Strategic partners
ECF, as transnational coordinator of EuroVelo, has several ways of partnering:
- National EuroVelo Coordination Centres
- EU-funded projects
- EuroVelo Route Partnerships
- Business collaborations
- Strategic partners via Memorandum of Understanding
This page highlights ECF's strategic partners aiming to increase awareness on EuroVelo, cycling tourism and cycle routes. Organisations interested in establishing a new partnership can contact the EuroVelo Team at [email protected].
Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe
Since May 2025, the European Cyclists’ Federation has been granted Participatory status with the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe.
ECF is also the manager of EuroVelo 13 – Iron Curtain Trail, a certified Cultural Route of the Council of Europe since 2019.
Eco-Counter
ECF and Eco-Counter have been working together since 2020 to gather and analyse data about the usage of EuroVelo routes, using a sample of automatic counters installed all across Europe.
A summary of this data is published at the start of the calendar year in the EuroVelo Data Hub (EuroVelo Usage Barometer), and some preliminary data about the summer season is shared during the EuroVelo & Cycling Tourism Conference and published as news articles.
Transport Health Environment Pan European Partnership (THE PEP)
After the adoption of a Pan-European Master Plan for Cycling Promotion in 2021, ECF has been involved in the implementation and monitoring of the plan, including the activities initiated by UNECE as a follow-up (see below), and contributed to the working group on Sustainable Tourism Mobility from 2022 to 2024.
European Commission’s Together for Tourism (T4T) - Transition Pathway for Tourism
ECF is an active stakeholder in the Transition Pathway for Tourism, initiated by the European Commission in 2022. ECF submitted a pledge focusing on EuroVelo in the first round of submission in 2022, and expanded its pledge and commitments to cycling tourism's contribution to sustainable tourism in August 2024. ECF has also contributed to the consultation for a European Sustainable Tourism Strategy launched in 2025.
European Tourism Manifesto
Since 2015, ECF is one of the founding members of the European Tourism Manifesto, an alliance of European public and private organisations covering the whole tourism value chain and beyond, calling the European Union for action on key policy priorities for the sector.
Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC)
GSTC and ECF signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2026 to recognise the benefits of a partnership to achieve increased levels of sustainable mobility and tourism and leverage sustainable tourism on the European and global levels. They recognise complementarities in sustainable tourism practices and certification and cycling tourism as a mode of transport and an activity.
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) – Transport Trends and Economics
ECF has been an active member of the group of experts on cycling infrastructure module from 2022 until its conclusion in 2024 (see this article), and is involved in follow-up developments to recognise cycling and cycle route networks at an international level.
UN Tourism
Since 2021, ECF has had a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UN Tourism, with the goal of highlighting the growing importance of cycling tourism and EuroVelo, its benefits and regional impacts, as well as its key role in the sustainable transition of tourism. The MoU includes regular coordination on research and innovation ideas, and mutual participation in events such as the EuroVelo & Cycling Tourism Conference.