EU project EcoVeloTour: fostering bicycle tourism in the Danube region

EcoVeloTour facilitates the development of sustainable tourism in the Danube region along EuroVelo routes via an elaborate and ecologically sound framework of tourism destination management; it also opens up bicycle tourism to neighbouring regions adjacent to the EuroVelo route. The regions will capitalise on cultural and natural heritage through their integration of the ecosystem service framework into ecotourism planning, which will enable the managed preservation of ecosystem provisions for the benefit of the region and ecotourism stakeholders in the long run.

The framework will be strongly supported by sustainable mobility guidelines, a key element in comprehensive ecotourism planning, especially in the case of bicycle ecotourism. Furthermore, comprehensive market research will be conducted to assess the Danube region's potentials and to draw up a roadmap for future ecotourism development.

Regional ecotourism strategies will be elaborated based on the developed framework and good practices, studies on ecotourism, green mobility, knowledge exchange, potential ecosystem service mapping of pilot areas, intensive co-operation with key actors, stakeholder analysis and participation and learning interactions (including e-learning) at the regional and transnational level. Implementation of the strategies will start during the project term, including small-scale investments. The bottom-up approach, using collected local experience, will result in a policy recommendation to ensure the capitalisation of project results at the policy-maker level.

Outputs will be: (i) transnational tools for ecotourism development and management: an enhanced framework for ecotourism development and mobility planning guidelines; transnational market research; policy recommendation; an ecotourism mobile app; an e-learning platform; (ii) pilot regional ecotourism strategies; (iii) transnational learning interactions.

Pictured above: The Interreg project EcoVeloTour team (from left to right): Alexander von Poschinger (Tourismusverband Ostbayern e.V.), Dr Stefan Mang, Anna Biedersberger, Josef Harasser (CenTouris, University of Passau).
 

Principal Investigator(s) at the University	Dr. Stefan Mang (Institut für Markt- und Wirtschaftsforschung)
Project period	01.06.2018 - 31.05.2021
Verlängert bis:	30.09.2021
Source of funding	Europäische Union (EU) > EU - Europäischer Struktur- und Investitionsfonds (ESI-Fonds) 2014-2020 > EU - ESIF - Europäischer Fonds für regionale Entwicklung (EFRE) 2014-2020 > EU - ESIF - EFRE - Danube Transnational Programme (DTP - INTERREG V B)
Funding notice	Project EcoVeloTour is co-funded by the European Union (ERDF, IPA).