“Barranquilla Recognized as the World’s Best Creative Destination by the Creative Tourism Network®, and Its Carnival Named the World’s Best Creative Event”!

Credit: Jimmy Casas Ospina
Credit: Jimmy Casas Ospina
Credit: Jimmy Casas Ospina
Credit: Jimmy Casas Ospina

The colombian city of Barranquilla has been distinguished as the World Best Creative Destination in the 13th Worlds’ Creative Tourism Awards, consolidating its position as a global reference in creativity, sustainable development, and cultural tourism. The International Jury of the Creative Tourism Network® highlighted the city’s ability to integrate heritage, innovation, and community participation into an exemplary model of creative tourism that now inspires territories around the world.

  • Creative leadership that positions Barranquilla on the global stage

This recognition underscores the city’s commitment to creativity as a pillar of sustainable development, cultural vitality, and social cohesion. Barranquilla’s strategic vision has enabled its identity, talent, and creative industries to become engines of transformation and opportunity for the community.

The 2026 edition of the World Creative Tourism Awards was the most competitive since its creation, with 223 applications from 28 countries, reflecting the expansion of creative tourism as a regenerative, people‑centered model. This year’swinners—including Budapest, Cannes, Essaouira, Ljubljana, Belo Horizonte, Bangkok, Turin, the Charentes region, Barcelos, and Tunisia—demonstrate the diversity and vitality of this approach worldwide.

In the Caribbean, the awards developed with UNESCO Transcultura highlighted initiatives from Kingston, Cuba, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, Grenada, Nevis, Haiti, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, showcasing the region’s creative potential.

  • The Barranquilla Carnival: an international model of creative tourism

The jury also granted a special distinction to the Barranquilla Carnival for its outstanding creative tourism strategy and its contribution to sustainable cultural development in the Caribbean.

Recognized as Colombia’s first certified sustainable festivity, the Carnival was highlighted for:

  • Its holistic creative ecosystem, involving more than 400 tradition bearers—musicians, dancers, artisans, cooks, and storytellers—in co‑creation processes with visitors.
  • Its ability to generate authentic experiences, where travelers learn by doing and connect directly with cultural custodians.
  • Its impact on heritage transmission, local identity, and the creation of opportunities in sectors such as dance, music, gastronomy, fashion, crafts, and audiovisual production.
  • Its educational and transformative dimension, which reinterprets urban spaces as territories of living memory.

This distinction adds to the recognition received at the Caribbean Creative Tourism Awards, organized in collaboration with the UNESCO–EU Transcultura Programme, where the Carnival was once again celebrated as an example of creativity, sustainability, and community participation.

Regarding this achievement, Mayor Alejandro Char Chaljub stated:

“Barranquilla was recognized as the Best Creative Destination in the world at the Creative Tourism Awards. This award highlights sustainable development, creativity, and a tourism offering that is connected to our local identity. In Barranquilla, culture becomes social development, and the city now stands alongside territories such as New Orleans, Salvador de Bahía, Kingston, Boston, and Florence.

He further reflected on the significance of this recognition:

“Today Barranquilla speaks to the world. This is more than an award; it is a recognition of our identity, our people, and our way of understanding development through culture, creativity, and the participation of our communities. This distinction positions us as a global benchmark for a tourism model that is built by living it, feeling it, and creating it together with our people.”

caroline couret

As Caroline Couret, President of the Creative Tourism Network®, emphasized:

“The diversity of initiatives and the creative strength that converge in Barranquilla demonstrate that creativity truly belongs to everyone. This edition confirms it more than ever: it is inspiring to see how the city, its institutions, its communities, and its tradition bearers embrace creative tourism as a driver of sustainable, regenerative, and deeply human development. Barranquilla responds in an exemplary way to travelers’ growing desire for authentic and meaningful experiences, becoming a global reference for how creativity can transform territories and generate collective well‑being.”

  • Barranquilla, a benchmark for the future of creative tourism

The recognition as World Best Creative Destination and the distinction awarded to the Carnival strengthen Barranquilla’s leadership in building a tourism model that is innovative, sustainable, and deeply connected to its people. These achievements open new opportunities for international visibility, strategic alliances, and cooperation with global institutions.

The Creative Tourism Network®, known for its commitment to responsible and creative tourism models, will continue promoting programs, collaborations, and projects that enhance tourism’s social and cultural impact. In the context of the UN International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development (2026), the network will foster new creative‑volunteering initiatives, training programs, and co‑creation projects.

CreativeTourismAwards

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