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Baltic Biking UPGRADE

Baltic Biking UPGRADE (BBU) is an Interreg South Baltic co-funded project aiming to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) along the southern part of EuroVelo 10 – Baltic Sea Cycle Route. The nine partners, covering six countries, will seek to assist the SMEs in developing bicycle-friendly services as well as in creating cycling tourism products and offers.
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Project's history

Following the Biking South Baltic project results, and based on ECF expertise and discussion with regions’ authorities, an application was submitted to the Interreg South Baltic programme with success. This project was born out of the assessment that SMEs are aware of the EuroVelo 10 – Baltic Sea Cycle Route's potential but do not know how to connect their offer with the route and market it to future customers.

Project's summary

Baltic Biking UPGRADE (BBU) officially started on 1 September 2023 and will run over a three-year period (2023-2026). Led by Pomorskie Tourist Board, the project involves 6 countries – including Belgium as ECF is based in Brussels – 5 being along the South Baltic part (Poland, Lithuania, Sweden, Denmark, Germany) of EuroVelo 10 – Baltic Sea Cycle Route. These five countries cover more than 4,900 km of the route, out of a total of 9,100 km, meaning more than half of the route.

BBU 3rd partner project meeting in Lolland Falster, Denmark, October 2024
BBU 3rd partner project meeting in Lolland Falster, Denmark, October 2024

The BBU project addresses some significant challenges of SMEs located in the South Baltic Area of EuroVelo 10: lack of knowledge, underdeveloped bicycle-friendly standards, services and offers, as well as a lack of a solid business network and partnerships with relevant peers, including international stakeholders.

The main goal of the project is to assist SMEs in creating attractive cycling-friendly offers and successfully reaching out to foreign markets. For this purpose, several actions are being set up: dedicated training on creating new offers targeting an international audience, guidelines on how to start, a dedicated campaign to market the new offers, and an invitation to join the EuroVelo 10 network in the South Baltic Area.

BBU will allow for the roll-out of more and better bicycle-friendly services along EuroVelo 10, with new products and offers for cycling visitors. The ultimate aim is to make the area more visible in the international cycling tourism market and to strengthen the development and management of the route thanks to closer transnational cooperation.

Project's deliverables

The BBU partners are glad to introduce the first deliverables of the project:

marketing guidelines eurovelo 10 cover

Coming next:

The Baltic Biking UPGRADE project will also be represented at Velo-city Gdansk 2025, visit the booth to learn more about the project and meet the partners!

BBU project represented at Velo-city Ghent 2024 From left to right: Alexandra Fournier (EuroVelo and Projects Coordinator at ECF), Magda Leszczyna-Rzucidło and Łukasz Magrian (representing Pomorska Regionalna Organizacja Turystyczna (PROT), the project lead partners) and Goran Lepen (Projects Director at ECF)
BBU project represented at Velo-city Ghent 2024 From left to right: Alexandra Fournier (EuroVelo and Projects Coordinator at ECF), Magda Leszczyna-Rzucidło and Łukasz Magrian (representing Pomorska Regionalna Organizacja Turystyczna (PROT), the project lead partners) and Goran Lepen (Projects Director at ECF)

A EuroVelo 10 multistakeholder platform will also be created to support and sustain cooperation between stakeholders after the project end. It will be a platform for promotion, networking, business opportunities and knowledge exchange. More information will be available on the page towards the end of the project.

BBU project partners:

BBU associated partners:

The Baltic Biking UPGRADE project budget is €1,936,077.90, of which €1,548,862.32 is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.

BBU 2nd partner project meeting in Barth, Germany, February 2024
BBU 2nd partner project meeting in Barth, Germany, February 2024
BBU 3rd partner project meeting in Lolland Falster, Denmark, October 2024
BBU 3rd partner project meeting in Lolland Falster, Denmark, October 2024

More information:

Cover picture: EuroVelo 10 – Baltic Sea Cycle Route © Biking South Baltic!