The i-dest.com website officially launched on 15 January 2025. This summary presents the key events and development milestones of I-DEST’s first year in chronological order – from its launch to its international presence. Thank you to all the partners and users who helped shape I-DEST’s first year with us; we will continue to build on this foundation in the coming period.

Exactly one year ago, i-dest.com was launched with the ambition of supporting sustainable destination management with tangible, data-driven tools that can be applied in everyday practice. The past twelve months have been filled with intensive development, continuous learning, and expanding professional collaborations: together with destinations, tourism businesses, professional organisations, and international partners, we have shaped the I-DEST ecosystem.

This year was not only about technological advancements but also about building a community: workshops, pilots, international presentations, and new communication platforms have helped make I-DEST an understandable and useful tool for more and more stakeholders in an increasing number of countries. The multilingual dashboards, monitoring and benchmarking solutions, self-assessment tools for service providers, and the e-learning platform all serve the same purpose: to make sustainability not just an expectation but a measurable, developable, and communicable practice.

So, what has happened over the past year, and what developments are we currently using to support sustainable tourism on an international level?

January 2025: Test data upload – thanks to the Miskolc destination for being our partner in this. 

15 January 2025: The official launch of the i-dest.com website

22-23 January 2025: Two-day workshop with members of the Alföld Slow Association about the opportunities offered by I-DEST

17 April 2025: The internal dashboards of I-DEST are now available in 20 languages, and the public interface is accessible in virtually all languages.

23 April 2025: Our Standard Destinations Kit destination guide publication was completed, providing a detailed introduction to the destination opportunities offered by I-DEST.

May 2025: The CROSSDEST project partners, Hévíz, Sárvár, Murska Sobota, and Lendava destination management organisations, began professional testing of the platform.

4 May 2025: The I-DEST LinkedIn page was launched

20 May 2025: I-DEST made it to the top 10 start-ups at the PilotsINN Hungary start-up competition

25 May 2025: The first phase of the monitoring platform was completed, providing benchmarking tools for destinations and businesses.

29 June 2025: The I-DEST blog was launched

24 July 2025: A development on the service provider/destination dashboard was completed, enabling destination-level event calendar planning and joint communication with businesses, along with the completion of the second phase of the monitoring platform.

5 August 2025: The Hungarian version of the Standard Destinations Kit was completed, providing a detailed introduction to I-DEST’s services for destinations.

15 August 2025: I-DEST is now in use in six countries.

6 September 2025: The I-DEST World English-language Facebook page was launched

28-29 September 2025: I-DEST was introduced at the Green Destinations international conference in Montpellier

4 October 2025: The self-assessment platform for service providers was launched in 20 languages, enabling the measurement of the Sustainable Tourism Index for all businesses.

31 October 2025: The I-DEST e-learning platform was launched, offering online sustainable tourism training in three languages for those interested.

22 November 2025: We reported on sustainability research conducted with I-DEST at the National Strategy Research Institute’s conference in Székelyudvarhely.

15 January 2026: Currently, our database includes nearly 300 destinations and municipalities from 19 countries, of which 134 are accessible to the general public. Additionally, 157 attractions, 25 local producers, 8 hospitality venues, and 21 accommodations are available on the public interface – though the number of platform users is roughly three times this amount. 

The developments of the past year would not have been possible without the support of the CROSSDEST Slovenian-Hungarian INTERREG project and the continuous joint efforts of its project partners. Thank you!