Digital twins have emerged as a transformative technology in city planning and development, offering significant potential for enhancing operational efficiency, transparency, and stakeholder engagement in urban settings. Digital twins are digital entities that reflect physical entities' behavior rules, continuously updating throughout their lifecycle. A core aspect of digital twins is their role in developing smart cities and supporting place attractiveness.

This paper and work-in-progress investigates how stakeholder involvement in digital twinning can enhance place attractiveness and expand participation in urban development. Specifically, it addresses the following research questions:

In what ways can digital twinning and stakeholder-oriented design enhance place attractiveness?How does municipal governance impact the efficiency and outcomes of digital twinning projects and urban design?The study advances the shift from digital twins as a product to digital twinning as a process, driving the evolution of digital twins into intelligent platforms. This approach allows for dynamic and interactive representations of urban areas, facilitating more inclusive and detailed stakeholder engagement.

The municipality of Trollhättan, Sweden, serves as the focal point in the presented case study, exploring the benefits of digital twinning in enhancing entrepreneurship and place attractiveness. As part of the city's digitalization strategy, the city's 3D map is leveraged to create engaging and interactive experiences for visitors and residents. Empirical insights on the challenges and opportunities of implementing digital twins/twinning were gathered through workshops with various stakeholders, including students, real estate agents, and business entrepreneurs.

The empirical results support the idea that digital twinning, especially a stakeholder-oriented design, can improve place attractiveness in several ways. By involving citizens, businesses and organizations in urban planning, municipalities can ensure that digital twin projects align with society's needs and preferences. For example, place attractiveness can be increased through realistic visualizations, integration of community resources, customizable features, and adding historical layers to the digital twin. The study shows that digital twinning offers significant opportunities to improve urban planning and citizen dialogue.