The European Commission lists the winners from 2019 to 2026: two joint Capitals of Smart Tourism each year to 2023, then one Capital and one Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism. Tampere is the 2026 Capital and Dubrovnik the 2026 Green Pioneer. The 2027 page shows only a shortlist.12
What is the European Capital of Smart Tourism?
The Commission says the competition recognises outstanding achievements in smart tourism in European cities, from digital tools and access for all visitors to sustainable development and support for local heritage and talent.1
For 2024, the Commission says the winners were selected after a European jury met in Brussels on 27–28 November 2023.1
Every winner, by year
The Commission's list of previous competitions covers 2019, 2020 and 2022 to 2026; it has no 2021 edition.1
| Year | European Capital of Smart Tourism | European Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism |
|---|---|---|
| 20191 | Helsinki (Finland), Lyon (France) | – |
| 20201 | Málaga (Spain), Gothenburg (Sweden) | – |
| 20221 | Valencia (Spain), Bordeaux (France) | – |
| 20231 | Pafos (Cyprus), Seville (Spain) | – |
| 20241 | Dublin (Ireland) | Grosseto (Italy) |
| 20251 | Torino (Italy) | Benidorm (Spain) |
| 20261 | Tampere (Finland) | Dubrovnik (Croatia) |
The Commission's 2022 page refers to the winners for 2020
in one sentence, while its heading says 2022; we follow the heading and the list of previous competitions.1 City names are as the Commission spells them, for example Pafos and Torino.
What about 2027?
The Commission's 2027 page shows shortlists for a competition it calls the European Capital of Tourism, in two groups: cities of over 100,000 inhabitants, and destinations of 25,000 to 100,000. It names no winners yet.2
What this page cannot tell you
- 2027 is not decided. The page we read lists only the shortlisted cities, so we do not list them as winners.
- Other EU tourism awards are not here. We have not researched the full history of other Commission tourism awards, so we leave them out rather than list them in part.
Related: Officially recognised places in Europe and Japan · European Capitals of Culture: every city · European Green Capital and Green Leaf winners · European Heritage Label sites · Japan Heritage stories · National parks of Japan.
Key takeaways
- Tampere is the 2026 European Capital of Smart Tourism; Dubrovnik is the 2026 Green Pioneer.
- Since 2024 there has been one Capital and one Green Pioneer each year.
- For 2027 the Commission lists only a shortlist, under the name European Capital of Tourism.
- What we would skip: reading a title as a ranking. These titles reward what a city or site plans or has done for the programme's own aims; they are not ratings of places to visit.
Sources
The winners and descriptions come from the European Commission's European Capital and Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism website, read on 1 October 2026. See how we research.
- European Commission, European Capital and Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism: previous competitions, and its winners page for each year. Read it on the Commission's website. Accessed 1 October 2026. © European Union, licensed under CC BY 4.0; list reformatted and text summarised by Gallivanting Gadabout.
- European Commission, Cities 2027 (European Capital and Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism website). Read it on the Commission's website. Accessed 1 October 2026. © European Union, licensed under CC BY 4.0; list reformatted and text summarised by Gallivanting Gadabout.
Changes made. The lists on this page come from the European Commission's pages named under Sources. We reformatted them into tables, added links to our own pages, and summarised the Commission's text in our own words. © European Union; the Commission's content is reused under CC BY 4.0. We use no logos, emblems or images from these pages. Gallivanting Gadabout is not connected with the European Commission, which does not endorse this page.