Winners of Destination of Sustainable Cultural Tourism Awards 2020 celebrated

The 2020 Destination of Sustainable Cultural Tourism Awards Ceremony took place online for the very first time on 22 October. This edition revolved around the theme ‘Special interest tourism development and promotion based on Cultural Heritage’. It was organised by the European Cultural Tourism Network (ECTN) in partnership with Europa Nostra, the European Travel Commission and NECSTouR, supported by ‘The Phoenicians’ and ‘Iter Vitis’ Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe.

The Douro, Portugal – The image shows the Douro river and his vineyards.

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 Awards contest was open to tourist destinations across Europe, to showcase their work in favour of sustainable cultural tourism across five categories.

The winners and runners-up were selected by the Jury – composed of representatives of ECTN, Europa Nostra, the European Travel Commission, NECSTouR, the Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission, the Phoenicians’ Cultural Route and Iter Vitis Cultural Route – out of over 40 applications received from 16 countries (including 4 non-EU countries in Europe). Among the Jury, Europa Nostra was represented by Piet Jaspaert, Vice-President, and Jimmy Jamar, Head of the Brussels Office.

Piet Jaspaert, Vice-President of Europa Nostra and Chair of the Jury, closed the Ceremony with the ECTN President, Raitis Sijats.

The Awards Ceremony was preceded by the ECTN Annual Conference and this year’s theme was “Post-pandemic recovery of European Tourism through Culture, Heritage and Creativity”. Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailović, Secretary General of Europa Nostra, called for a stronger recognition of the prime importance of cultural heritage for a sustainable recovery of tourism, one of the sectors that has been hardest hit by Covid-19, and pleaded to make sure that sustainable cultural tourism and cultural heritage are active contributors in the “green, digital and resilient” recovery of Europe in the aftermath of the pandemic.

The full list of winners by category can be found below:

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

Watch the video recording of the Ceremony here.
Watch the video recording of the ECTN Annual Conference here (part 1) and here (part 2).

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