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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

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 — Marketing guidelines eurovelo 10 cover

A comparative analysis of cycling-friendly schemes in Europe and a summary of local workshops conducted to discuss the topic of cycling-friendly labels, prepared by the project partner City of Barth in collaboration with Capufaktur e.V. Greifswald (December 2024)

Overview of small and medium-sized enterprises’ bicycle-friendly offers and services along EuroVelo 10 in the South Baltic Area, prepared by the project partner Visit Lolland-Falster, Denmark (December 2024)

Marketing guidelines for EuroVelo 10 in the South Baltic area – tailored for SMEs offering cyclist-friendly services and local tourism organisations, prepared by the project partner Pomorskie Tourist Board (November 2024)

Marketing strategy for the development of cycling-friendly services and offers along EuroVelo 10 in the South Baltic area, prepared by the project partner Pomorskie Tourist Board (November 2024)

More activities:

A pilot cross-border bike rental between Germany and Denmark has been launched along EuroVelo 10 – Baltic Sea Cycle Route. Cyclists using the bike rental service in 2025 can benefit from a 15% discount by using a bike with GPS tracking and filling in a short survey. More information available on the OneWayBikeTours website.

During the Velo-city 2025 conference in Gdańsk, partners of the Baltic Biking UPGRADE project gathered to discuss the progress and future of cycling tourism around the Baltic Sea. We took the opportunity to record short interviews with project partners and associated experts, highlighting their involvement in BBU and their thoughts on the conference. Watch the clips to learn more about our shared vision for a stronger, better connected EuroVelo network in the region:

Goran Lepen, Projects Director, ECF

Alexandra Fournier, EuroVelo and Projects Coordinator, ECF

Michael Koucky, Blekinge Region expert

About the project (in Polish, but with English subtitles):

Łukasz Magrian, General Manager, PROT

Magda Leszczyna-Rzucidło, Director of International Cooperation, PROT, and EUSBSR Policy Area Tourism Coordinator

Coming next:

As the project has reached its half-way point, there are more deliverables to be expected within the next year and a half, and many events planned as an in-person training for SMEs to strenghthening their cycling-friendly capacities to be held in February 2026 in Barth, Germany.

BBU partners represented at Velo-city Gdansk 2025 - From left to right: Łukasz Magrian (PROT), Jesper Porksen (Dansk Cykelturime), Magda Leszczyna-Rzucidło (PROT and EUSBSR), Goran Lepen (ECF), and Alexandra Fournier (ECF)

The Baltic Biking UPGRADE project will also be represented at the EuroVelo & Cycling Tourism Conference 2025 taking place in Balatonfüred, Hungary, on 23-25 September, visit the booth to learn more about the project!

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 this page towards the end of the project.