Tags
Blue Flag beaches, clean environment, Comino, holiday destination, island of Gozo, natural and cultural heritage, Portugal, Quality Coast Gold Award, scenic beauty, sustainable tourism, tour operators
The islands of Gozo and Comino came third in the QualityCoast Gold Award by the President of the QualityCoast Jury, prof. Francisco Taveira Pinto, at a sustainable tourism events in Torres Vedras, Portugal. The Azores islands came first and the Ierapetra (Crete) received the award for the second place as Europe’s most sustainable holiday destinations.
At this event the QualityCoast Top 100 was revealed: the hundred European holiday destinations that best maintained their local identity, their natural and cultural heritage, their scenic beauty, and a clean environment.
QualityCoast is a programme of the European Coastal & Marine Union – EUCC, supported by the European Union. The QualityCoast Top 100 is the result of extensive research and a rigourous assessment of nearly 1000 coastal and island destinations. 120 Indicators have been used to evaluate them. One of these is the number of Blue Flag beaches; another is the number of ‘green accommodations’ (Green Key or Travelife) in the destination.
A number of tour operators (e.g. those connected to TUI, the Netherlands) will pay special attention to the QualityCoast destinations in their holiday brochures and in the selection of their vacation destinations.