ETC: Applications Open for Destination of Sustainable Cultural Tourism Awards 2024

Applications have opened for the Destination of Sustainable Cultural Tourism Awards 2024, the European Travel Commission (ETC) recently announced.

In its seventh year, the awards encourage the development of sustainable cultural tourism practices in European destinations.

The theme of this year’s edition of Destination of Sustainable Cultural Tourism Awards is “European Collaboration for Smart and Sustainable Cultural Tourism Destinations”.

The awards will be given to cultural tourist destinations which have produced significant results such as enhancing the visitor experience, respecting traditions and involving local communities.

Applications are open to all tourist destinations across Europe, national, regional and local authorities, tourism boards and associations, destination management organizations, museums, interpretation centres, cultural routes, festivals and cultural NGOs.

The candidates are invited to showcase results concerning sustainable cultural tourism, under one of the following five categories:

– Accessibility to Heritage, both physical and intellectual (in partnership with ENAT – European Network for Accessible Tourism).
– Intangible Heritage, including Festivals, performing arts, music, dance, theatre, visual arts, handicrafts, traditional trades.
– Digitalisation advances in Smart and Sustainable Cultural Tourism
– Transnational Thematic Tourism Products, including European Cultural Routes, European Heritage Label networks and/or cross-border cultural tourism initiatives (involving at least two European countries, not necessarily neighbouring)
– Coastal and Maritime Heritage for Sustainable Cultural Tourism

Applicants must submit their application by filling in the form on the online platform by June 1 at 23:59 CEST.

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony, which will take place during the 17th International Conference for Cultural Tourism. The event will be organized by the European Cultural Tourism Network (ECTN) during October 23-26 in Dublin, Ireland, as an acknowledgement of the award as “European Capital of Smart Tourism 2024”.

The Destination of Sustainable Cultural Tourism Awards are organized by the ETC in partnership with the ECTN, Europa Nostra and the Network of European Regions for Competitive and Sustainable Tourism (NECSTouR).