The EDEN - European Destinations of Excellence for 2017 were presented in Brussels on Thursday evening and all 18 destinations were also national winners in that category in each of their respective countries.
Congratulating Croatia on its award, HTZ director-general, Kristjan Stanicic underscored that Croatia was well-known in the world among other things for its exceptionally rich cultural and historical heritage.
The director of the Vukovar-Srijem County tourism board, Rujana Busic Srpak, received that award in Brussels on behalf of Croatia and underscored that Vukovar-Vucedol-Ilok was now one of the top cultural tourism destinations in Europe.
It is important that our destination will now be promoted via the European Commission network which will significantly contribute to the destinations recognisability and of Croatia overall, she added.
Busic Srpak on Friday signed the Brussels Declaration on a European Network of Destinations of Excellence and Sustainable Tourism which oblige EDEN destinations to cooperation and exchange of know-how and experiences and examples of good-practice.
EDEN is an initiative promoting sustainable tourism development models across the EU. The initiative is based on national competitions that take place every other year and result in the selection of a tourist 'destination of excellence' for each participating country with the objective of drawing attention to the values, diversity and common features of European tourist destinations.