Brussels, 15th November 2018 Since 2009, European Best Destinations, has promoted culture and tourism in Europe to millions of travellers but also to tourism professionals and the media. Thanks to a partnership with more than 300 tourism offices in Europe and the EDEN Network created by the European Commission, thanks to your trust and cooperation, European Best Destinations is, for the seventh year in a row, the most visited website dedicated to travel in Europe. Travellers increasingly vote for these competitions and consult these rankings. They come from USA, UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland,...all of them looking for the best ski resorts for their holidays in Europe. We would like to thank all the participants, the directors of Tourist Offices, Community Managers, Communication Managers and Press Officers, as well as the media, bloggers, radio, television, influencers and the more than 6 million travellers who follow us. Our competitions for the European Best Destinations of the year, European Best Christmas Markets, European Best Beaches, Most Romantic destinations, and European Best Ski Resorts have become the most important tourism competitions in Europe; they bring together millions of travellers who support and discover the most beautiful destinations in Europe. They also have an impact in "real life" with significant growth of tourists for our rewarded destinations with + 16% in growth of tourism for Porto rewarded in 2017, + 13% for Bordeaux rewarded in 2015, + 25% for Zadar rewarded in 2016 as well as tens of millions of media coverage. Like every year the competition was fierce with only 10 days of online votes from 5th to 15th November to determine the ranking of the best Ski Resorts in Europe, that will be promoted throughout the year to millions of travellers and will be able to display the title "Best European Ski Resorts". 16 must-see Ski Resorts in competition to win the prestigious title of Best Ski Resort in Europe: Avoriaz, Alpe d Huez, Zermatt, Chamonix Mont-Blanc, Crans-Montana, Kitzbühel, La Plagne, Livigno, Skicircus Saalbach Hinterglemm, Saint Sorlin-d Arves, SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental, Val Gardena, Courchevel, Cervinia Valtournenche, Verbier, St Anton am Arlberg.
HERE ARE SOME IMPORTANT FIGURES: This year we broke three records : The voting page ski.ebdest.in has been shared more than 55,000 times on Social Networks This competition gathered 126,689 voters from 103 countries. Never a winning destination had received so many votes: 22,689 votes! Voters come to 62% of Europe and 38% outside Europe. The voting and result page www.europeanbestdestinations/ski is ranked first on Google, about "Ski resorts Europe" giving a massive visibility to the awarded destinations throughout the year. Travellers from the United Kingdom love Alpe d'huez ski resort with more than one vote out of 3. 42% travellers from the USA voted for Livigno, their favourite ski resort in Europe. Kitzbühel is Australian travellers favourite resort. 1 in 4 Belgians voted for Alpe d'huez as their favourite ski resort, followed by Livigno and Crans Montana. Canadian travellers 3 favourite ski resorts are Alpe d'huez, Skiwelt and Val Gardena German travellers put SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser - Brixental on top of the podium, followed closely by Kitzbühel and Skicircus Saalbach. The top 3 of Irish travellers is: Livigno, Alpe d'huez, SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser - Brixental. Japanese travellers s favourite ski resort is Alpe d'huez, followed by Crans Montana and Kitzbühel. The Norwegians vote massively in favour of Cervinia-Valtournenche followed by Skicircus Saalbach and St Anton am Arlberg. Spanish travellers voted for Alpe d'huez as their favourite resort, followed by Kitzbühel and Crans Montana. Discover the 15 favourite Ski resorts selected by travellers. They will be promoted throughout the year to millions of travellers on all our networks as well as THE Ski Resort winning the European Best Ski Resort 2019 competition.
15. CHAMONIX-MONT-BLANC On the 15th position, with 2,084 votes, Chamonix-Mont-Blanc was voted among the 15 best ski resorts in Europe!
14. ST ANTON AM ARLBERG On the 14th position, with 3,003 votes, St Anton am Arlberg was voted among the 15 best ski resorts in Europe!
13. COURCHEVEL On the 13th position, with 3,028 votes, Courchevel was voted among the 15 best ski resorts in Europe!
12. ZERMATT On the 12th position, with 3,682 votes, Zermatt was voted among the 15 best ski resorts in Europe!
11. VAL GARDENA On the 11th position, with 5,248 votes, Val Gardena was voted among the 15 best ski resorts in Europe!
10. SAINT-SORLIN D ARVES On the 10th position, with 5,302 votes, Saint-Sorlin d Arves was voted among the 10 best ski resorts in Europe!
9. AVORIAZ On the 9th position, with 6,110 votes, Avoriaz was voted among the 10 best ski resorts in Europe!
8. CERVINIA-VALTOURNENCHE On the 8th position, with 6,523 votes, Cervinia-Valtournenche was voted among the 10 best ski resorts in Europe!
7. LA PLAGNE On the 7th position, with 7,256 votes, La Plagne was voted among the 10 best ski resorts in Europe!
6. Skicircus Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang Fieberbrunn On the 6th position, with 8,427 votes, Skicircus Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang Fieberbrunn was voted among the 10 best ski resorts in Europe!
5. CRANS MONTANA On the 5th position, with 10,022 votes, Crans Montana was voted among the 5 best ski resorts in Europe!
4. KITZBÜHEL On the 4th position, with 10,089 votes, Kitzbühel was voted among the 5 best ski resorts in Europe!
3. SKIWELT WILDER KAISER BRIXENTAL On the 3rd position, with 14,555 votes, SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser Brixental was voted among the 3 best ski resorts in Europe!
