The Skål Europe Awards 2026 are designed to discover, recognise and share the ideas, experiences and achievements of members across our European network.
We want participation to be simple.
There is no mandatory application template and no need to transform a good initiative into a complicated award submission. Tell us what you have done, why you did it, what you achieved and, importantly, what others may be able to learn from your experience.
The Awards include three areas of recognition:
- Sustainability Awards
- Tourism Technology Awards
- Special Awards
The Sustainability and Tourism Technology Awards recognise professional projects and initiatives brought forward by members.
The Special Awards follow a different process and recognise significant achievements and contributions within the Skål organisation.
Sustainability and Tourism Technology Awards
The Sustainability Awards and Tourism Technology Awards are centred on Skål members and their professional activities.
Projects and initiatives may have been developed individually, by a team, within a company or organisation, or together with external partners. The participating Skål member should have a meaningful connection with the work being presented.
Projects do not need to have been created specifically for the Awards. Existing initiatives, completed projects and experiences already presented or published elsewhere are welcome.
Projects may also vary considerably in scale. A valuable idea does not need to come from a large organisation or an expensive programme.
Club Endorsement
Every submission must be endorsed by a Skål Club.
Club endorsement confirms that the Club supports the submission and considers it appropriate for presentation within the Skål Europe Awards. It does not mean that the Club assumes responsibility for every statement or claim contained in the project.
We will also accept projects submitted by Clubs concerning initiatives developed by prospective members who have not yet completed their Skål membership, provided that the project is consistent with the principles and guidelines of the Awards.
This gives Clubs an opportunity not only to support their existing members, but also to bring interesting professionals, ideas and experiences closer to the Skål network.
Special Awards
The Skål Europe Special Awards follow a different process.
They recognise significant achievements and contributions within the Skål organisation and provide Clubs with an opportunity to bring forward members whose work, commitment, initiative or service deserves particular recognition at European level.
Candidates for a Special Award must be nominated by a Skål Club. Self-nominations are not accepted.
The nominating Club should provide a short presentation of the candidate and explain clearly the achievement or contribution for which recognition is proposed and why the Club considers it significant.
Where relevant, the nomination may be supported by documents, photographs, links, videos or other material that helps illustrate the contribution.
Special Awards are not intended to reproduce the project evaluation process used for the Sustainability or Tourism Technology Awards. They provide a separate form of recognition for achievements within Skål that deserve to be brought to the attention of the wider European membership.
What to Send
There is no mandatory application template.
For Sustainability and Tourism Technology submissions, projects may be presented as reports, presentations, case studies, illustrated documents or in another format appropriate to the initiative.
Please include:
- the title of the project or initiative;
- the name and contact details of the author or principal contact;
- the names of any additional authors or contributors;
- the company or organisation involved, where applicable;
- the Skål Club endorsing the submission;
- a short summary explaining the project, its objectives, what was done and its principal results or lessons;
- a photograph and short presentation of the author or authors;
- photographs illustrating the project or initiative, whenever available.
Supporting documentation is welcome whenever it helps us better understand the work.
For Special Awards, the nominating Club should provide the name and Club of the nominee, a short presentation, the reasons for the nomination and appropriate supporting material.
Language
All projects, presentations and nominations must be submitted in English.
Where original documents or other relevant materials are in another language, they may also be submitted in their original form, but an English translation must be provided.
This allows the experiences and ideas presented through the Awards to be accessible to members throughout the European and international Skål community.
Images
Good images help us give your work the visibility it deserves.
All images must be submitted in JPG/JPEG format and in the highest available resolution. Whenever possible, please send the original image file.
Please do not submit images in HEIC, HEIF or other device-specific formats that require conversion before publication.
Please also avoid small, low-resolution or heavily compressed images, including thumbnails, screenshots and images downloaded from social media or messaging applications. An image may look perfectly acceptable on a telephone screen while being too small for good-quality publication on a website.
