From Aalborg to Zadar, a record 83 applicants have been narrowed to 16 shortlisted cities as the European Commission launches a new chapter in its tourism competition — combining its former smart-tourism titles under the new “European Capitals of Tourism” banner, with two 2027 winners to be announced after final presentations in Brussels in November.
Europe (Tourism Reporter) — Across Europe, the competition to define what the continent’s next generation of tourism destinations should look like has entered a new chapter.
The European Commission has unveiled the shortlist for the European Capitals of Tourism 2027 competition, narrowing a field of applicants from across the continent to 16 cities that will now have the opportunity to make their case before a European jury in Brussels on 18 and 19 November.
The announcement, made on 15 September, marks the first edition of a newly rebranded competition — and more than a change of name.
For the first time, two previously separate European tourism initiatives — the European Capital of Smart Tourism and the European Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism — have been brought together under a single European Capitals of Tourism title.
In doing so, the Commission is reshaping a competition that has, in various forms, been recognising innovative and sustainable destinations since 2018.
The new framework brings a broader question into focus: what should define a leading European tourism destination in the years ahead?
Is it the ability to embrace digital innovation? The capacity to make tourism more sustainable? The preservation of cultural heritage? Accessibility and inclusion? Or, increasingly, the ability to bring all of these elements together without losing the character that makes a destination worth visiting in the first place?
That is the backdrop against which Aalborg, Braga, Genoa, Ljubljana, Salzburg, Zadar and 10 other shortlisted cities will make their case this autumn.
The prize may carry a new name, but the ambition behind it is familiar: to identify the European destinations that can demonstrate how tourism can evolve without leaving its people, places and identity behind.
And this year, there are 16 cities with a chance to show Europe what that future could look like.
From Two Titles to One: What the Rebrand Actually Changes
For destinations that have followed the competition through its previous editions, the merger represents more than a cosmetic rename. The European Capital of Smart Tourism, open exclusively to cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, has recognised a succession of prominent European destinations since its inaugural 2019 edition, when Helsinki and Lyon shared the honour. Subsequent winners included Gothenburg and Málaga in 2020, Bordeaux and València in 2022, Pafos and Seville in 2023, Dublin as sole winner in 2024, and Torino in 2025.
Running alongside it, the European Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism — the successor to the earlier European Destinations of Excellence programme — has focused on smaller destinations demonstrating leadership in sustainable tourism. Grosseto took the title in 2024, followed by Benidorm in 2025.
The 2027 edition brings these two tracks together for the first time under a single “European Capitals of Tourism” brand. Rather than maintaining two separate competitions, the new format divides participating destinations into two population-based categories, while retaining the four core evaluation pillars that have shaped the predecessor programmes: sustainability, accessibility, digitalisation, and cultural heritage, creativity and local talent.
In practical terms, the rebrand changes the architecture of the competition more than its underlying philosophy.
The emphasis remains on destinations demonstrating how tourism can become more sustainable, more accessible, more digitally capable and more deeply connected to local culture and creativity. What changes is the way those qualities are brought together — and, potentially, how the title itself is positioned within Europe’s increasingly competitive destination landscape.
The consolidation has certainly not diminished interest.
Category 1, covering cities with populations above 100,000, attracted 43 applications from 18 countries. Category 2, covering destinations with populations between 25,000 and 100,000, attracted a further 40 applications from 17 countries.
That gives the inaugural combined competition a total of 83 applications from across Europe, underlining the continuing appeal of European-level recognition at a time when destinations are competing not only for visitors, but also for investment, talent, international visibility and a stronger position within Europe’s tourism economy.
Behind those numbers is another important continuity.
The shortlisted destinations have been assessed against the competition’s established pillars through an independent expert evaluation process, meaning the new title is not abandoning the standards developed by its predecessors. Instead, it is bringing them under one umbrella.
Two competitions have become one brand. Two destination categories have replaced two separate tracks. But the central question remains much the same: which European destinations can demonstrate that the future of tourism is not simply about attracting more visitors, but about creating better, smarter and more sustainable places to live, visit and experience?
That is what the 2027 competition will ultimately put to the test.
