Portuguese American Journal

Travel: Azores named best European sustainable destination – Award

An international panel has presented the Azores, again, with the QualityCoast Gold Award as the best European most sustainable holiday destination.

The award was announced Monday, in Gozo, Malta, at the Year on Coastal Tourism event, during the 6th edition of European Maritime Day Conference.

The QualityCoast Awards are considered a most prestigious international honor aimed to assisting tourism operators promoting sustainable destinations.

The awards recognize efforts that contribute to sustainable tourism that maintain local identity, natural and cultural heritage, scenic beauty and clean environment.

Last year, the Azores were bestowed with the same award. Two years ago, they were the recipients of the QualityCoast 2011 Bronze award together with Madeira.

QualityCoast is the largest international certification program for sustainable tourism destinations. Since 2007, already 125 tourism destinations in 23 countries have been selected for a QualityCoast Award.

The QualityCoast Program is run by the European Coastal & Marine Union (EUCC), supported by the European Union. The QualityCoast Top 100 is the result of extensive research and a rigorous assessment of nearly 1,000 coastal and island destinations, according to 120 indicators in 20 different criteria.

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