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European Destinations of Excellence

Mme Francesca Tudini, Policy Officer - Task Manager - Cultural heritage, regional issues, innovation, specific forms of tourism (EDEN)

1) What is the reason to create this Pilot Project in the area of Tourism?

In 2006 the pilot project “European Destinations of Excellence” (EDEN) was launched by the European Commission as a means of initiating a Community action in support of European tourism. In December 2007 the pilot project was transformed by the Budget Authority into a 3-year preparatory action.
The broad aim of the preparatory action is to draw attention to the value, diversity and shared characteristics of European tourist destinations and to promote destinations where the economic growth objective is pursued in such a way as to ensure the social, cultural and environmental sustainability of tourism. The measure will also help European citizens to become better acquainted with one another.

• enhance visibility of the emerging European tourist destinations of excellence, especially the lesser known
• create awareness of Europe\'s tourist diversity and quality
• promoting all European countries and regions
• help de congestion, combat seasonality, rebalance the tourist flows towards the non-traditional destinations
• award sustainable forms of tourism
• create a platform for the exchange of good practices at European level
• and to promote networking between awarded destinations which could persuade other destinations to adopt sustainable tourism development mode.




2) Will this project lead to the creation of a specific program? Why hasn’t the EC established a specific program since the pilot project has been created?



Following a final evaluation of the project, in consultation with participating States the Commission will make a proposal for a possible continuation of the project. For the moment being it is foreseen to continue under a more structured program of the Tourism Unit for 2011 with terms that are yet to be decided.




3) To what type of organization is the project intended to? What is the budget allocated to its action?



The credits aim at:
1) Supporting EU Member States National administrations to select their destinations of excellence (via a grant programme with a budget of 1M) and
2) Communication activities, to raise awareness of the EDEN project among the general public, and networking activities, to spread knowledge of good practice on sustainable tourism (2M budget)




4) Is this project only intended to Member States? If yes, do you plan on introducing other countries?



The budget for the grant is reserved to the Member States but Candidate countries (Croatia, Iceland, and Turkey) and EFTA Countries are invited to participate and their winning destinations will benefit from the Commission activities at the same conditions as the winning destinations of the EU Member States.




5) Do winning destinations enjoy from a promotion campaign from the European Commission once rewarded?



Besides the co-financing of the selection procedures in the participating countries, the Commission invests in a variety of communication activities. The communication instruments used so far for the promotion of EDEN include: yearly organisation of the EDEN Awards Ceremony and production of the promotional materials (logo, audiovisual material, press packs, information leaflets, posters, gadgets, etc) that have been disseminated through the internet, pan-European media companies and at the occasion of major events such as the European Tourism Forums. The next communication campaign will add new activities such as participation in international fairs with an EDEN stand and visibility on TV. An EDEN portal is continuously been updated to provide the public with more information on the winning destinations.