Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO

Ernen, Lavizzara, Lens, Romoos, Splügen and Valendas are the official Swiss candidates for Best Tourism Villages 2024

Launched by the World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), the "Best Tourism Villages" initiative recognizes places where tourism preserves cultures and traditions, and promotes biodiversity and sustainable development.

In 2021, the first call for "Best Tourism Villages" was made and repeated every year thereafter. As a member state of the UN Tourism, Switzerland could nominate three destinations in 2021 and 2022, and eight since 2023. The nomination of the official Swiss villages participating in the contest and the announcement of the winning villages is carried out by SECO together with the Swiss Tourism Federation and Switzerland Tourism.

To be considered for the "Best Tourism Villages" award, villages must meet the following criteria, according to the UNWTO definition of rural tourism:

• Have a low population density and no more than 15'000 inhabitants
• Be located in an environment where traditional economic activities such as agriculture, forestry, livestock or fishing are strongly represented
• Share the values and lifestyle of the community

 

More information about the competition and the criteria can be found here (in French).

 

Last modification 24.04.2024