“Cycling along the Danube (in Serbia)” transnational event organised by the Danube Competence Center

On September 20th, 2021, the Danube Competence Center organised the transnational event “Cycling along the Danube (in Serbia)” within the framework of the EcoVeloTour project.

The goal of the event was to share the good practice from the project and to transfer the project knowledge to the local stakeholders in Serbia.

Due to pandemic reasons, the event was organised online, using the Zoom platform, with the simultaneous translation to and from English provided.

The event was opened by the welcoming words of Mr Boris Camernik, the Danube Competence Center Secretary General who provided the basic information about the project to the audience.

The first presentation was given by project partner, Dr. Michael Meschik from Institute for Transport Studies, BOKU from Vienna, Austria, who presented The EcoVeloTour Self Assessment Tool for Sustainable Bicycle Tourism which is the part of this transnational project.

Afterwards, prof. Borislav Petrovic from the Faculty of Architecture of University in Belgrade, Serbia talked about how the Study on SMART bike rest places was developed as one of the project activities, particularly highlighting the challenges the team had while researching the needs of cyclists and trying to fit them with the limitations of the rest places concept that are supposed to be placed in the natural protected areas.

Mr Jovan Erakovic, certified ECF route inspector, shared an overview of the EuroVelo routes in Serbia highlighting the challenges of the future development of these cycling routes and the overall cycling infrastructure in Serbia. Also, the model or organisation of managing such routes was discussed during the presentation.

Ms Jovana Marinkovic from Djerdap national park provided a presentation about the eco-tourism offer of this protected area in the Iron Gate region. Current status and future plans were elaborated with special mention of the part of EuroVelo 6 route that runs through the area of this national park.

Mr Zeljko Mrdja from Bogal Inzenjering company, specialised in cycling counters and cycling infrastructure shared the experience regarding setting up the cyclist counters on the border crossings along the EuroVelo routes in Serbia. The features of the selected counter-system were presented followed by highlighting the challenges his team had during selecting the exact place for the counters to be set.

Finally, Nikola Stanisavljevic from the Danube Competence Center from Serbia had a presentation about the EuroVelo 6 mobile app that provides long-distance cyclists with all the data collected during the route assessment with the introduction regarding the certification system, criteria and corresponding route elements.

The event gathered 43 participants totally both from the public and private sector, including the representatives of tourism organisations, tour operators, universities, local municipalities etc.