UN Tourism has opened applications for the 2025 edition of its prestigious Best Tourism Villages initiative. This initiative marks a continued commitment to advancing rural tourism as a catalyst for sustainable development and inclusion, while celebrating the rich tapestry of cultural and natural heritage, community values, and sustainable practices that make these destinations unique.
Since its inception in 2021, the initiative has gained global recognition. Across the previous four editions, UN Tourism has received more than 800 applications from over 100 countries. Today, the UN Tourism Best Tourism Villages Network includes 254 members worldwide: over 180 villages recognized as Best Tourism Villages and 70 participating in the Upgrade Programme, representing almost 60 countries across five world regions.
The Best Tourism Villages by UN Tourism celebrates rural destinations where tourism serves as a catalyst for opportunity, cultural preservation, and sustainable growth. By harnessing their unique assets, these villages create opportunities for economic growth, safeguard local traditions, and promote a better quality of life for their communities. We are eager to welcome those villages that represent the role of rural tourism as a transformative force for good. UN Tourism Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili
Best Tourism Villages 2025 – Applications Open
UN Tourism Member States are invited to submit up to eight candidate villages through their respective National Tourism Administrations (NTAs).
Applications will close on May 19, 2025. The villages recognized as Best Tourism Villages 2025 will be announced in the third quarter of the year on the occasion of a UN Tourism event.
An external Advisory Board comprising global experts will evaluate applications based on nine key areas:
Cultural and Natural Resources
Promotion and Conservation of Cultural Resources
Economic Sustainability
Social Sustainability
Environmental Sustainability
Tourism Development and Value Chain Integration
Governance and Prioritization of Tourism
Infrastructure and Connectivity
Health, Safety, and Security
Advancing Rural Development through Tourism
The Best Tourism Villages by UN Tourism initiative aims to leverage tourism as a tool for rural development, well-being, and resilience. By combining efforts to value and preserve rural landscapes, cultural diversity, and knowledge systems, the initiative advances innovative tourism strategies aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The initiative comprises three integral components:
Recognition as Best Tourism Villages: The recognition highlights rural tourism destinations that excel in preserving cultural and natural heritage, community-based values, and sustainability practices. The evaluation is based on their performance across nine areas spanning economic, social, and environmental dimensions.
The Upgrade Programme: Provides targeted support to villages that do not fully meet recognition criteria. These villages benefit from tailored guidance to bridge gaps and enhance their offerings.
The Best Tourism Villages Network: Serves as a platform for knowledge exchange and collaboration among recognized villages and those in the Upgrade Programme. The Network organizes capacity-building initiatives to foster connections across sectors.
The initiative is part of the Tourism for Rural Development Programme by UN Tourism.
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About UN Tourism
The World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism) is the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism.
As the leading international organization in the field of tourism, UN Tourism promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability and offers leadership and support to the sector in advancing knowledge and tourism policies worldwide.
Our Priorities
Mainstreaming tourism in the global agenda: Advocating the value of tourism as a driver of socio-economic growth and development, its inclusion as a priority in national and international policies and the need to create a level playing field for the sector to develop and prosper.
Promoting sustainable tourism development: Supporting sustainable tourism policies and practices: policies which make optimal use of environmental resources, respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities and provide socio-economic benefits for all.
Fostering knowledge, education and capacity building: Supporting countries to assess and address their needs in education and training, as well as providing networks for knowledge creation and exchange.
Improving tourism competitiveness: Improving UN Tourism Members’ competitiveness through knowledge creation and exchange, human resources development and the promotion of excellence in areas such as policy planning, statistics and market trends, sustainable tourism development, marketing and promotion, product development and risk and crisis management.
Advancing tourism’s contribution to poverty reduction and development: Maximizing the contribution of tourism to poverty reduction and achieving the SDGs by making tourism work as a tool for development and promoting the inclusion of tourism in the development agenda.
Building partnerships: Engaging with the private sector, regional and local tourism organizations, academia and research institutions, civil society and the UN system to build a more sustainable, responsible and competitive tourism sector.
Our Structure
Members: An intergovernmental organization, UN Tourism has 160 Member States, 6 Associate Members, 2 Observers and over 500 Affiliate Members.
Organs: The General Assembly is the supreme organ of the Organization. The Executive Council take all measures, in consultation with the Secretary-General, for the implementation of the decisions and recommendations of the General Assembly and reports to the Assembly.
Secretariat: UN Tourism headquarters are based in Madrid, Spain. The Secretariat is led by the Secretary-General and organized into departments covering issues such as sustainability, education, tourism trends and marketing, sustainable development, statistics and the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), destination management, ethics and risk and crisis management. The Technical Cooperation and Silk Road Department carries out development projects in over 100 countries worldwide, while the Regional Departments for Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and the Middle East serve as the link between UN Tourism and its 160 Member States. The Affiliate Members Department represents UN Tourism’s 500 plus Affiliate members.
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