The Sixteen: A Genuinely Pan-European Field
The shortlist itself reads as a broad cross-section of Europe’s tourism geography, extending well beyond the western and southern European destinations that have traditionally dominated the continent’s international tourism narrative.
In Category 1, the eight shortlisted cities are Aalborg in Denmark, Braga in Portugal, Genoa in Italy, Konya in Türkiye, Ljubljana in Slovenia, Lviv in Ukraine, Salzburg in Austria and Sofia in Bulgaria. Together, they represent a notably varied group: two national capitals, major regional and cultural centres, historic cities and a Ukrainian destination seeking international tourism recognition while operating under the extraordinary circumstances created by the ongoing war.
The geographical spread matters.
This is not simply a contest between Europe’s most established tourism brands. Aalborg, Braga, Konya, Ljubljana, Lviv and Sofia bring different tourism models, market profiles and destination challenges to the same evaluation table, while Genoa and Salzburg add two internationally recognised cultural and heritage destinations to the field.
The result is a Category 1 shortlist that feels considerably broader than a conventional roll call of Europe’s best-known city destinations.
Category 2 tells an equally revealing story.
The eight smaller destinations are Calais in France, Calvià and Ibiza in Spain, Geestland in Germany, Nova Gorica in Slovenia, Sandanski in Bulgaria, Selçuk in Türkiye and Zadar in Croatia.
Here, the contrast between established tourism names and lesser-known destinations is even more pronounced.
Ibiza and Zadar already possess substantial international tourism recognition. Geestland, Sandanski and Nova Gorica operate in a very different visibility league. That contrast goes to the heart of what the smaller-destination category is designed to recognise: not simply existing tourism popularity, but the ability of destinations to demonstrate innovative approaches to sustainable tourism and green transition.
That distinction is important.
A destination does not need to be a European tourism household name to become a European tourism reference point.
Indeed, one of the more interesting aspects of the 2027 competition is that recognition itself can become part of a destination’s tourism strategy. For a less internationally established destination, reaching the final stage provides visibility, a European platform and an opportunity to place its sustainability practices, cultural assets and tourism model before a much wider professional audience.
The Commission’s decision to expand both shortlists from four destinations to eight makes this year’s field particularly notable. Officials said the expansion reflected the high quality of applications and several cities being tied in the evaluation process. All 16 shortlisted destinations will now present their proposals before the European jury in Brussels on 18 and 19 November 2026, after which two winners will be selected — one from each category.
And that changes the character of the 2027 competition.
Instead of a narrow final four in each track, Europe now has 16 destinations competing for two titles, giving the inaugural combined edition a much larger geographical and strategic canvas.
The question is therefore no longer simply which cities have the strongest tourism brands.
It is which destinations can demonstrate that their approach to tourism is relevant to where Europe wants the visitor economy to go next — towards greater sustainability, stronger accessibility, deeper digitalisation and a closer relationship between tourism, cultural heritage, creativity and local talent.
Sixteen cities have reached that conversation. In November, two will leave Brussels carrying Europe’s new tourism title.
Open Beyond the EU’s Own Borders
One structural feature of the competition deserves particular attention: its geographic reach extends beyond the European Union itself.
Eligibility is not restricted to EU member states. The competition is also open to destinations in non-EU countries participating in the EU’s Single Market Programme, extending the field to a wider group of European countries, including Türkiye, Ukraine and other EU candidate and partner countries.
This broader eligibility is visible in the 2027 shortlist.
Konya and Selçuk bring Türkiye into the competition across both size categories, while Lviv represents Ukraine, demonstrating that the European Capitals of Tourism programme is not designed as an EU-only showcase. Instead, its geographic footprint reaches across a wider European tourism landscape — one that includes countries at different stages of their relationship with the European Union.
That distinction gives the competition a significance beyond the title itself.
For destinations outside the EU, participation provides access to a European-level tourism recognition platform without requiring formal EU membership. It allows cities to place their approaches to sustainability, accessibility, digitalisation and cultural heritage alongside those of destinations from EU member states — creating a common competitive framework across a geographically broader European market.
In that sense, “European” is being used less as a synonym for “EU” and more as a geographic and tourism identity.
