building Partnerships in the Attention Economy — Bloomberg Media Defining Impact — Tourism Ireland The Essence of a Brand — DCT Abu Dhabi Reimagining Tourism & Technology — Airbnb Future Policy Agenda — Fáilte Ireland, NBTC, IFC The Media Impact of AI — Bloomberg Media Content Trends — Vienna Tourist Board Strategy vs Technology — VisitDenmark Redefining Destination Marketing — Visit Sweden Sustainable Tourism — GNTO, Wonderful Copenhagen, Bloomberg, Visit Greenland
2023 · London — selected sessions
Capture Attention Through Video Creative — Google Storytelling With Purpose — Destination Canada Cost of Living & Consumer Behaviour — YouGov Running a Successful Co-Op Model — Google & Skyscanner Global Trends — Skyscanner Omni-Channel Content — Fáilte Ireland Marketing Greece — Promoting Hidden Gems The Transformation of VisitNorway.com Driving Innovation — Austrian National Tourist Office Generative AI for Marketing — Vienna Tourist Board
The destinations FDB convenes

Across three editions, FDB has convened senior representatives from Europe's leading National Tourism Organisations and the most active city, regional and rural destinations on the continent. The event has consistently drawn senior decision-makers — CMOs, marketing directors, heads of digital, heads of brand, heads of content — alongside CEOs from smaller destinations.

National tourism organisations
VisitBritain Tourism Ireland Fáilte Ireland Visit Sweden Visit Norway VisitDenmark Visit Greenland Visit Faroe Islands Visit Hungary Marketing Greece Spanish Tourist Office Atout France German National Tourist Office Austrian National Tourist Office VisitFlanders Slovenian Tourist Board Croatian National Tourist Board Latvia Travel Enterprise Estonia Switzerland Tourism Turismo de Portugal Business Iceland Luxembourg for Tourism Moroccan Tourism Board Aruba Tourism Authority Destination Canada Singapore Tourism Board DCT Abu Dhabi Tourism Western Australia
City and capital destinations
London & Partners Vienna Tourist Board Wonderful Copenhagen Visit Stockholm Visit Oslo Helsinki Partners Visit Tallinn This is Athens Catalan Tourist Board Visit Antwerp Visit Düsseldorf Budapest Brand Stockholm Business Region Visit Glasgow NewcastleGateshead Initiative Maastricht Marketing Donostia San Sebastián Malaga City Council Istanbul Tourism Cape Town Tourism
Regional and rural destinations
Visit West Visit Essex Visit England Marketing Lancashire Highlands & Islands Enterprise Promote Shetland Argyll & the Isles Visit Arran Visit Tampere Visit Turku Archipelago Smålands Turism Visit Dalarna Region Stavanger Visit Dolomiti Paganella Trentino Marketing MarketingOost Noordwijk Marketing Normandy Tourism Shakespeare's England Visit Tunbridge Wells Visit Benidorm
Industry brands and platforms participating across editions

Beyond destinations, FDB consistently brings senior representatives from the world's most influential travel, technology and media platforms into the room. Several have served as co-hosts or headline keynote contributors, recognising the event as the meeting point for senior destination marketing leadership in Europe.

Co-hosts and headline keynote partners
Google · 2023 co-host Skyscanner · 2023 & 2024 co-host Bloomberg Media · 2024 co-host Airbnb · 2025 partner (Rural Renaissance) YouGov · 2023 partner TXGB · 2023 partner
Other technology, media and travel platforms participating
Sojern easyJet On the Beach TUI Group Hilton Clicktripz Brainlabs MMGY Global Ogilvy FINN Partners Core Optimisation IFC (World Bank Group) Casa Batlló Royal Mint Experience / Red Sea Global Transport for London
Why this matters for 2026
Google, Skyscanner, Bloomberg and Airbnb have each played co-host or headline keynote roles in recent editions. With Dublin's status as European headquarters for Google, Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic, the 2026 edition has unprecedented potential to bring this calibre of headline contributor into a leadership conversation alongside Europe's senior destination figures, with Fáilte Ireland's existing relationships unlocking access that would otherwise be difficult to secure.
Contact

Nick Hall · CEO, Digital Tourism Think Tank

nick.hall@thinkdigital.travel · +44 20 7193 1003