In Europe, Nurturing a New Kind of Eden

Carlingford, in northeastern Ireland, made the European Destination of Excellence list for 2008 for its natural beauty and rich history. Photo by Richard Cummins/Lonely Planet Images

By Charly Wilder

The New York Times

Jutting out from Ireland’s east coast, roughly halfway between Dublin and Belfast, the tiny peninsular village of Carlingford lies at the foot of Slieve Foye mountain, which, according to Irish legend, is the petrified body of a great sleeping giant. In the town, narrow cobbled passageways, impeccably preserved medieval monasteries and stately stone town houses speak of a time long past. Family-owned taverns serve up freshly prepared local foods, like oysters caught that day in the harbor that faces out to the sweeping coastal landscape.

Despite its natural beauty, rich history and local charm, Carlingford never attracted many tourists, in part because of its proximity to the formerly war-torn Northern Ireland, about a half-dozen miles up the coast and less than two miles across Carlingford Lough, the bay on which the village sits. As a small community in County Louth, Carlingford lacked the resources to combat this negative perception, and so while places like Cork and Kerry blossomed into tourist hot spots, Carlingford remained a kind of forgotten land.

But that all changed in 2008, when Carlingford was named a European Destination of Excellence, a tourism project started by the European Commission to promote little-known destinations that offer a unique experience to visitors while preserving the local heritage and environment.

“The thing that first struck me about Carlingford was that there, everything is unique,” said Aine Brodie, a schoolteacher from North Wales who visited Carlingford this past July after reading about the designation in an in-flight magazine. “It sounded so lovely and had received this designation, and I thought I must go.”

The European Destinations of Excellence, or EDEN, was started in 2006 to spotlight places like Carlingford — emerging tourist destinations that offer a piece of unspoiled paradise or a journey into the distant past. With its emphasis on sustainability, EDEN presents an alternative to a whirlwind tour of capitals or beach resorts that suck up all traces of local culture and spit out a prefab vacation package.

Each year, panels of experts within the participating countries — which span the 27 European Union member states as well as the candidate countries — hold national EDEN competitions. Though the criteria vary from year to year depending on the theme, the judges look for places where efforts to develop tourism have involved the local community and incorporated conservation or greening campaigns.

“We want to promote destinations, locations, regions and towns with particular historical and cultural backgrounds, where sustainability plays a role,” said Ton van Lierop, a spokesman for the European Commission.

So far, 52 places have been named, from forgotten fishing villages to lush hidden wine trails to medieval hilltop towns.

Previous recipients have included Edirne, Turkey, a former Ottoman capital that sits at the confluence of three rivers and dates back to the Neolithic age. Visitors can visit an array of ancient bazaars, which offer local delicacies (residents claim marzipan originated there) and traditional wares, like a mirrored broom made from heath stalks that is still used at weddings.

Another designated spot, Durdevac, a riverside village in Croatia with a vast natural sand bank, is home to a community of artisans, weavers, millers and vintners who use pre-industrial tools and techniques in their daily routines.

Winners get anywhere from 5,000 to 20,000 euros — ,500 to ,000 — from their country’s tourism agency to promote sustainable projects. Most designees spend their money on marketing, though some invest in greening efforts.

Others get creative. Gravenrode Park, a former Dutch mining village that is now a lush nature reserve, is using the prize money to construct a giant welcome tower that will be the tallest structure in the Netherlands.

Gravenrode’s metamorphosis into a fast-growing tourist destination included a major cleanup of a heavily polluted former mine. Mountains of coal refuse were converted into covered ski slopes, and a maze of botanical gardens and activity centers stand where villagers once had to dry clothing inside to prevent them from turning black in the coal-dust-caked winds.

In addition to money, the European Commission sponsors a promotional campaign, sending film crews to shoot three-minute videos and highlighting the destinations on its Web site.

The resources seem to help. Miriam Portelli, the mayor of Nadur, a farming village on the eastern tip of Gozo, an island in Malta, says that the number of visitors has increased by at least 35 percent since the village received its designation in 2007.

With just a central square and a population of 5,000, Nadur did not offer much in the way of attractions. So the town found a way to turn its abundant farmlands and citrus groves into a functional tourism operation.

“We involved the local farmers in the whole project,” said Ms. Portelli, adding that the city built walking paths through farms and subsidized 7,000 olive trees. “One has to keep in mind that if a tourist project is not supported by the locals, then it will not be sustainable.”

THIS year, 22 places were designated as EDENs, including many national parks and wildlife reserves from Belgium to Bulgaria.

One notable addition is Bohemian Switzerland, a 30,000-acre sandstone mountain reserve in the Czech Republic. Unlike many EDENs, the spot has a long history as a tourist attraction. Over a century ago, when the area was populated by ethnic Germans, visitors came in droves to walk through the densely wooded Elbe River valleys and hike the corrugated yellow cliffs.

But at the end of World War II, the Germans were driven out and Bohemian Switzerland became a disused border region, heavily policed by guards and hard to reach by public transport.

“It was not a tourist destination,” said Marek Mraz, director of the association that administers the park. “It was more like a forgotten paradise.”

The association joined with the local government after the fall of the Iron Curtain to jump-start large-scale conservation efforts, build new paths and trail systems, and reintroduce wildlife.

Though the prize money gives places like Bohemian Switzerland a chance to raise their profiles, it is yet to be seen whether the label will really make an impact with tourists. EDEN is only one in a packed field of tourism designations like the Unesco World Heritage Sites, the European Capital of Culture, Green Globe, the Responsible Tourism Awards and many others.

“In former times, there would only be one Cultural Capital and several World Heritage spots per year, but now there are so many different accolades and awards, and people do lose track of that,” said Saskia Sanchez, a travel agent in Berlin for TUI AG, a group of travel companies.

Ms. Sanchez said that her customers hardly ever mention designations like EDEN and Unesco. She added that when a lesser-known location receives a spike in interest, it is usually because a low-cost carrier is offering cheap flights there.

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