When Alpe-Adria region talks about awards, it certainly talks about the Jakob Award annually presented to regional quality and excellence in tourism and granted at Alpe-Adria international fair which has been for 30 consecutive years organised and hosted by the GR – Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre.
Every year, an international committee selects the best tourist product that contributes a significant part into the mosaic of innovative endeavours in tourist industry in the Alps-Adriatic region with the emphasis on a sustainable approach. In 2020, the award, which has been named after the first traveler, the pilgrim Jacob, is going to reach its 10th anniversary and for this reason the GR – Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre, which organizes and hosts the Alpe-Adria fair, added some novelties to the content of the call for the award. From now on, the international expert jury will select the best five, already implemented projects and then it will award the best one to receive the award for the year along the title Ambassador for a specific field of inventiveness in tourism.
The theme of the jubilee 10th Jakob Award is “Innovative Tourist Content and Programs in Castles and Chateaus”. As the president of the international jury, Janez Bogataj, PhD, notes, the prize is “an incentive and a motive for all those who, in one way or the other, work in tourism, and to tourists, a guideline for many qualities in various areas of tourist contents and the tourist way of life in general.” Alpe-Adria fair will take place in the GR – Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre between the 29th of January and 1st of February 2020. The application deadline for the Jakob Award is the 29th of October 2019; the interested castles, chateaus and manors from the Alpe-Adria region can apply here.
In 2019, the Jakob Award was presented for the 9th time and it was granted for a realised touristic project related to the topic “New sustainable hunting, fishing and wildlife observation tourism forms.” The Award went to Fonda Fish Garden and its programme of Unforgettable Day at the Fonda Fish Garden. Irena Fonda, CEO of Fonda Fish Garden told for Kongres Magazine: “The Jakob Award told us that we are doing the right thing, we are on the right track. This gives us an additional support and pushes us to continue to do what we do and to get even better at it. It means that acknowledgment of our hard and dedicated work and we are incredibly honoured and happy about it.”
