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European Capitals of Smart Tourism

Evaluation process

A shortlist of seven cities has been announced for the European Capitals of Smart Tourism 2023 competition. Representatives of the finalist cities will present their candidatures in front of the European Jury in the coming weeks.

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How are the winners selected?

> Evaluation Step 1 - Completed

All submitted, admissible and eligible applications were evaluated against a set of established criteria by a panel of independent experts. The evaluation by the independent experts determines which cities are the best performers in each category. Moreover, on the basis of their evaluation, the Commission establishes a short-list of a maximum of 7 cities that are invited to present their candidatures in front of a European Jury.

> Evaluation Step 2 - Upcoming

In the second evaluation step, representatives of the finalist cities present their candidatures and the programme of activities planned for their title year in front of the European Jury. The co-chairs of the European Jury will be announced shortly.

Meet our independent experts

Vera Bonvalot | Expert Category: Accessibility

Executive Director of the Portuguese Federation for Traumatic Brain Injured and families (NOVAMENTE); Board member of European Disability Forum (EDF.EU) and Vice president of BIF (Brain Injured and Families European Federation)

Ivor Ambrose | Expert Category: Accessibility

Independent consultant specialising in accessible tourism marketing and development, management of EU projects, policy and research in disability and ageing, socio-economics and new technologies

Anya Diekmann | Expert Category: Accessibility

Head of Tourism at ULB - IGEAT. Professor -Chair: cultural tourism. Her research interests include different aspects of social tourism as well as cultural tourism with a particular focus on heritage tourism (including WHS) and urban ethnic and slum tourism

Dimitrios Buhalis | Expert Category: Digitalisation

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis is the director of the eTourism Lab in Bournemouth University Business School and Visiting Professor, School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

What happens next?

The seven shortlisted cities will be invited to present their city’s candidature in front of the European Jury.

The European Jury will meet in the coming weeks and select two cities to become European Capitals of Smart Tourism in 2023.

Winners of the title of European Capital of Smart Tourism 2023 will receive expert communication and branding support in promoting their destination in the media and online, a sculpture for their city centre, a promotional video on their destination and smart tourism offer, and many other promotional actions from the EU that are designed to raise the profile of the city and boost visitor numbers. 

Competition timeline

  1. SHORTLISTED CITIES
    Shortlisted cities announcement in September 2022
  2. WINNERS
    Announcement of the winners in November 2022
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