Cycling tourism on the global scene at ITB Berlin 2025: network, knowledge transfer and destinations

Bringing cycling knowledge to the tourism industry

ECF’s 2025 participation in ITB Berlin was kindly supported by the EuroVelo 15 and EuroVelo 19 Partnerships. Thanks to this support, we were able to co-host a cycling tourism session as part of the ITB Convention programme. The session, titled ‘The success of cycling tourism: economic impact and multimodality’ was co-coordinated with ADFC and took place on the Green Stage in the afternoon of 5 March.

The 50-minute fast-paced session started with a keynote speech about cycling tourism in Germany by Christian Tänzler, Federal board member of the ADFC, and was followed by a round table on the challenges and opportunities of combining bicycles and trains moderated by Karin Werres of the Niedersachsen Tourism Board. The speakers were Simone Burster (Danube Office Ulm/Neu-Ulm), who introduced the Active2Public Transport project and the Danube cycling tourist survey, Barbara Buchholz (VisitWallonia) and Liesbet Vandebroek (VisitFlanders) who discussed Belgium’s offer for cyclists on trains and destination promotion, Christian Tänzler (ADFC) with yet another focus on German cycling tourists and Agathe Daudibon (European Cyclists’ Federation) introducing the ‘Cyclists love trains’ report. The session ended with a short dip into the most recent global data on cycling tourism as seen from ECF.

It was a well-attended session with around 200 participants and many follow-up questions off-stage, showing the interest in cycling tourism. It was a great opportunity to gather already and still-to-be-convinced participants – the ITB Convention attracts around 24,000 visitors on 4 stages, 200 sessions and 400 speakers.

Is it enough? Of course not. A longer session dedicated to cycling tourism would be needed to provide more in-depth knowledge of the sector's trends and dynamics. However, this would only be possible if tourism industry players, destinations and decision-makers support this concept.

The session can be re-watched on YouTube and the presentation is available at the end of this article.

Meeting old and new partners for EuroVelo and cycling tourism

ITB Berlin is a great opportunity to network with old and new partners, be they directly connected to the cycling world or from the broader tourism industry. Thanks to 12 meetings and one networking dinner with cycling tour operators, the two days spent in ITB were very productive for EuroVelo and Cycling Tourism Director Agathe Daudibon.

The main topics of discussions were in line with the 5 top trends of cycling tourism in 2025, published a few weeks ago: cycling and climate actions in tourism, multimodality, inclusivity of cycling experiences, quality of cycling offers, and strengthening a cycling tourism community. Some other ideas were part of the discussions, too: data and digital solutions for cycling products, and how to launch a cycling destination from scratch (and especially where to start and how to get involved).

Interestingly, the reactions to cycling tourism and EuroVelo are often positive and enthusiastic, but translating it for the tourism industry is not necessarily straightforward. It could be worth elaborating on an effective cycling tourism pitch for the tourism industry, collecting more targeted calls for action and better assessing the positive impact that cycling tourism can bring to the travel sector.

How are destinations promoting cycling and EuroVelo?

The main promoters of cycling tourism and EuroVelo during ITB Berlin are the destinations themselves, with attractive pictures or videos of cyclists displayed on the booths (Spain, Latvia, Wallonia, etc.), cycling brochures and maps (Slovakia, Poland, Extremadura, etc.), or specific cycle route promotion such as the Elbe cycle route in Germany (part of EuroVelo 4), Transdinarica in the Western Balkans or the Amazon of Europe Bike Trail at the Slovenian booth.

This year, Utrecht and the Dutch Tourism Board (NBTC) mastered it with a fun concept: get on a bike for a good cause and support cancer research! At the Netherlands booth, participants could ride a bike and for every kilometre cycled, 5 euros was donated to the UMC Utrecht Preferrable-effect study, which shows that breast cancer patients experience a better quality of life with exercise – including cycling. What a nice way to promote cycling to ITB Berlin visitors!

ECF is looking forward to next year’s edition, the 60th anniversary of ITB Berlin and hopefully an even bigger visibility for cycling tourism and EuroVelo.

Article by Agathe Daudibon