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ICTr-CE

Funded by the Interreg Central Europe programme 2021-2027, ICTr-CE involves 8 countries and 3,000 km of EuroVelo 13 – Iron Curtain Trail. The project kicked off in March 2023 and will last three years. Its aim is to develop a new, innovative, participatory and sustainable business model for a single tourism product along the Iron Curtain Trail.

ICTr-CE – short for Innovative participatory sustainable business model for cycling along the Iron Curtain Trail – is a 3-year project that aims to develop an innovative tourism product along EuroVelo 13 in Central Europe, from northern Poland and Germany to Croatia. 8 countries and more than 3,000 km of the route are involved in the project, funded by Interreg Central Europe.

EuroVelo 13 – Iron Curtain Trail bears a significant historical and cultural meaning for European contemporary history. Since 2019, EuroVelo 13 is a certified Cultural Route of the Council of Europe, and it overlaps with the European Green Belt. It has a high potential to be a successful tourism product, but there is a lack of innovation, capacities and awareness of the impacts of cycling tourism on the local level. These challenges affect in particular SMEs and sectoral agencies from regions along the Iron Curtain Trail, which cannot afford to adopt the needed green and digital solutions.

ICTr-CE will develop a programme to strengthen the capacities of SMEs and other stakeholders with digital solutions and mentoring. The project will create an innovative common cycling tourism product for the Iron Curtain Trail and a participatory business model, followed by an impact measurement system and a Good Impact valorisation programme for NGOs. The end project results will be transferrable to all EuroVelo routes.

Project partners of ICTr-CE are: