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EuroVelo 13 – Iron Curtain Trail (ICT)

EuroVelo 13 – Iron Curtain Trail runs for over 10,000 km through 20 countries. This project brought together stakeholders from 8 countries in the northern and central sections of the route. In doing so it complemented another project related to the southern section of the route and supported by Interreg South East Europe (SEE).

The project ran for 18 months from April 2014 to October 2015 and was co-financed by the European Commission DG Entreprise and Industry.

Some History

In 2011, project partners in three separate projects supported by DG ENTR (North, Central, South), collected and evaluated the potential itineraries, services, marketing conditions, organisational structures and financial resources before identifying the actions necessary to realise the route by 2020.

The www.EuroVelo.com project (supported by DG ENTR in 2012) provided general information about the route and set a standard for EuroVelo-related websites, which in turn encouraged the development of national web sites in several countries.

The southern section of EuroVelo 13 – Iron Curtain Trail was the focus of a separate Interreg-funded project (Interreg IVB South East Europe project ‘Iron Curtain Trail’), which started in 2013. This project defined the exact route trace in all SEE countries (including those that had not been part of the 2011 DG ENTR project), provided some limited funding for infrastructure improvements and established some transnational marketing and communication tools. This included a detailed webportal for this section of EuroVelo 13, at www.eurovelo13.com. Additionally, the project focused on strengthening the sustainability of the route, through the development of links with public transport.

EuroVelo 13 – Iron Curtain Trail Project

In 2014, DG ENTR funded this project, aimed at developing transnational offers along the northern section of the EuroVelo 13 route. The project also contributed to the creation of detailed information and touristic offers for all the countries covered by the project and the further development of the www.eurovelo13.com webportal. This project aimed to diversify the European tourism offer and contribute to economic regeneration and job creation in declining (post-) industrial regions through the promotion of a touristic product based on a long distance cycle route following the former Iron Curtain.

The specific objectives of the project were the following:

  • Strengthening transnational cooperation with regard to sustainable tourism;
  • Encouraging a higher involvement of small and medium enterprises and local authorities; and
  • Stimulating competitiveness of tourism industry by means of an enhanced focus on the diversification of sustainable tourism thematic products.

ECF was one of 13 partners from 9 different countries:

Finland

  • North Karelian University of Applied Sciences

Estonia

  • City Bike (SME)

Latvia

  • Latvian Tourism Development Agency (national tourism authority)
  • Vidzeme Tourist Association (regional tourism authority)

Lithuania

  • Baltic Bike Travel (SME)

Poland

  • Pomeranian Association Common Europe (PSWE)
  • Polish Tourist Organisation(national tourism authority)

Germany

  • ADFC Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
  • ADFC Saxony-Anhalt
  • ADFC Thünringen

Czech Republic

  • Nadace Partnerstvi
  • South Moravia Destinantion Agency (regional tourism authority)

Austria

  • Weinviertel Tourismus