The winners of the 2025 Tourism Awards Have Been Announced
The Estonian Association of Tourism and Travel Agencies (ETFL) announced the winners of the 2025 Tourism Awards at the opening ceremony of Tourest 2026, held on February 13, 2026, at the Estonian Exhibition and Convention Center. The luxury hotel The Burman Hotel was named Tourism Establishment of the Year, Eero Pärgmäe was selected as Tourism Promoter of the Year, and Heli Tooman received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Tourism.
The nominees for the 2025 Tourism Attraction Award were the Wagenküll Hotel and Amusement Park, The Burman Hotel in Tallinn’s Old Town, and the Saaremaa Zoo.
Members of the Estonian Association of Tourism and Travel Agencies selected The Burman Hotel—a newly opened luxury hotel located in Tallinn’s Old Town—as the 2025 tourism destination of the year, highlighting it for the international attention it has received. Specifically, The Burman Hotel received recognition from The MICHELIN Guide, the world’s most prestigious guide to restaurants and hotels: two MICHELIN keys and a special award for the world’s best new hotel of the year.
“The Burman Hotel undoubtedly enriches Tallinn’s hotel offerings and strengthens the city’s position as an attractive destination for both tourism and hosting international events. Receiving such recognition in its very first year of operation is a remarkable achievement. It is particularly noteworthy that the hotel was the only one in the entire Nordic and Baltic region to be awarded two MICHELIN keys. This is a hotel with character and charm, run with obvious pride and dedication,” commented Asmik Tsaturjan, CEO of ETFL.
The nominees for the 2025 Tourism Promoter Award were Kristel Peikel, head of the Hiiumaa Tourism Cluster; Eero Pärgmäe, a member of the board of AS Tallinn Airport; and Ain-Alar Juhanson, organizer of Ironman Tallinn. Eero Pärgmäe was selected as the winner for bringing Jet2.com’s series of Christmas market flights to Tallinn and for his consistent work in developing Estonia’s air connections and maintaining Tallinn Airport’s international profile.
“Eero Pärgmäe has been involved in tourism development for 25 years—starting with the implementation of EU-funded tourism projects and progressing to the strategic development of air connections. As a result of his significant contributions, Tallinn Airport has become one of the world’s most convenient air hubs, connecting Estonia to the world. “Well-functioning air connections support the entire country’s economy and tourism sector, and bringing the Christmas market charter flights to Tallinn is one of the most telling examples of this,” commented Asmik Tsaturjan, CEO of ETFL.
Starting in 2022, the ETFL will also present a Lifetime Achievement Award in Tourism, which aims to honor an individual whose years of contribution to the development of Estonian tourism have earned high praise from the general public, and whose entire body of work and social activism have served as an example to others. This year, the award went to Heli Tooman, professor emerita at the University of Tartu’s Pärnu College, for her more than 50 years of contribution to the development of tourism education and service culture in Estonia.
Heli has contributed to the quality of education and the development of learning and teaching as chair of the National Curriculum Council for Tourism Studies, as chair and member of the Ministry of Education and Research’s expert committee on tourism curricula, and as a member of working groups on professional standards. Heli was also the driving force behind the founding and launch of the Tourism Education Association, serving as its first director.
“This is the greatest and most prestigious recognition of my more than half-century-long career in tourism. It’s nice to recall that I took part in the very first Tourest as a visitor—not as a tourism entrepreneur—and by the second one, we were already there with a joint, albeit rather modest, Pärnu exhibit,” Heli Tooman recalled as she accepted the award.
“Under Heli’s leadership, Pärnu College’s tourism curricula were created and developed, and more than 2,000 future tourism professionals from across Estonia have studied under these programs. Heli’s consistent work as a lecturer, curriculum developer, member of expert committees, and author of professional literature has influenced the professional development of the entire Estonian tourism sector,” commented Tsaturjan.
The Estonian Association of Tourism and Travel Agencies is organizing Tourest, the oldest tourism fair in the Baltic States, for the 33rd time this year. The international tourism community will take over the Estonian Exhibition Center from February 13–15, and Tourest 2026 will bring nearly half as many international exhibitors to Tallinn as in previous years.
The Estonian Association of Tourism and Travel Companies is a voluntary association of employers in the tourism sector, comprising 73 members. The association’s core members are Estonian travel agencies and tour operators; its associate members include transportation companies, tourism organizations, educational institutions, hotels, insurance companies, providers of support services for the tourism sector, state and municipal agencies, and foreign tourism organizations. ETFL is a member of ECTAA, the pan-European umbrella organization for tourism industry associations.