As a practical guideline, images should preferably be at least 1,500 pixels wide. Larger original JPG files are welcome.
For Sustainability and Tourism Technology projects, please include a good-quality photograph of the author or authors as well as images illustrating the initiative.
For Special Award nominations, please include a good-quality photograph of the nominee.
Videos and Other Media
We are glad to receive additional material that can help tell the story.
This may include videos, interviews, presentations, publications, demonstrations, websites or other digital media.
Where videos or other materials are already publicly available through platforms such as YouTube, please provide the relevant links.
When appropriate, Skål Europe will be pleased to include or embed this material when presenting participating projects and initiatives on skaleurope.org.
Intellectual Property and Publication
Authors and project owners retain their intellectual property rights over all materials submitted to the Skål Europe Awards.
By submitting material to the Awards, participants also agree that Skål Europe may publish, reproduce and promote the submitted material through skaleurope.org and through Skål Europe’s communication and educational activities.
Submitted material may be adapted for formatting, presentation, translation or editorial purposes, while respecting the substantive meaning of the original work and appropriately identifying its authors.
Participants are responsible for ensuring that they have the necessary rights and permissions for photographs, videos, music, documents and any other third-party material included in their submission.
Authors remain responsible for the accuracy of the information and claims contained in their projects.
As the Skål Europe Awards are intended to promote the sharing of experiences and ideas, submissions should not contain confidential, restricted or commercially sensitive information that cannot be made public. Participants are responsible for ensuring that the materials they submit may legitimately be published and shared by Skål Europe under the conditions described above.
More Than an Award Submission
Participation in the Skål Europe Awards does not end with the selection of Award recipients.
One of the purposes of the Awards is to discover worthwhile professional experiences and allow good ideas to circulate throughout our network.
Skål Europe may therefore present participating projects and initiatives on skaleurope.org, including through dedicated articles, interviews and supporting editorial content.
Sometimes the most interesting aspect of a project is not its size or even its final result. It may be an original idea, an unexpected solution, a practical lesson or an approach that could be adapted elsewhere.
We want to discover and share these experiences.
Where a project or experience can contribute to wider professional learning, participants may also be invited to present their work through the Skål Europe Academy, creating further opportunities for dialogue and exchange among members.
Deadline and How to Submit
All submissions and nominations for the Skål Europe Awards 2026 must be received by:
31 October 2026
Please send submissions by email to:
Please clearly indicate the relevant Award area:
Sustainability Awards
Tourism Technology Awards
Special Awards
For Sustainability and Tourism Technology Awards, submissions may be sent by the participating member or team and must be endorsed by a Skål Club.
For Special Awards, nominations must be submitted by a Skål Club. Self-nominations are not accepted.
Skål Europe reserves the right to determine whether submitted material falls within the scope and principles of the Awards and is appropriate for publication.
Evaluation and Awards
The Skål Europe Board acts as the Jury of the Skål Europe Awards 2026.
Submissions for the Sustainability Awards and Tourism Technology Awards will be evaluated according to the principles and criteria described in the respective Award sections.
Nominations for the Special Awards will be considered separately, taking into account the significance of the achievement or contribution within the Skål organisation.
Where a member of the Skål Europe Board is directly involved in a submission or nomination, or has a significant conflict of interest concerning it, that Board member will not participate in its evaluation.
The Board may contact participants, authors, nominating Clubs or other relevant parties where additional information or clarification would help in understanding a submission.
The Board may also grant additional recognition or a special distinction when the nature or particular merit of a submission justifies it.
Decisions concerning the conferral of the Skål Europe Awards 2026 are final.
Publication or presentation of a participating project, initiative or nomination by Skål Europe does not in itself indicate that it has received an Award, nor does it constitute formal endorsement by Skål Europe of every aspect or claim contained in the submitted material.
Share What You Are Doing
A project does not need to be large to contain a valuable idea.
It does not need to be new, and it does not need to have been created specifically for an award.
What matters is that there is an experience worth sharing.
If something you have developed, implemented or learned could help another tourism professional think differently, solve a problem or discover a new possibility, we would like to hear about it.
Bring your experience. Share your ideas. Help good ideas travel.
![Ideas and Experiences Worth Sharing What are you doing that others could learn from? Every day, Skål members develop solutions, introduce new practices, experiment with technology, improve the sustainability of their activities and contribute to the communities and destinations in which they operate. Some are major projects. Others are small changes that work. Many contain ideas and experiences that deserve to travel further. The Skål Europe Awards 2026 invite members to bring these experiences forward, giving Skål Europe an opportunity to discover what is happening across our network, recognise significant achievements and, most importantly, share knowledge that may be valuable to others. The 2026 Awards include three areas of recognition. Sustainability Awards Sustainability is increasingly part of the everyday reality of tourism. The Skål Europe Sustainability Awards 2026 recognise members involved in initiatives and practices that contribute to more sustainable tourism, creating value for businesses, communities, destinations and the environment. The Awards continue an established Skål Europe initiative while remaining open to different approaches, different scales and different stages of development. What matters is the experience behind the initiative, what has been achieved and what others may be able to learn from it. [Discover the Skål Europe Sustainability Awards 2026] Tourism Technology Awards Technology is transforming tourism, but technology alone is not the objective. The Skål Europe Tourism Technology Awards 2026 look for practical applications of technology that address real needs, create opportunities, improve experiences or help tourism organisations and professionals work better. Solutions do not need to be complex or based on the latest technological trend to be valuable. What matters is what the technology makes possible. [Discover the Skål Europe Tourism Technology Awards 2026] Special Awards Some contributions deserve recognition precisely because they do not fit easily into predefined categories. The Skål Europe Special Awards 2026 provide an opportunity to recognise people, initiatives, achievements and contributions of particular significance to tourism and to the values represented by Skål. They allow us to look beyond standard categories and acknowledge contributions that deserve particular attention. [Discover the Skål Europe Special Awards 2026] The Member at the Centre The Skål Europe Awards are about our members and their professional experience. Members may bring forward work developed individually, within their companies or organisations, together with colleagues and partners, or as part of wider initiatives. The purpose is not to appropriate collective achievements, but to give members an opportunity to bring valuable experiences from their professional world into the Skål network. Participation does not begin with the question, “Can I win?” It begins with a different question: “Is there something in this experience that could be useful to others?” If the answer is yes, we would like to know about it. From Recognition to Knowledge Sharing The Awards are an opportunity to recognise excellence, but recognition is only part of their purpose. Every serious initiative contains experience. Sometimes its greatest value is found in a result; sometimes in an original idea, an unexpected solution, a lesson learned or an approach that could be adapted elsewhere. Throughout the Awards programme, Skål Europe will therefore seek opportunities to give participating initiatives greater visibility through articles, interviews and other editorial content. Where an experience can contribute to wider professional learning, participants may also be invited to present their work through the Skål Europe Academy, creating further opportunities for dialogue and exchange among members. In this way, an idea developed in one business, destination or country can inspire professionals elsewhere. Help Good Ideas Travel The strength of an international professional network lies not only in whom we know, but also in what we can learn from one another. The Skål Europe Awards provide a platform for members to make their experience visible, discover what their colleagues are doing and contribute practical knowledge to the wider Skål community. The Skål Europe Awards 2026 will be presented during the Skål Europe Annual General Assembly, scheduled to take place in November 2026. The date and location will be announced separately. Detailed information about participation, submissions and the individual areas of recognition is available through the Sustainability Awards, Tourism Technology Awards and Special Awards pages. Whatever the scale of your initiative, if you believe there is something in your experience that other tourism professionals could learn from, we would like to hear about it. Bring your experience. Share your ideas. Help good ideas travel.](https://www.skaleurope.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/European-Awards-2026-001-510x510.jpg)
