This document summarizes the conclusions and recommendations from an EDEN Network meeting between European Commission officials, EDEN project officers, and representatives from EDEN destinations. Key points include: 1) The EDEN program has been successful in increasing tourism but needs more support from destinations and stakeholders to demonstrate benefits and ensure future funding. 2) Recommendations are made to strengthen the involvement of destinations, project officers, and national tourism organizations to better promote EDEN destinations and leverage European funding opportunities. 3) Ideas are proposed to improve networking, marketing, and cooperation between EDEN destinations such as developing cross-promotional materials and strengthening relationships with regional development agencies.

1. EUROPEAN COMMISSION
ENTERPRISE AND INDUSTRY DIRECTORATE-GENERAL
Service Industries
Tourism Policy
8th EDEN NETWORK MEETING
12 November 2013
Brussels
CONCLUSIONS AND RECCOMANDATION
These conclusions and recommendations are based on the discussion with the EDEN Network
members, national EDEN Project Officers, EDEN ambassadors and the European Commission
Tourism Unit officials during the EDEN Network meeting.
The main outcome of the discussion is that EDEN is a successful project, however to gain
future support it must continue to deliver and to show clear evidence of benefits for the
awarded destinations. To this purpose the European Commission calls for a greater involvement
and commitment of organizations representing destinations (i.e. DMOs), project officers and
stakeholders at national and regional level. In addition, the European Commission warmly
encourages destinations and project officers to continue to monitoring and collecting data and
facts showing the EDEN benefits.
1. Recommendations by the Tourism Unit
Mr Pedro Ortún. Director for Service industries, Enterprise and Industry Directorate-
General, European Commission
· Mr Ortún has welcomed the entry of 19 new EDEN 2013 winners and 28 runners-up
to the EDEN Network, which now consists of more than 200 destinations from
26 European countries making it the biggest network of sustainable tourism
destinations worldwide.
· He has underlined that EDEN is a successful initiative, which has already resulted
in a continuous growth of tourist, flows to the EDEN destinations and has
increased their cooperation with local and regional tourism stakeholders.
· Mr Ortún has emphasised that the future and success of the EDEN initiative will
depend on how all related parties will get actively involved and deliver results.
Commission européenne, B-1049 Bruxelles / Europese Commissie, B-1049 Brussel - Belgium. Telephone: (32-2) 299 11 11.

2. · Destinations must understand that networking is valuable as long they keep on
developing sustainable destinations, collaborating with each other and exchanging
information and practices within the Network and in particular within the EDEN
Network Association.
· National EDEN project officers must have more ownership of the EDEN project
and support the EDEN destinations.
· The European Commission will continue implementing the EDEN initiative. Next
year it will co-finance EDEN promotion campaigns to be implemented by the
national tourism authorities in 15 countries in 2014-2015. Furthermore, in 2014 the
Commission will launch a new call for proposal for the selection of destinations of
excellence in 2015 under the theme „Tourism and Gastronomy“. The Commission
will keep on supporting the EDEN Network provided that the Network delivers
results.
· Finally Mr Ortún has invited the EDEN Network members to attend 3 events
organised by the Tourism unit in Brussels in December 2013: "Information meeting
on the future of the EU Tourism Policy" on 2 December 2013, Joint conference at
the occasion of the European Day of Persons with Disabilities and European
Tourism Day 2013 "Accessible Tourism in Europe" on 3-4 December 2013 and a
Workshop "Europe, Best Destination for Seniors" on 5 December 2013.
2. The value of the EDEN Network
Mr Antonio Pezzano, EDEN Network Facilitator
· What EDEN is not
1. The EDEN Award does not translate automatically in more tourists to
destinations. The Award is not a certification, it is not a label. Put differently, the
Award is not a stand-alone market maker. Being awarded is not enough. First, it is
important to make sure enterprises are able to offer lovely, enjoyable, authentic
and unique experiences, while public authorities preserve places, the environment
and the landscapes. Then, comes to be good and responsible. It is like in the
organic food marketplace. The promise of being healthier comes first. The promise
of being sounder environmentally comes as a bonus. The same applies to the
World Heritage List. Being on the list is big news and a big achievement.
Attracting more visitors is another matter. There is no clear evidence of
correlation between the two things. As one of the most inspiring speakers at the
EDEN Network meeting in Malta 2011, Mr Justin Francis from
responsabiletravel.com, once said: experiences, not eco-labels sell holidays.
2. The EDEN network is neither a shortcut to get more European funds, nor a
marketing agency able to market EDEN destinations. Networking is not less work,
is more work.
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3. · So what is the value of the EDEN Award? Why is it important to network?
