European Destinations of Excellence (EDEN)
This is an initiative to promote emerging destinations and sustainable tourism.
It involves an annual competition to select an emerging tourist “destination of excellence” in each participating country (EU and candidate countries) – based on commitment to social, cultural and environmental sustainability.
The winners join the EDEN Network, where they can share good practice with their counterparts across Europe.
As the selected destinations are emerging, little-known destinations, EDEN helps to:
- raise awareness of sustainable practices across the EU
- turn these places into year-round venues
- de-congest over-visited tourist destinations
- encourage dialogue among stakeholders
Each annual competition has a theme, chosen jointly by the Commission and the relevant national tourism authorities:
- 2007 - Rural tourism
- 2008 - Intangible heritage
- 2009 - Protected areas
- 2010 - Aquatic tourism
- 2011 - Regeneration of physical sites
- 2013 - Accessible tourism
In 2012 the EDEN network members established an international non-profit organisation, the EDEN Network Association (AISBL), as an arena for best practice sharing at European level, international marketing and common project implementation between the winning destinations and the runners-up.
EDEN Website:
EDEN video :
- EDEN 2011 on YouTube (for mobile devices not supporting flash)
EDEN on FaceBook :
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