The ‘Destination of Sustainable Cultural Tourism’ Awards enhance the visibility of European cultural tourism destinations, create a platform for sharing experience and knowledge and promotes networking between destinations. The theme of this year’s edition of Awards was ‘Special interest tourism development and promotion based on Cultural Heritage’. The Awards contest was open to tourist destinations across Europe, to showcase their results and outputs in sustainable cultural tourism under five selected categories.
The winners and runners-up were selected by the Jury (composed of representatives of ECTN, the European Travel Commission, Europa Nostra, NECSTouR,the Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, European Commission, the Phoenicians’ Cultural Route and Iter Vitis Cultural Route), out of over 40 applications received from 16 countries (including 4 non-EU). On behalf of ETC, Ms Marina Šimun, Director of International Affairs and Representative Office Network Division at the Croatian National Tourist Board, announced during the ceremony the results for Category 4 – Transnational thematic tourism products, including Cultural Routes.
INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE
1st Prize:
Alūksne Bānītis station Multimedia Expo
by Aluksne Tourism Information center, Latvia
2nd Prize:
Hg Smelting Plant – Heritage of Mercury
by Idrija Mercury Heritage Management Centre, Slovenia
3rd Prize:
Līgatne Paper – Mill workers village
by Culture and Tourism Centre of Līgatne municipality, Latvia
Special mention:
Industrial Heritage Tour Across Budapest
by Budapest Festival and Tourism Centre, Hungary
MARITIME, COASTAL AND AQUATIC HERITAGE
1st Prize:
Via Francigena of the South
by European Association of the Via Francigena ways EAVF, Italy
2nd Prize:
Towering Tales of the Sea Exhibition
by Foundation Estonian Maritime Museum, Estonia
3rd Prize:
Araisi Lake Fortress
by Amata Municipality, Latvia
INNOVATION & DIGITISATION FOR SUSTAINABLE CULTURAL TOURISM TOWARDS SMART DESTINATIONS
1st Prize:
BlueMed Underwater Museums and Knowledge Awareness Centers
by Region of Thessaly, Greece
2nd Prize:
Tholos VR Theatre
by Foundation of the Hellenic World, Greece
3rd Prize:
Museo do Côa
by Côa Park Fundation, Portugal
Special mention:
Aphrodite smart interpretation
by Kouklia Community Council, Cyprus
Special Mention:
Rota do Românico [Route of the Romanesque]
by VALSOUSA | Associação de Municípios do Vale do, Portugal
TRANSNATIONAL THEMATIC TOURISM PRODUCTS, INCLUDING CULTURAL ROUTES
1st Prize:
Historic Cafés in the Iberian Peninsula
by Associação dos Cafés com História de Portugal (Portuguese Historic Cafés Association), Portugal and Spain
2nd Prize:
Vilar Formoso
by Câmara Municipal de Almeida, Portugal
WINE TOURISM
1st Prize:
Vineyard Retreats
by The vineyard cottages consortium, Slovenia
Joint 2nd Prize:
Wine Routes of Moldova
by National Inbound Tourism Association of Moldova (ANTRIM), Moldova
Joint 2nd Prize:
Armenian Ancient Viticulture and Winemaking Traditions Revival
by Areni-1 Cave Scientific-Research Foundation, Armenia
The organizers of the Awards would like to thank all the jury members for their hard work put in the evaluation process:
Anne Grady, European Commission, DG EAC
Raitis Sijats, ECTN
Nasos Hadjigeorgiou, ECTN
Kristjan Staničić, ETC
Eduardo Santander, ETC
Jimmy Jamar, Europa Nostra
Piet Jaspaert, Europa Nostra
Patrick Torrent, NECSTouR
Emanuela Panke, Iter Vitis Cultural Route (only for Category 5)
Antonio Barone, Phoenicians’ Cultural Route (only for Category 2)
