The voting for Sozopol in the prestigious contest “European Destination for 2017” has started

The Bulgarian Black Sea town Sozopol with its rich history is among the nominees for “European destination for 2017”. The winners will be determined after online voting, which is already in progress.

Each user of the tourist services or just sympathizer has the opportunity to vote on the Internet Platform of European Best Destinations from 20 January to 10 February 2017 for their preferred nominated destination. The online voting will continue for three weeks and the friends of the Bulgarian candidate from around the world will be able to provide their support, too. The official address of the page for voting is: http://www.vote.ebdest.in/.

A total of 20 towns compete for the “European Destination for 2017” award. Sozopol is among such famous competitors as Milan, Brussels, San Sebastian, Wrocław, Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, Vienna, Porto, Athens, Novi Sad, Zagreb etc.

The prestigious competition was launched in 2009 and the ranking is based on the principle “by the tourist for the tourist”. It includes settlements, which impressed the travellers with the quality of services, attractive recreation facilities and remarkable historical, cultural and natural sites. The voting is organized by European Best Destinations - an organization based in Brussels and encouraging the development of culture and tourism around the continent.

Nearly 40 million people voted last year in the competition for a choice among 20 destinations. Among the promoters of the initiative were European tourism offices, professionals from the tourist industry, specialized forums and events - tourist exchanges, congresses, exhibitions, presentations etc., in which the candidates get actively involved.  Tourists and users from all over the world having good impressions of the competing destinations, may also take part in the vote.

European Best Destinations (EBD) is a European organization with headquarters in Brussels, which is focused on the development and promotion of culture and tourism in Europe. It works in partnership with the EDEN network and with all leading European tourist offices and covers over 355 destinations in Europe. From 2009 EBD has been in partnership with tourist representations in the whole of Europe and focuses on some of the leading destinations in the old continent on their website and in social networks. The visitors of the official website of the organization exceed 3 million people from all points of the world. The site contains pictures, videos, panoramic walks, guides and tips. The followers in the social networks Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest are nearly 100 thousand people. The destinations awarded by European Best Destination have an average growth of visitors of 15%.