ITB Berlin 2026: AI, cycling tourism and active tourism coalition
ITB Berlin is one of the largest travel fair globally with 97,000 visitors and 5,000+ exhibitors from 166 countries during the 3-day event. In 2026 again, ECF has been representing cycling tourism and EuroVelo in Berlin. In this article, we share what are our key learning points on global travel industry trends including AI, interest for cycling tourism and active tourism coalition. ECF’s participation has been supported by EuroVelo 15 – Rhine Cycle Route and EuroVelo 19 – Meuse Cycle Route partnerships.
Global trends from the travel industry and AI
Amid geopolitical crises, rising prices and climate change, ITB Berlin is where trends in the travel industry are discussed from a business perspective. A couple of days after the start of the war in the Middle East, which prevented some participants and countries from attending, ITB 2026 celebrated its 60th anniversary and continued to promote a confident travel industry. Covid times seem far away, even though resilience and preparedness to crises are on the central stage, together with digitalisation, tech and AI presented as solutions to global tourism challenges. The top ten trends after ITB Berlin show it well: “staying the course in turbulent time”.
AI was part of every conversation during ITB 2026 and was almost impossible to avoid. For instance, almost one session out of two in the ITB Convention had AI in its title. All sessions are available on YouTube.
Generative AI is a growing tool to research, plan, or book travels: its use went from 6% to 15% for US Travelers between 2023 and 2025, while general search engines dropped from 50% to 36% (source). But within cycling tourism, the share is still very low: only 3% of German cycling tourists used AI as a source of information in 2025. Still, this shift has a direct impact on web traffic metrics for tourism-focused websites, especially as automatic AI overviews are integrated into search engine results, making it less likely for people to click onto dedicated pages.
While usage is increasing, businesses in the tourism sector area are also using AI for their operations, moving from chatbots to booking services or developing AI tools to manage tourism services. In this rapidly changing landscape, global companies are racing for innovations, integrating AI in travel businesses. Those global changes go way beyond the cycling tourism sector, but it is also reflected by initiatives such as the one from Tour Operator, Boat & Bike Tour, developing its own AI agent (source).
Destinations are also increasingly using AI in daily operations to increase productivity and quality. See for example ETC’s report “Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Tourism – Assessing & Supporting NTO’s Research & Marketing Operations”. The main challenge being skill developments and large differences in practices.
The growing use of AI also raises questions: trust in the results and performance of the AI solutions; dependency on foreign technology; the environmental impact of AI and data centres; usability of quality proofed data by AI solutions and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).
AI in cycling tourism will be featured in the programme of the EuroVelo & Cycling Tourism Conference and is one of the cycling tourism trends in 2026.
Cycling Tourism at ITB Berlin 2026
For the third year in a row, cycling tourism was highlighted in the programme of the ITB Convention with a dedicated session coordinated by ECF. Presenting itself as “the world’s leading travel industry think tank”, the ITB Convention attracts 24,000 visitors on 4 stages and 200 sessions.
The well-attended session “Cycling tourism trends 2026: innovation, knowledge and public-private strategies” included a keynote from Agathe Daudibon, EuroVelo and cycling tourism Director at ECF, on the 2026 cycling tourism trends followed by 5 expert pitches showcasing the diversity and dynamism of the sector from: Heiko Riekenberg, CEO at CycleSummit; Wanda Nowotarska, regional cycling officer at West Pomerania region and EuroVelo Council member; Bastiaan Overeem, programme manager at NBTC; Christian Tänzler, Board member of ADFC; Isabell Eberlein, CEO at Velokonzept.
The session can be re-watched on YouTube.
But the best promoters of cycling tourism at ITB Berlin were again the destinations themselves. Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Switzerland, Türkiye (and probably many more that we did not spot): all included cycling in their booth with pictures, videos or documentations.
Cycling tour operators were also present at ITB, but mainly as participants or hosted on a partner booth. The community gathered for a dinner organised by CycleSummit with about 50 guests. The annual gathering of cycling tour operators, CycleSummit, will happen in Groningen from 3-6 October, just after the EuroVelo & Cycling Tourism Conference in Utrecht from 30 September to 2 October.
One highlight of cycling tourism at ITB Berlin was the presentation of the ADFC Bicycle Travel Analysis 2025’s results, attracting many German experts and professionals in cycling tourism. The survey was first held 26 years ago and it is done every two years. It focuses on how Germans use the bicycle for holidays and leisure activities.
Even if the number declined slightly in 2025, more than half of German adults (39,3 million) use bicycles for holidays and leisure activities and generated an estimated economic impact of €40B euros, with €12B coming from day trips alone.
Active tourism coalition in action
ITB Berlin 2026 was also an opportunity to meet partners from the Active Tourism Coalition and discuss how to put active tourism, such as cycling, walking, hiking and other activities, higher on the political and industry agenda.
As the EU Sustainable Tourism Strategy is under preparation and has been announced for Spring 2026, the 20 members of the Active Tourism Coalition call for recognition within this policy framework and capitalising on Europe’s strong reputation as an Active Tourism Destination.
Article by Agathe Daudibon
Cover photo: Szymon Nitka
Read our recap articles from the past two years of ITB: