International Garden of the Year Award 2013 - 29.03.13
... and the Garden Oscar goes to: The Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle
On 19 March 2013, the Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle received the coveted International Garden of the Year Award for 2013 at the Garden Tourism Conference in Toronto, Canada. After having been named Italy’s Most Beautiful Garden in 2005 and Europe’s No. 6 Garden in 2006, the Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle has now been elevated to the ranks of the world’s most illustrious gardens and parks.
The Garden Tourism Conference headquartered in Toronto, Canada, chose to present this prestigious award to the Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle based upon the garden’s importance for tourism in South Tyrol and highlighted its quality, beauty and diversity. The jury was particularly impressed with Trauttmansdorff’s evolution: having opened only in 2001, the complex records more than 400,000 visitors a year during the garden season, which runs for 7.5 months. The botanical garden is thus an important driving force for the tourism industry in Merano and South Tyrol. The 19th of March, the Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle received the international award during the course of the 2013 Garden Tourism Conference.
International Garden of the Year Award for 2013
“The International Garden Tourism Award is truly a special honor considering that the illustrious Singapore Botanical Garden was the previous winner. I am extremely happy that we, as a province government, had the foresight necessary to bring this extraordinary garden project to fruition, even in the face of strong opposition. What ultimately led to this level of international recognition, however, was ongoing development of the original design, a high level of maintenance, and very skillful marketing,” says the delighted Luis Durnwalder, South Tyrol’s governor and president of the Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle.
Back in 2005, the Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle was named Italy’s Most Beautiful Garden for its successful combination of nature, art, history and tradition as well as its spirit of innovation. Just one year later, Trauttmansdorff won another major award: Europe's No. 6 Garden. The distinction of being named the 2013 International Garden of the Year now recompenses efforts to skillfully unite and market gardens and tourism, providing economic stimulus to the region.
Since 2011, the prestigious Garden Tourism Awards have been presented at the Garden Tourism Conference. The Garden Tourism Conference takes place every two years in Toronto, Canada; it is the North American counterpart to a sister conference in Metz, France. Both of these conferences are considered to be points of reference for the development of parks and gardens within the garden tourism sector. The patrons of the Garden Tourism Awards – the Canadian Garden Tourism Council, the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association (CNLA), the American Public Gardens Association (APGA) and the Garden Tourism Conference – acknowledge gardens from all around the world for outstanding contributions in the field of garden tourism. Above and beyond the international awards, acknowledgements are also given to achievements of Canadian garden tourism facilities, and noteworthy gardens and parks in the U.S. are presented.
Garden tourism is a rapidly growing sector in the tourism industry; it has gained more and more importance in the Anglo-American and German-speaking countries in particular. In fact, one out of ten tourists now indicates that a garden visit is his or her primary motivation for traveling. In his recent pivotal book Garden Tourism (2013), Richard W. Benfield reports that gardens worldwide receive more visitors than Disneyland and Disney World combined. Garden shows around the world, most of which are also urban development projects, also welcome millions of visitors. The 2012 Floriade exhibition, which takes place every ten years, registered 2.2 million visitors to Venlo (NL) in just six months.
The season at the Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle opens this year on 29 March. A richly colored spring with hundreds of thousands of tulips, special events, the opening of the new Glass House in late summer 2013, the tenth anniversary of the Touriseum and much more herald an eventful garden season!
For more information, please visit:www.gardentourismconference.com