Excellent places for excellent holidays

As European Commission officials head off for excellent holiday destinations around the world this summer, a few may be heading to European places that have been officially designated as a ‘destination of excellence’.

The European Commission is promoting ‘destinations of excellence’ as part of an effort to highlight places that might otherwise remain off the radar-screen. Destinations within the European Union compete for the title under different criteria each year. The 2006 theme was "best emerging rural destination". This year’s theme is "intangible heritage" and the title will be awarded to regions that have made efforts to highlight their unique cultural heritage. The awards are to be given out at the European Tourism Forum, to be held in the Algarve region of Portugal in October.

Last year’s competition was the first trial of the programme. Member states each hold an intra-country competition for the ‘destination of excellence’ title. The Commission puts up a €35,000 grant to match a contribution from the national government.

Winning ‘destinations of excellence’ from each country will be featured through Community tourism promotion programmes, such as the tourism portal www.visiteurope.com.

The nine member states holding competitions this year are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia and Malta, plus candidate country Croatia. No overall EU winner is chosen because the goal of the programme is not to single out the best destination, but to create a network of European ‘destinations of excellence’ within the given category. Destinations may join the networks in a given category even after the competition has taken place, as long as they fit the criteria.

As European Commission officials head off for excellent holiday destinations around the world this summer, a few may be heading to European places that have been officially designated as a ‘destination of excellence’.