Benidorm wins the Valencia Community Tourism Award for Tourist Destination Excellence

The city of Benidorm has won the Valencian Community Tourism Award in the Tourist Destination of Excellence category. Acting Mayor Ana Pellicer received this award today from the President of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, in the presence of the Regional Minister for Innovation, Industry, Commerce, and Tourism, Marian Cano, at an event held at the Bombas Gens Digital Arts Center in Valencia, also attended by the Second Deputy Mayor and Regional Deputy, José Ramón González de Zárate.

Pellicer recalled that "almost a century ago, Benidorm decided to dedicate itself body and soul to tourism," creating in 1956 "the now legendary first General Plan that organised our development on the path to excellence." Since then, "Benidorm has been adapting to the realities of tourism," becoming the first certified Smart Tourism Destination (STD) in the world in 2018. Seven years later, in 2025, the European Commission has recognised the city as a Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism.

The acting mayor asserted that Benidorm has achieved all these goals and recognitions thanks to "the teamwork between the city, the tourism sector—in all its forms—and the City Council," thus fulfilling "Sustainable Development Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals."

After receiving the award, Pellicer apologised for the absence of the mayor, Toni Pérez, who is travelling to Japan, "where Benidorm is participating in the EU-Japan Tourism Forum at the Osaka 2025 World Expo." This international event will be followed by another on October 1 and 2, when a delegation led by the mayor will defend Benidorm's candidacy for the European Green Leaf 2027 award in the Lithuanian capital, for which the city is a finalist.

For his part, the President of the Generalitat (Catalan Government) thanked Benidorm for "continuing to break new ground"; for "showing that a destination like Benidorm could be the world's first certified Smart Tourism Destination"; for being "a planned, not improvised, model"; for "reinventing itself every day"; and for "having helped" the Valencian Community to approach "one year of being the first European region to be certified by Aenor as a sustainable destination."

In addition to Benidorm as a Tourist Destination of Excellence, the Benidorm Community Tourism Awards also included awards for the Hotel and Tourism Business Association of the Valencian Community (HOSBEC), based in Benidorm and receiving the Tourism Communication Award for the "I am also a tourist" campaign; José Orts Serrano, with the Tourism Personality Award; Rototom Sunsplash, in its 30th edition, received the award for Sustainable Tourism Strategy; and Gourmet Catering & Eventos, with the award for Human Capital in Tourism. Likewise, the Hotel Cap Negret, the Roig Arena, and the entire tourism sector in the Valencian Community received special mention for their solidarity and responsiveness following the DANA.