2. LIVIGNO On the 2nd position, with 17,821 votes, Livigno was voted among the 2 best ski resorts in Europe!
1. ALPE D HUEZ On the 1st position, with 22,689 votes, Alpe d Huez elected European Best Ski Resort 2019! CONGRATULATIONS!
RESULTS 15. Chamonix-Mont-Blanc : 2084 votes 14. St Anton am Arlberg : 3003 votes 13. Courchevel : 3028 votes 12. Zermatt : 3682 votes 11. Val Gardena : 5248 votes 10. Saint-Sorlin d'arves : 5302 votes 9. Avoriaz : 6110 votes 8. Cervinia-Valtournenche : 6523 votes 7. La Plagne : 7256 votes 6. Skicircus Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang Fieberbrunn: 8427 votes 5. Crans-Montana : 10022 votes 4. Kitzbühel : 10089 votes 3. SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser Brixental : 14555 votes 2. Livigno : 17821 votes 1. Alpe d Huez : 22689 votes
BENEFITS The 2019 best Ski Resort will be authorized to use the title and affix the "European Best Ski Resort logo on all its communications, adverts, website and photos; it will also have the right to authorize its own public and private partners to use the logo. The Ski Resorts in our Top 15 can also use the logo by indicating that they have been chosen as one of the best Ski Resorts in Europe; we will share their news, photos and videos throughout the year via our website to + 5,5 million travellers and via our major social networks. USE OF LOGO EUROPEAN BEST DESTINATIONS Porto, Bordeaux, Zadar, Wroclaw (European Best Destination 2015/2016/2017/2018 winners) and Zagreb (European Best Christmas Market 2018 winner) have integrated the logo into their website, videos, paper communications (city maps, brochures, flags ) and communicated it to tourism professionals (hotels, airport, airlines) who all proudly feature the logo on their websites. As an awarded Ski Resort of this top 15 you can already download your logo on: www.europeanbestdestinations.com/about-1/download/
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SUBSTANTIAL MEDIA COVERAGE The election of the European Best destinations receives substantial coverage right across all the various media in Europe. The main national newspapers, specialist press, blogs, specialized sites, television and social networks etc ensure that the winning city and the other top destinations are fully covered (1,120 press articles for the competition European Best Destination 2018 and + 70 million media coverage for our members destinations since 2009). This election generates a great deal of interest for various reasons. First of all it gives European travellers a voice by casting their vote. Secondly, it is organized by an independent organization. THE AWARD "EUROPEAN BEST DESTINATION" ESTIMATED AT 10 MILLION EUROS ACCORDING TO AN INDEPENDENT STUDY OF THE MULTINATIONAL "CISION" (IN TERMS OF MEDIA COVERAGE).
THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT US Mr Rui Moreira, the Mayor of Porto: "Such a media coverage is of considerable value and demonstrates that it is possible to mobilize the communication and people about good causes. People usually mobilize about protests or negative causes. In this case, we have proved that we can mobilize the media and a whole city about a positive cause which benefits everyone by leading tens of thousands of people to vote online in a European election, at low cost." ITW of Nicolas Martin, Executive Director Bordeaux Tourism : The year was exceptional in terms of tourism growth with an increase of 10.7% in international arrivals in Bordeaux Merignac Airport (source GDS / Forward Keys) or of 12.26% in hotels progression of Revenue per room (RevPar) for all categories (source MKG). Most nationalities are increasing, especially this year European travellers (British, Spanish, German, Swiss, Belgian, Italian...). It is undeniable that the fact of being elected European Best Destination 2015 has contributed to this result, press fallouts after winning this title have been global and massive.
OUR ACTIONS European Best Destinations is a European organization based in Brussels and developed to promote culture and tourism in Europe. In partnership with the participating tourism offices and the EDEN Network we promote a better understanding of the wealth, diversity and quality of European destinations. Speaking to an audience of e-citizens, European Best Destinations plays an important role in promoting Europe as the number one destination in the world. It has become the meeting place for tourism offices and world travellers, a main gateway to the discovery of Europe. Since 2009 EBD has been working with major tourism offices in Europe to reward and highlight the most visited destinations via its website and social networks (+5,5 million visitors and thousands of followers on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ Pinterest and 70,000,000 euros of media coverage).
We carry out the main tourism competitions in Europe and have been working with the European Commission for the promotion of sustainable tourism for 4 years. 80 EDEN-labelled destinations are promoted on the EBD website and we manage their communications.
DOWNLOAD THE OFFICIAL LOGOS AND SPREAD THE WORD! www.europeanbestdestinations.com/about-1/download/#ski
CONGRATULATIONS! Our warmest congratulations to the winner and all the participating destinations that will be promoted throughout the year to millions of travellers on all our networks. We thank you for your hard work throughout the year to make your ski resort one of the best ski resorts in Europe and from now on we invite you to validate your application for the title of European Best Ski Resort 2020 by email to m.cadiou@europeanbestdestinations.org CONTACT US Phone: 0032.494.92.02.54 press@europeanbestdestinations.com www.europeanbestdestinations.com