A Croatian island is one the best sustainable or ‘’green’’ destinations in the world.
At the largest travel trade show ITB Berlin, which is taking place from the 7th to the 11th of March 2018 in Berlin, Germany, the Best of Top 100 Awards Ceremony was held in the Awards Hall of ITB Berlin on the 7th of March.
From the Top 100 sustainable destinations, a Jury representing 12 international organizations selected 32 finalists.
In the category ‘’Best of the Planet – Best of Mediterranean’’ the Croatian island of Lošinj placed as the second right behind the Maltese island Gozo.
After the awarding ceremony for the Top 100 sustainable world destinations was successfully held in Portugal last September, the organizers Green Destinations, Travel Mole’s Vision on Sustainable Tourism and ITB Berlin offered an opportunity to all the Top 100 destinations in 2017 to show their sustainability and best practices to the world and to the media within the world’s largest tourist fair in Berlin.
‘’Sustainability has for years been a key advantage of Lošinj - the island of vitality, which has been implementing destination brand management since 2006. Quality cooperation with locals, numerous projects in the domain of sustainable cultural and health tourism as well as numerous investments were the preconditions for the development of year-round tourism in the destination. We also wanted to advance and to use European standards, thus, we were among the first in Croatia to join the European Commission project ETIS (European Tourism Indicators System) for sustainable destinations. Thanks to the quality communication of all partners in the destination, Lošinj can brag about even bigger recognition in the world as a sustainable tourism destination!’’, commented Dalibor Cvitković, the director of the Tourist Board of the Town of Mali Lošinj congratulating all the winners.
To enter the Top 100 Sustainable World Destinations it was necessary to meet the 15 major criteria that make a destination responsible and ‘green’ such as nature and landscape, climate and environment, culture and tradition, people and hospitality as well as sustainable destination management.
It is interesting to note that last month the specialized Food, Wine & Travel (FWT) magazine declared Lošinj the second best travel destination for 2018.