Lesvos Wins EDEN Award

Lesvos Island received the award for top sustainable tourism destination in Greece for 2009 in the European Commission’s third “European Destinations of Excellence” (EDEN) project.

According to the tourism ministry, Lesvos was chosen out of 18 candidate Greek destinations that participated in this year’s competition, which had the theme “Tourism and the protected areas.”

Lesvos was chosen mainly for the protected area that surrounds the island’s Petrified Forest.

Destinations that qualify for the EDEN project are those protected areas and/or the areas bordering them where an economically viable tourism product has been developed using the protected area as an asset, all the while respecting its protected environment and meeting the needs of local residents and visitors.

The tourist destinations that have emerged through EDEN will be screened on a national level through the ministry’s website and on a European level through promotional actions of the European Commission.

The winners of this year’s EDEN project will be officially awarded and made public in autumn 2009.