3. As Ms Frances Taylor, tourism manager of Carlingford (Ireland), one of the first
winning destination, once said: “The Award contributed to raise our profile as
much as possible and access opportunities that were not previously made
available to us”. The prize, the ceremony, the videos, the articles on local papers
will give more energy to go on, to make further investments, to make new
projects. The Network provides an arena to Learn, Lobby and Link to get
projects and ideas done.
3. Recommendations for a future EDEN Network’s Action Plan
Mr Antonio Pezzano, EDEN Network Facilitator
1. In 2007 networking was quite difficult and sometime expensive. Now it is possible to
use social media to network around the world sitting at the desk for free (i.e. google
translator, Gdrive, googlegroup, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) So everybody can network.
However, only EDEN destinations can meet almost for free once a year face to face to
talk about new projects, to share good practices, to make new friend, in a nutshell to
unveil new opportunities. It’s up to the lobby power of the Network to keep this
going and to improve it year by year.
2. The European Structural Funds and the European Programs will continue to offer
assistance and finance to make your projects true. Linking to regional authorities and
Local Development Agencies is critical and strategic. Using the network as ID to get
more influence at regional level and as a tool to get new international partners is a key
priority.
3. The European Commission grants almost 700,000 EUR to NTOs and National
tourism administrations for marketing EDEN destinations in a two years plan. It’s up
to the Network, to its lobby power and to its capacity to link with local tourism
authorities to make sure the money is spent as effectively it can. It’s up to the
influence of the Network to make NTOs and Tourism Administration working to raise
the credibility of the EDEN Award by setting more transparent and uniform criteria.
4. As the Network keeps on growing the potential for cross promotion increases. Think
about the efficiency of exchanging journalists and photographs. And what about cross-promoting?
It would be nice to have a brochure of the best food of EDEN
destinations around Europe, the best walks, the best wild experiences, and so forth in
EDEN destination.
5. Finally, the marketing communication, the Holy Grail of tourism destinations. To grab
the attention of travellers, destinations need three things. First, to send the message to
multipliers, like travel enablers (media agents, travel agents, tour operators, bloggers,
etc.). Second, to make them experiencing the destinations. Third, to help them to
write powerful stories about the destinations. A powerful story is a backstory, a story
reconnecting travellers with people make the things they experience. The VISTAS
project aims at this. Other project in this direction will help in the future.
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4. 4. Recommendations to trigger more national EDEN Project officers involvement
· In 2011-2012, thanks to European Commission financial support, the Awareness
raising campaigns proved to be a successful initiative: some good examples of national
(also trans-national) measures to raise the visibility of the EDEN destinations at both
national and international level have been taken, also good examples of cooperation
between countries have been welcomed. In 2013 – a new EDEN awareness raising
campaign for tourism authorities has been launched: national communication
campaigns in the EDEN participating countries will take place in 2014-2015 to
support the EDEN winners and the runners-up.
· The afternoon session on marketing initiatives coordinated by the EDEN Project
officers led to some important recommendations:
1) There is a need from the Project officers to assist, to support and to collaborate
with destinations beyond the EDEN grant agreement’s time frame.. A
framework to make EDEN a priority project in the Project officers’ agenda has
been requested.
2) Project officers should strengthen their cooperation to define common criteria
for the Award and common practices for the national competitions. Specifically,
a common standard on how to define “small and emerging destinations” has
been requested.
3) Project officers should collaborate closely among them in order to develop
transnational marketing campaigns and to strengthen the competition process.
4) The European Commission should “renew” the EDEN webpages . Though the
purpose of the pages is not to market EDEN destinations, given the high
visibility of the EC website, it is important to have attractive and effective
pages.
5) Approaching National Tourism Boards and National Administrations should
facilitate the cooperation with the EDEN Network Association and the
European Travel Commission, a key task to coordinate the international
marketing campaigns. The key message is: EDEN must become a key theme
and project in international marketing campaigns.
· It has been decided to open a Google group (mailing list for discussion) targeted to
Project Officers. The main issues to discuss are:
a. Setting a common standard for the competition process and the awarding
criteria;
b. Exchanging ideas on the implementation of the 2013-2014 campaigns
according tothe EDEN Network Association guidelines;
c. Strengthening the cooperation among Project Officers, National Tourism
Boards and the European Travel Commission.
· The European Commission will explore the opportunity to organize an ad hoc meeting
for the project officers to launch the 2014-2015 campaigns to be held after the
evaluation phase.
· The EDEN Association should design communication tools to make clear the
difference between the EDEN Network and the EDEN Network Association aisbl
stating clearly the benefits of the membership.
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