On 6-8 November Polish Tourist Organisation staged workshops aimed at venues belonging to the EDEN (European Destinations of Excellence) network, winners of the 2019 competition for the Best European Destination. This time the meeting was hosted by Gołdap, laureate of this year’s edition in the medical tourism and wellness category.

More than simply a competition, the EDEN project is most of all a platform for cooperation and sharing experiences. In addition, it constitutes a noteworthy way of discovering leading European examples of combining diverse forms of sustainable tourism with advanced and effective management techniques. The initiative also offers an opportunity to expand and reinforce tools stimulating emerging tourist destinations that are distinguished by a unique character and bring together requirements of the environment, the local community and tourists, as well as to simultaneously develop an economically attractive tourist product.

The workshops were attended by 21 delegates of ten venues. Day one tackled the issue of cooperation between destinations and regions and summed up operations conducted as part of the EDEN project in 2018-2019. Next, Adam Mikołajczyk, an international expert on destination marketing, hosted a workshop focused on the theory of invention and the development of innovations for the purposes of sustainable tourism.

Days two and three featured meetings with managers of tourist facilities co-creating the offer of the Gołdap brand – a health resort, a graduation tower, a spa and the “Marzenia” Rehabilitation Centre for Children and Youth in Niedrzwica. On Friday the participants toured the historical bridges in Stańczyki.

Meetings of EDEN network representatives offer a first-rate chance to showcase the latest implemented activities and share experiences. The information flow between competition winners creates a one-of-a-kind international platform for sharing and spreading sustainable practices intended to reduce the negative consequences of the phenomenon of seasonality and redirecting the inflow of tourists from overbooked destinations to their lesser-known counterparts.