Amazon of Europe Bike Trail - 1st year of Amazon of Europe Bike Trail project: 3rd SCOM Meeting in Osijek, Croatia - Part 1

12-06-2019

After one year, the project is progressing well - activities are in line with the planned scope and most important, the partnership is proactive, motivated and cooperates well. That is one of the many conclusions of 3rd Steering Committee Meeting and study visit of Amazon of Europe Bike Trail project partners, held in Osijek from 5th to 7th June 2019.

Although two days were packed with presentations of working packages progress meetings were productive and concluded with a presentation of “dummy” version of the final booking system for the Amazon of Europe Bike Trail.

On first day, we were welcomed by Ivan Anušić, Deputy Mayor of the Osijek-Baranja County who stated that he is really glad that Osijek-Baranja County is part of this flagship project. Welcome address was followed by the aims of the meeting, project progress since the start, workflow and planning the next SC meeting by Urška Dolinar, Iskriva (Lead Partner).

Socio-economic analysis of tourism potentials of the Amazon of Europe region was presented by Anja Krajnik from Iskriva and her presentation was followed by Bike trail implementation. Tibor Polgar from Westpannon presented the methodology and daily stages and the session continued with the presentations of route stages by regional coordinators where the characteristic of each daily stage (e.g. route track, resting areas, main attractions, etc.) were presented.

In the next session, the last draft of Amazon of Europe Bike Trail infrastructure, trail implementation standards and nature-oriented visitor guidance were presented by Andreas Nemmert from Revital while Stefanie Edelmüller from WWF Austria presented planned training for target groups to educate them about the standards and nature-oriented bike visitor concept.

The second day of the meeting started with the First Year Review by DTP JS. It was carried out by Gusztáv Csomor, project officer of the AoE Bike Trail. Firstly, a general overview of the status of the project was presented by Urška Dolinar, Iskriva, including the following topics: progress, delays, difficulties in implementation, operation of the partnership. Afterwards, presentations of the WP coordinators on the status of each WP (overview of implemented and planned activities, specific issues, problems, questions took place.

Overview of communication activities and plans for this year's Amazon of Europe Bike Trail International Biking Festival were presented by Zarja Šinkovec from Iskriva while Ana Kuzmanić from WWF Adria explained the importance of media relationships and how to communicate project activities to the public.

Mobility planning and Top 10 experiences along the trail were presented by Günter Mussnig, Nathalie Reichhold and Rudi Trinko from Trail Angels, as well as a “dummy version” of the future booking website of the Amazon of Europe Bike Trail. The meeting concluded with thanking the organisers and all partners for their excellent work and contributions.

Amazon of Europe Bike Trail project partnership, after a successful first day of the 3rd SCOM meeting: 

© Zarja Šinkovec

Programme co-funded by European Union funds (ERDF, IPA, ENI)