“Cycling without borders”, Lessons from the DEMARRAGE – EuroVelo 15 – Rhine Route Project Outbound capitalisation in the frame of the EuroVelo, Greenways and Cycling Tourism Conference

This year’s EuroVelo, Greenways and Cycling Tourism Conference took place in Basel, Switzerland on 19th September.  It was incorporated within the closing of the successful Demarrage – EuroVelo 15 – Rhine Route Project. The day included sessions explaining how cycling tourism fits into the current political and economic agenda, ideas for new products for cycle tourists as well as presenting the transferrable outputs from the Demarrage project itself.

Located at the meeting point of Switzerland, France and Germany, Basel was the perfect spot to mark the end of the successful Demarrage Project – a four-year investment in cross-border cycle tourism centred on the River Rhine.  The Demarrage project has been co-financed by Northwest Europe INTERREG IV B.

On the day before the conference, the Annual NECC/Cs Meeting was held in Weil am Rhein.  More informationhere.

These events were followed by a weekend of cycling in and around the Basel region. On Saturday, 20th September, the European Cyclists’ Federation led the inaugural ‘European Long Distance Cycle Route Certification Standard’ certification tour.  Up to 50 participants cycled a section of EuroVelo 15 – Rhine Route through France, Germany and Switzerland, in order to test the route certification methodology developed during the course of the Demarrage project.

By passing on this methodology to its partners, the ECF hopes to accelerate the process of certifying more route sections of the EuroVelo network. EuroVelo 15 – The Rhine route was the first route to be awarded this standard in 2012. The certification of a route section will be renewed every 5 years to ensure enduring high quality cycle routes.

Many of the conference participants stayed on in Basel for the regional ‘slowUp’ event on Sunday 21st September. As recently profiled on the public EuroVelo.com website, these events bring together cycling on traffic-free public roads and a packed program of activities for the day.

The final agenda for Cycling without borders: Lessons from the DEMARRAGE – EuroVelo 15 – Rhine Route Project Outbound capitalisation in the frame of the EuroVelo, Greenways and Cycle Tourism Conference can be downloaded from here:

• Agenda Demarrage Final Conference

The presentations will be made available below:

• Lessons from the Demarrage Project
• EU Funding for Tourism 2014-2020
• Cycling and the 2014-2020 Interreg funding period
• Switzerland’s integrated mobility – a model for Europe?
• Presentation of the Demarrage project results
• The benefits of well developed monitoring processes
• Using Rural Development Funds in Cycling Projects
• EuroVelo 9 – Financing and Development
• Accessible Tourism
• MTB trail building and nature conservation
• Vennbahn, an award-winning cycle route product
• EuroVelo 13, tours in a historical context
• Transnational marketing for the Pirinexus route
• A local approach to a long distance cycle route