Baltic Biking UPGRADE (BBU) is a project co-financed by the Interreg South Baltic 2021-2027 program aimed at supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) along the southern part of EuroVelo 10 – the so-called Baltic Cycle Route. Nine partners, covering six countries, will seek to help SMEs develop cyclist-friendly services and create cycling tourism products and offers.
Following the results of the Biking South Baltic project and based on the expertise of the European Cyclists’ Federation and discussions with regional authorities, a new proposal was submitted to the Interreg South Baltic program in February 2023 and was approved at the program’s Monitoring Committee meeting in June 2023. This project arose from the assessment that SMEs are aware of the potential of EuroVelo 10 – the Baltic Cycle Route, but do not know how to link their offer to the route and promote it to future customers, including the local community interested in cycling tourism as a form of recreation.
Baltic Biking UPGRADE (BBU) officially started on September 1, 2023, and will run for three years (2023-2026). The project, led by the Pomorskie Tourist Board, covers six countries—Poland, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Lithuania, and Belgium, as the ECF is based in Brussels. The project will focus on the southern Baltic section of EuroVelo 10 – the Baltic Cycle Route. These five countries of the Southern Baltic cover more than 4,900 km of the route, out of a total length of 9,100 km, which is more than half of the route.
The BBU will address several important challenges facing SMEs located in the southern Baltic Sea EuroVelo 10 area: lack of knowledge, underdeveloped standards, development of cyclist-friendly services and offers, and lack of a solid business network and partnerships with relevant partners, including international stakeholders.
The main objective of the project is to help SMEs create attractive offers and effectively reach local customers and foreign markets. To this end, several types of activities will be organized: dedicated training on creating new offers aimed at an international audience, guidelines for SMEs on building cycling tourism service offers, a dedicated marketing campaign for new offers, and an invitation to join the EuroVelo 10 partner network in the South Baltic region.
The BBU will enable the introduction of more and improved existing cyclist-friendly services along EuroVelo 10, along with new products and offers for cyclists. The ultimate goal is to increase the visibility of the area on the international cycling tourism market and to strengthen the development and management of the EV10 route through closer international cooperation.
