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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.

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.

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.

Baltic Biking UPGRADE project – EuroVelo 10 – Baltic Sea Cycle Route
Baltic Biking UPGRADE project – EuroVelo 10 – Baltic Sea Cycle Route

BBU will address 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 bookable offers and successfully reaching out to foreign markets. For this purpose, several actions will be 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 partners of BBU are:

Associated partners are:

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.

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