Brussels, 27th November 2017 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 sixth year in a row, the most visited website dedicated to travel in Europe. For the fifth consecutive year we can also offer you the best visibility because we are leaders on the theme "Best ski resorts 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 4 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 17th to 27th 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". 20 must-see Ski Resorts in competition to win the prestigious title of Best Ski Resort in Europe : Avoriaz, Äre, Alpe d Huez, Chamonix Mont-Blanc, Crans-Montana, Les Contamines-Montjoie, Silvretta Arena, Gstaad, Kitzbühel, La Plagne, Le Grand Bornand, Livigno, Montgenèvre, Saalbach Hinterglemm, Saint Sorlin d Arves, SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental, Sölden, Valloire, Val Gardena, Val Thorens. Note : Ischgl and Engadin-Samnaun asked to compete together under the name of «Silvretta Arena».
Here are some important figures: The voting page ski.ebdest.in has been shared more than 21,000 times on Social Networks This competition gathered 119,228 voters from 92 countries. Voters come to 67% of Europe and 33% 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. Val Thorens and Val Gardena are the most voted ski resorts for Russian travellers Livigno is the most voted destination for American travellers as well as travellers from Czech Republic and Italy. UK travellers have selected Val Thorens, Alpe d'huez and Avoriaz as their three favourite ski resorts German travellers have voted for Saalbach Hinterglemm as their favourite ski resort (38,49%) a well as for Skiwelt Wilder Kaizer on the 2nd step (31,12%) 68% of the travellers from Finland voted for Saalbach Hinterglemm as their favourite ski resort Canadian travellers have voted for Alpe d'huez as their favourite ski resort (27,23%) as well as Brazilians (15,38%) We collected 3 votes from Seychelles (1 from Alpe d'huez, 1 for Val Thorens, 1 for Montgenèvre) no vote from the Vatican this year - the only vote from the Vatican was for Courchevelles in 2016. Montgenèvre is the 3rd most voted ski resorts by Italian travellers Kitzbühel is the best ski resort for Greek travellers 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 2018 competition.
Results 15. Chamonix Mont-Blanc : 2,658 votes 14. Saint Sorlin d Arves : 3,024 votes 13. Kitzbühel : 3,257 votes 12. Skiwelt Wilder Kaizer Brixental : 3,448 votes 11. Val Gardena : 3,983 votes 10. Contamines-Montjoie : 4,125 votes 9. Crans-Montana : 4,610 votes 8. Valloire : 5,555 votes 7. La Plagne : 5,646 votes 6. Saalbach-Hinterglemm : 5,876 votes 5. Avoriaz : 6,696 votes 4. Montgenèvre : 9,497 votes 3. Livigno : 14,808 votes 2. Alpe d Huez : 18,280 votes 1. Val Thorens : 20,472 votes
New awarded destinations Worldwide travellers have also voted for new thematic rankings and have selected their best snowboarding resorts, best family ski resorts, or even the best ski resorts for guaranteed snow in Europe! Best snowboarding resorts : https://www.europeanbestdestinations.com/best-of-europe/best-snowboarding-resorts-in-europe/ Best family ski resorts : https://www.europeanbestdestinations.com/best-of-europe/best-family-ski-resorts-in-europe/ Best ski resort for guaranteed snow: https://www.europeanbestdestinations.com/best-of-europe/best-ski-resorts-for-guaranteedsnow-in-europe/ Most Beautiful Ski Villages : https://www.europeanbestdestinations.com/best-of-europe/most-beautiful-ski-resorts-in-europe/ Most luxurious Ski Resorts : https://www.europeanbestdestinations.com/best-of-europe/luxurious-ski-resorts-in-europe/ Cheapest Ski Resorts in Europe : https://www.europeanbestdestinations.com/best-of-europe/cheapest-ski-resorts-in-europe/
Benefits The 2018 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 + 4,5 million travellers and via our major social networks (+90,000 followers). Use of logo European Best Destinations Porto, Bordeaux, Zadar (European Best Destination 2015/2016/2017 winners) and Zagreb (European Best Christmas Market 2017 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. Th e main national newspapers, specialist press, blogs, specialized sites, television and social networks etc ensure that the win ning city and the other top destinations are fully covered (920 press articles for the competition European Best Destination 2017 and + 60 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). 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.
They are talking about us Mr Rui Moreira, the Mayor of Porto says : "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 (+4 million visitors and thousands of followers on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ Pinterest and 60,000,000 euros of media coverage). We are proud to announce that we have all the main European Tourism offices on board and our footprint covers over 300 European Destinations: from Aachen to Zagreb! Worldwide travellers have access to the best photographs, videos, best tours and activities, travel guides, top things to do and the main social networks for over 300 destinations.
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 2019 by email to m.cadiou@europeanbestdestinations.org Contact us: Phone: 0032.494.92.02.54 press@europeanbestdestinations.com www.europeanbestdestinations.com