Across the DOT.Rural partner territories, local curriculum workshops have brought together DMOs, tourism operators, local development organisations and rural tourism stakeholders to collect insights directly from those working every day in rural destinations.

The workshops are part of the curriculum development process and represent an important step in making sure that the future DOT.Rural training modules respond to concrete needs, practical challenges and real opportunities emerging from local contexts.

From Slovenia to Ireland, Bulgaria, Latvia, Germany and Italy, partners collected valuable inputs on what rural tourism actors expect from digital training. The discussions highlighted the need for accessible contents, practical tools, real-life examples and learning paths that can be applied in the daily work of small destinations and tourism businesses.

Each territory brought a different perspective: the importance of starting from the basics of digitalisation, the need for rural-first digital marketing, the value of ready-to-use templates and case studies, the importance of making data simple and useful, the potential of responsible AI tools, and the role of visitor experiences rooted in local identity.

These local voices will now feed into the development of the DOT.Rural training modules, helping the partnership build a curriculum that is practical, relevant and shaped by the territories it is designed to support.