Abstract:

The EDEN initiative was launched in 2006 by the European Commission, which plays an important coordinating role in the management of competition. Encouraging dialogue among stakeholders, financing national election procedures and awareness raising campaigns, organizing award ceremonies and coordinating a comprehensive communications campaign are among the tasks. In this study, the reasons for the emergence of the EDEN network, its objectives, the declarations on which it is based, the cooperation that the awarded destinations have established within themselves, their organizational characteristics have been examined in detail. Briefly, its historical development has been tried to be revealed. The "European Destinations of Excellence" pilot project was launched by the European Commission in 2006 aiming to draw attention to the value, diversity and common characteristics of European tourism destinations. The other objective is to promote emerging destinations where economic growth is sustained to achieve tourism, social, cultural and environmental sustainability. EDEN's main objective is to increase the visibility of non-conventional and emerging European destinations and to create a platform for sharing good practices across Europe. The European Destinations of Excellence Network for Sustainable Tourism is open to award-winning EDEN destinations and to all other destinations respecting the sustainability criteria envisaged in the EDEN competition. All of the members are committed to signing the declaration and adopting sustainable patterns of tourism presentations. In addition, EU candidate countries are listed as examples of the list of EDEN destinations in Turkey. The adoption of such a network in the context of the Turkic World, just as the case it was in the cultural capitals, will probably help to spread sustainability principles in tourism development to this geographical area and to create high-quality new destinations.

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