Budapest has just been announced as the winner of an annual competition to find the best destination in Europe for 2019. Over the past month, millions voted for their favourite place from a shortlist of 20. Hungary’s capital came ahead of popular cities such as London, Paris and Barcelona.
More than 62,000 travellers gave a thumbs up (and a mouse click) to Budapest in the European Best Destinations (EBD) contest, an online initiative to find the most popular city to visit around the Old Continent.
In the 2019 running of this annual project, Budapest competed with the likes of Athens, Vienna, Berlin, Paris, London and Florence. According to EBD organisers, 77% of the votes were submitted from outside Hungary, including the UK, US, Germany, France, Austria and Italy.
This international contest to promote European tourism and culture has been going for ten years. Budapest only joined in 2018, finishing eighth straight away. EBD is run in close collaboration with city and tourism offices across Europe and the EDEN network set up by the European Commission. EDEN is a platform for exchanging good practice in sustainable tourism on a European level and for promoting contact between award-winning destinations.
The winner of the contest receives a whole year’s promotion on the EBD website, in international media and on social media sites. This new title now held by Budapest should increase the number of tourists visiting the city.
