This contribution brings into focus a well-known challenge in Denmark and other tourism destinations: Small and medium sized rural tourism businesses are challenged by the level of managerial and staff competences and skills especially regarding guest service, networking, and the use of data.

A national and local funded project running from 2022-2024 at a north-western coastal destination in Denmark should give insights and solutions to the challenges among the small and medium sized rural tourism businesses. This contribution serves as an introduction to the project and the methods used to a) identify and analyse the competences and skills among the small and medium sized businesses, b) develop activities to improve the competences and skills, and c) the implementation of a local tourism academy managed by the local DMO Destination Limfjorden.