Many travelers recognize the significance of the designation conferred by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. UNESCO World Heritage sites are comprised of some 878 properties worldwide which form “part of the cultural and natural heritage that the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value.” By meeting strict criteria pertaining to natural or cultural significance, some of Europe’s most obvious places are included on the list. It comes as no surprise, for example, that Cologne’s cathedral, southern Italy’s Pompeii, Athens’ Acropolis and the west Norwegian fjord landscape all make the cut.

Happy New Year!

Here we are, in the early days of 2009. What an appropriate time to check into what the various countries of Europe are promoting as their top events for the upcoming year. 

A good place to start for researching this topic is with the official tourist information agencies for the countries themselves. The Tourism Offices Worldwide Directory is a handy Web site to bookmark in order to easily find any given country’s official source of tourist information. Here’s a quick country-by-country look at some of the events you may wish to check out through 2009: