UNTWO to choose Best Tourism Villages in 2022

The Ministry of Tourism and Sports invites all interested parties to apply to UNWTO’s choice of “Best Tourism Villages” until 15 June 2022, via e-mail mintcz@mints.hr The UNWTO initiative “Best Tourism Villages” started in 2021 as part of the activity of improving the role of rural tourism, and the UNWTO member states are invited to apply up to three candidates/villages (municipalities) that will present their locations as promoters of sustainable change in the social, economic and environmental aspect.

The initiative includes three pillars and two awards, which are:

1. 'Best Tourism Village by UNWTO' Label that will be awarded to villages that are an exceptional example of rural tourism and are dedicated to sustainability in all forms - economic, social and environmental.
2. 'Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO' Upgrade Programme that will assist a select number of villages among those that do not fully meet the criteria to obtain the recognition. The villages receive support from UNWTO and Partners in improving problematic areas. 
3. “Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO’ Network provides a space for exchanging experiences and good practices, learning and creating new chances of improvement. It includes representatives of the villages recognized as ‘Best Tourism Village by UNWTO’ as well as those participating in the Upgrade Programme (point 2) and it will benefit from the contributions of experts, public and private sector partners engaged in the promotion of tourism for rural development.

The Ministry of Tourism and Sports will establish a Committee which will select three candidates that will represent the Republic of Croatia, and the candidates will be evaluated based on the quality of the responses that were submitted in the application form and the quality of attachments. The Ministry of Tourism and Sports will forward the selected candidates with the highest average evaluation to UNWTO, and the official announcement of chosen and awarded villages will follow in one of the upcoming international UNWTO events.
 
Let us not forget that last year Croatia submitted three candidates - Motovun, Vižinada and Kaštelir Labinice, that received recognition and were included in the Upgrade Programme.
 
All the necessary information about the competition can be found at the following link: https://www.unwto.org/tourism-villages/en/the-initiative/

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