Jérôme Viaud, Territorial Tourism Leadership 2026 in Grasse

Jérôme Viaud — Mayor of Grasse and President of the Pays de Grasse Agglomeration Community © City of Grasse

Strong tourism destinations are not invented by campaigns. They grow from identities that already have meaning and from policies capable of protecting, organising and sharing that identity. In Grasse, perfume, living know-how, heritage and landscape form a territorial story with international recognition. Jérôme Viaud receives Territorial Tourism Leadership 2026 for the way that story has been developed as a contemporary tourism strategy.

Jérôme Viaud personally received the Territorial Tourism Leadership 2026 distinction at the European Hotel Awards for his work as Mayor of Grasse and President of the Pays de Grasse Agglomeration Community. The Award recognises a tourism policy that links heritage, culture, economy, professional know-how, transmission and destination appeal rather than treating promotion as an isolated activity.

Grasse: a destination whose identity comes before its marketing

Grasse has an unusual advantage in tourism: its name already carries meaning around the world. The city is associated with perfume, flowers, natural raw materials, fragrance houses and a professional history that has shaped both its economy and landscape.

The challenge is therefore not to invent a brand, but to turn an existing reputation into a visitor experience that remains truthful. Museums, historic streets, flower cultivation, workshops, cultural events and the perfume industry itself allow travellers to understand the territory through real practices rather than a simplified image.

Grasse benefits from an internationally recognised identity rooted in perfume, heritage and the landscape of the Pays de Grasse © City of Grasse

UNESCO recognition as living heritage

On 28 November 2018, the skills related to perfume in the Pays de Grasse were inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The recognition covers the cultivation of perfume plants, knowledge and processing of natural raw materials, and the art of perfume composition.

For tourism policy, such recognition carries responsibility. Intangible heritage only remains meaningful when it is practised, transmitted and understood. Tourism can help sustain that process when visitors are brought into contact with growers, artisans, cultural institutions and professionals who keep the knowledge alive.

UNESCO recognition gives international visibility to perfume know-how while reinforcing the need for transmission and living practice © City of Grasse

Beyond perfume: building a complete territorial experience

Grasse is also a Ville d’Art et d’Histoire, and the destination extends beyond one globally famous industry. Historic architecture, museums, gardens, surrounding villages and the transition between the Mediterranean and the Pre-Alps give the territory a broader cultural and landscape identity.

This matters because a durable destination cannot depend on a single attraction, however powerful. Visitors need reasons to stay longer, move through the territory and understand how its different elements connect. Viaud’s dual role at city and agglomeration level gives that strategy a wider geographic frame than the municipal boundary alone.

Architecture, museums, gardens and landscape extend the tourism identity of Grasse beyond perfume alone © City of Grasse

Why Jérôme Viaud received Territorial Tourism Leadership 2026

The European Hotel Awards Board selected Jérôme Viaud because his tourism leadership connects a globally recognised identity with the living economic, cultural and human systems that give that identity substance. The Award recognises a policy that does not separate destination promotion from perfume cultivation, professional know-how, heritage conservation, cultural transmission and the wider development of the Pays de Grasse.

The Board also considered the significance of the 2018 UNESCO inscription. Rather than using it simply as a promotional label, the territory continues to connect the recognition with the people and practices it was designed to protect. That gives tourism a role in transmission and understanding, not only consumption.

Finally, the distinction recognises a territorial scale of leadership. As Mayor of Grasse and President of the Pays de Grasse Agglomeration Community, Viaud is able to connect the historic centre with villages, landscapes, flower-growing areas, cultural institutions and the perfume sector. That coherence gives the destination a depth that a city-only campaign could not create.

Tourism as the organisation of meaning

The relevance of this Award within the European Hotel Awards is clear: the hotel experience begins before the hotel door. Travellers first encounter a destination, its landscape, culture, reputation and sense of welcome. Strong territorial leadership helps create the conditions in which hospitality businesses themselves can succeed.

In Grasse, the objective is not to convert heritage into a static product. It is to use international recognition as a foundation for contemporary development while keeping the economic and cultural ecosystem alive. Territorial Tourism Leadership 2026 recognises that ability to transform inheritance into an active project.

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European Hotel Awards 2026 Partners

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