ITB Berlin 2018

The EuroVelo team returned to the world’s leading tourism travel show, the ITB in Berlin from 7-11 March. It is the occasion to promote cycle tourism to professionals and the general public in the largest cycle tourism market. The big development this year was the organisation of a Cycle Tourism Day together with the ADFC, the German Nationla EuroVelo Coordinator. As part of that day’s programme the EuroVelo Cycle Tourism Awards were launched.

ECF and ADFC, the largest cyclists’ organisation in Germany, jointly organised a Cycle Tourism Day at the ITB Berlin on Friday 9 March. The opening session of the Cycle Tourism Day brought together leading experts from the cycling and tourism sectors to discuss best practices and future cycling-industry challenges.

The interactive presentations highlighted the benefits of cycling for tourism destinations. The speakers that participated were experts from the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), the European Travel Commission (ETC), the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) and also the Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad-Club e.V. (ADFC) and the Kooperation “Deutschlands schönste Flussradwege“.

Case studies of successful cycle tourism products were then provided in a series of interactive workshops. The sessions showcased successful cycle-tourism products at the European, national and regional levels with practical advice and best practices to attract cycle tourists. Topics ranged from how to establish a cycle-tourism product to the more innovative tourism-marketing tools to the economic impact of cycle tourism for regions.

On the occasion of the Cycle Tourism Day, the EuroVelo Cycle Tourism Awards were launched at the ITB, showcasing the 15 EuroVelo cycle routes as an economic, environmental, social and sustainable means of travel. The awards were presented to France, as the most popular cycle tourism country, and EuroVelo 15 – Rhine Cycle Route, as the most popular EuroVelo Route in 2017.

Over the weekend that followed (10-11 of March), the ITB opened to the public. EuroVelo 8 – Mediterranean Route, the focus of the MedCycleTour project and the EuroVelo 10 – Baltic Sea Cycle Route, the focus of the Biking South Baltic! project, featured strongly on our booth in the Adventure Hall (hall 4.1). It was a real success as more than a thousand interested visitors came and used the opportunity to get valuable information about the two routes.

You can find more information about the ECF’s participation at this year’s ITB on the ITB news’ website.

The MedCycleTour project is part of the transnational European Cooperation Programme for the Mediterranean area, which sees partner states from 13 countries cooperating in the Interreg MED Programme 2014-2020.

The Biking South Baltic! project receives funding from the Interreg South Baltic Programme.