Maribor named third best destination in Europe in 2023
Maribor, 11 February - Maribor has been named the third best destination in Europe this year in a poll by European Best Destinations in which over half a million travellers were deciding between more than 400 destinations. The city was also named the best culinary destination in Europe.
Maribor
Main Square in Maribor.
Photo: Nebojša Tejić/STA
File photo
Maribor is preceded only by Warsaw, named the best destination in Europe this year, and Athens in second place of the ranking facilitated by the organisation promoting European tourism sector.
Over 68,800 people voted for Maribor, thus surpassing Vienna, London, Copenhagen and Prague. In the culinary destination ranking, Maribor placed ahead of Rome, Porto and Paris, the Maribor tourism office said on Friday.
A total of 686,000 votes were cast in the poll, with some 48% submitted in Europe, and the rest from around the world. 28% of votes for Maribor were cast from the UK, 13% from the US, 11% in Germany, 9% in Austria, 6% in France and 5.4% in Italy.
The local tourism office said an intensive media campaign will follow, including in outlets such as Forbes, Conde Nast Traveller, National Geographic, Corriere Viaggi, Yahoo and Geo.
Maribor Mayor Saša Arsenovič said that the success was the result of development of the entire region and the cooperation of key partners. "We've proven once again that we can hold our own against big cities."
Last year, Ljubljana was named the best destination in Europe by European Best Destinations, with the local tourism office saying the ranking brought with it an exceptional promotional campaign worth over EUR 10 million, with over 420 million people learning about the destination.