The result is a competition whose map is wider than the European Union’s political borders — and whose ambition is correspondingly broader: to identify tourism destinations capable of demonstrating innovation and resilience across a Europe that is economically connected, culturally diverse and institutionally unequal.
For Tourism Reporter, that wider eligibility is important because it changes how the competition should be read.
This is not simply Brussels choosing its favourite EU destinations. It is Europe — in a broader geographical sense — being invited to make the case for what the next generation of tourism can look like.
What Winning Actually Delivers
For the destinations that ultimately prevail, the value of the title extends well beyond the moment of announcement.
Across recent editions, winning destinations have received a year of dedicated communication and branding support from the European Commission, including a professionally produced promotional video, a large hashtag sculpture installed in the winning city and a programme of tailored promotional activities intended to raise the destination’s profile at European level and beyond.
But the more enduring benefit may lie in what happens after the publicity cycle ends.
Winners become part of what the Commission describes as a growing and active network of shortlisted and winning destinations, creating an ongoing platform for cities to exchange experiences and practices around areas including accessibility, digitalisation and sustainable tourism management. That knowledge-sharing function is reinforced through published collections of leading practices and the Commission’s EU Smart Tourism podcast series.
For destination marketing organisations, therefore, the attraction of the title is not necessarily any individual promotional asset.
A promotional video has a shelf life. A hashtag sculpture is a highly visible symbol, but ultimately a temporary one. The more strategic asset is the credibility attached to an independently evaluated European-level recognition.
Being selected means a destination has had its tourism approach examined against a defined set of criteria covering sustainability, accessibility, digitalisation and cultural heritage, creativity and local talent. Winning provides an additional layer of recognition that destinations can carry into their own marketing, stakeholder engagement and international positioning.
That distinction is becoming increasingly relevant.
Across Europe, destinations are facing a more complicated tourism equation: how to generate economic value from visitors while also demonstrating that tourism contributes positively to the places and communities receiving them.
The European Capitals of Tourism title therefore sits at the intersection of destination marketing and destination management.
It is not simply an award for being a popular place to visit. It is recognition of how a destination says it manages, develops and rethinks tourism.
And that may ultimately be what makes the title valuable to the cities competing for it: the publicity lasts a year, but the institutional credibility and peer network can potentially last much longer.
What Happens Between Now and November
The 16 shortlisted cities have now moved into the competition’s decisive second phase: making their final case to the European jury.
Each destination will prepare a formal presentation setting out its tourism strategy, achievements and approach to the criteria underpinning the new European Capitals of Tourism competition. Those presentations will take place in Brussels on 18 and 19 November, giving the jury an opportunity to examine the shortlisted destinations beyond the written applications that secured their place in the final 16.
Then comes the decision.
At the conclusion of the two-day jury session, two destinations will be named European Capitals of Tourism 2027 — one from each of the two population categories. The structure continues the competition’s move towards a differentiated approach to destination size, allowing larger cities and smaller destinations to compete within their respective categories rather than placing every finalist into a single field.
That makes November more than a ceremonial finale.
For the shortlisted destinations, it is the moment when strategy has to become persuasion: demonstrating not only what they have already achieved, but how convincingly their tourism model responds to the European competition’s priorities around sustainability, accessibility, digitalisation and cultural heritage, creativity and local talent.
The process is also unusually transparent for an international destination award.
The Commission has published profiles of all 16 shortlisted destinations, together with the evaluation criteria and application guidance for both categories, allowing tourism professionals and other observers to examine the framework against which the finalists have been assessed.
For the wider tourism industry, that provides an opportunity to look beyond the eventual winners.
The 16 finalists offer a snapshot of the destinations Europe is currently placing under the microscope — and, perhaps more importantly, of the qualities European tourism policy increasingly wants destinations to demonstrate.
The winners will take the titles in November.
But the more revealing story may be what the competition says about where European destination development is heading next.
This report draws on the European Commission’s official press release announcing the European Capitals of Tourism 2027 shortlist, alongside historical competition records and materials published by the European Capital of Smart Tourism and European Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism initiatives covering previous editions since 2019.
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