Network „sustainable-cycle-tourism“ in Eastern Bavaria

Strategies for sustainable cycle tourism are the focus of a network meeting of 70 East Bavarian tourism experts, local politicians and service providers. Designed as a transnational conference, Corona forced the event on a more regional basis. The focus is specifically on the EuroVelo cycle path network in the Danube region, i.e. the Danube cycle path and the Iron Curtain Trail. The East Bavarian Tourism Association (TVO) and the Center for Market-Oriented Tourism Research at the University of Passau (CenTouris) invited to the Marinaforum in Regensburg.

Photo credits:TVO

Conference around cycle tourism

From long distance cycling to downhill cycling. Cycle tourism has many sides. What potential does cycle tourism have in Eastern Bavaria? Which trends do cyclists follow and what are their special needs? "Cycling is one of the most popular leisure activities in Germany, whether it be touring, mountain biking or even racing cycling. For example, the ADFC Travel Analysis from 2019 shows that more than three-quarters of Germans regularly get on their bikes," says District Administrator Josef Laumer, President of TVO, introducing the conference, "and cycling is particularly popular on vacation, either as a day trip at the vacation destination or as a cycle tour lasting several days. The Corona time strengthened these tendencies still more, humans want out, move, spend time in the free one and discover something.“

With the Lower Bavaria Tour, the Five Rivers Cycle Route, the Upper Palatinate Cycle World and the Trans Bavarian Forest mountain bike route, Eastern Bavaria is well positioned. The bike offers are sometimes the most important tourist factors in the region, which increase the recreational value of Lower Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate.

Eco Velo Tour – Seven Danube countries work together

The Eco Velo project is international in scope. Strategies for sustainable tourism along the EuroVelo cycle path network in the Danube region are to be developed and implemented. Besides TVO and CenTouris, project partners from Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Serbia are involved. Two EuroVelo cycle paths run through Eastern Bavaria, the EuroVelo 13 - Iron Curtain Trail, and the Euro Velo 6 - Atlantic-Black Sea, which coincides with the Danube cycle path from Germany. A total of 17 Euro Velo cycle paths connect the European continent and are intended to encourage people to switch to healthy and sustainable travel, both for day trips and for entire bike tours.

Anna Biedersberger, project manager at CenTouris, describes the goals: "With the project we want to strengthen the framework conditions so that sustainable cycle tourism can continue to develop. We also want to use synergies with the EuroVelo network and strengthen communication with regard to sustainable cycle tourism.“

Photo credits:TVO

What is the future of sustainable cycle tourism?

Tilmann Sobek, regional developer in the active tourism of absolutGPS, speaks the main lecture of the day and answers the question, which future lies in the sustainable bicycle tourism and which potential is in it: "The experience must be in the center. What can I only experience in Eastern Bavaria?" This question has to be answered carefully for every cycle path and every offer. Because people are looking for worlds of meaning instead of blanket offers, they want to experience products that are deeply rooted in the area. "The cycle path offer must be touching," said Sobek. The guests' expectations have increased due to the digital possibilities. They want faster, more precise and mobile information. But also the quality requirements have become more differentiated. The so-called touchpoints, i.e. the points of contact between guests and service providers, must therefore be selected in a targeted manner and managed competently. Sobek motivates the audience to think in a user-oriented way rather than concentrating on themselves: "A value and value-oriented strategy is crucial for positive development. This should be communicated in an extremely understandable way. In addition one must concentrate on its product and also focus on it.“

Hit the trend of the times with „lighthouse trails“

"The Iron Curtain Trail is not a mass product. It is not a path where cultural highlights are strung together, as is often the case on river bike paths. The Green Belt is the highlight. Along the Czech border ran the cordon, there is no other infrastructure here. It is a Special Interest Cycle Path," explains Dr. Michael Braun, TVO, the situation of the Iron Curtain Trail. 

"Cycle tourism has a long history in eastern Bavaria," he explains, "in the 1980s the Tour de Baroque was created as Germany's first long-distance cycle path. Five years ago we started to create lighthouse cycle paths. With this we wanted to bring the topic of cycling back into consciousness and in doing so we hit the trend of the time". The cycling experience is in the foreground. The cycle paths should establish a positive perception of the region. "By the time of Covid-19 the vacation interest focuses at present on Germany, and above all everybody wants to spend their time into the nature. Cycling is a large trend in this year.“

Dr. Stefan Mang of Centouris confirms this with information from a guest survey in the current corona situation: "Many people place trust in their own country. Caution is more important than normality. The proximity to home, hygiene concepts and self-sufficiency have become important. Thus one comes fast to the vacation form of the bicycle tourism, which one notices at present also at the Danube cycle track.“

They offer service: Bike-friendly hosts and bike experience providers  

How sustainable are hosts, tour operators and regions along the EuroVelo cycle path network? The hostess Barbara Weiherer of the Simmernhof in Mossendorf near Burglengenfeld lends E-Bikes to her guests, knows the routes from her own experience and can give guests valuable tips. "Our guests very much appreciate the fact that it is relaxed, quiet and pristine here. It's not just for tourists, it's just the way it is with us. The signage has to fit, that's the most important thing", she says about her experiences with bicycle tourists.

The MTB ZONE Bikepark at the Geisskopf offers a special cycling experience. Franz Dominik Freiherr von Poschinger-Bray reports about construction work for a new lift. The one-seater chair and the drag lift on the main slope will be replaced by a modern detachable six-seater chair lift. This brings mountain bikers and bikes to the top station, from where various trails with a total of 15 kilometers of downhill stretch start.

Photo credits:TVO

Mathias Behrens-Egge of the BTE Tourismus- und Regionalberatungsgesellschaft (BTE) will discuss how tourism service providers can be integrated into the offer, but also how bicycle transport in local public transport can be embedded in the offer. The leading trends are the increasing importance of bicycle tourism in the German vacation market, the high growth of e-bikes, including mountain bikes, and the growing importance of the target groups family and young mountain bikers. He sees the potential of the Iron Curtain Trail in the development of a Gravelbike Tour, i.e. a tour with stable bikes that are specially designed for changing surfaces such as asphalt and gravel.

About the increasing meaning of the bicycle tourism as well as to the risen requirements of the Biker can report also Petra Husemann Roew, business guide of the ADFC Bavaria registered association. The change and development in the use of cycletourism related offers is thus for years noticeable, and also trends such as Gravelbiking as well as the consciousness for lasting travel can be recognized and defined clearly. 

In the discussion Katka Karl Brejchová and her company "Begegnung mit Böhmen" (Encounter with Bohemia) will provide practical relevance. The director of the lasting travel agency, which sets apart from active tourism above all on culture journeys in the Czech neighboring country, knows from experiences wheel traveler to report and draws thereby the parallel between vacation in the Destinationen East Bavaria and vacation in Bohemia.

Reports of a globetrotter

Maximilian Semsch provides an entertaining conclusion to the network event with his multimedia-supported report on the Danube cycle path. As before as a participant in the discussion round, he gives participants and project designers the view of a bicycle traveler who has experienced cycle paths, infrastructure and ideas around the topic of cycling all over the world. On the basis its adventure Danube cycle track, the alleged "Highway for retired persons", above all the different problems in the individual project countries become clear, but in the same breath Maximilian Semsch reports of the chances and the potential, which are still in its view in the Danube region. With unbelievable pictures and short video clips, he finally succeeds in making his audience feel the impressions of a long-distance cycle path.