The Douro, Portugal – August 15, 2011: Image captured from the road some kilometers to the west of Oporto, the image shows the Douro river and his vinyards.

The winners were announced during the Award ceremony that took place virtually on 22nd October

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.

The full list of winners:

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)

 

About the project

The Project “Revival of industrial heritage for tourism development” was implemented under INTERREG Estonia – Latvia cross-border programme 2014-2020 and we ensured that 25 objects in Estonia and Latvia were improved and giving them a new life. In addition, there was established a joint route to demonstrate the industrial heritage and unite all the industrial heritage objects as well as represent other industrial heritage sites.

More information on project:

FBhttps://www.facebook.com/industrialheritagefortourism/

YThttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6haTXsbz3aLX4XagCT0jfw

                                            Est-Lat home pagehttps://estlat.eu/en/estlat-results/industrial-heritage.html

Information prepared by:

Jana Kalve,
Kurzeme planning region
the “Industrial Heritage” Project manager
mob. +371 29524558,
e-mail: jana.kalve@kurzemesregions.lv,
www.kurzemesregions.lv

The above reflects author’s views and the Managing Authority of Estonia-Latvia Programme is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.