The Amazon of Europe Bike Trail will be established as a flagship tourism product in the planned Amazon of Europe Transboundary UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, which will combine thirteen protected areas along the Mura-Drava-Danube region in Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary and Serbia. All the cooperating countries will jointly manage the shared river ecosystem in a sustainable manner, while boosting economic growth and development in the region through establishment of an internationally recognised and sustainable cycling tourism product.
From 4th to 6th July 2018 project partners attended the Kick-off event in Lienz, Austria. The meeting was launched on 4th July with presentations on project background and aims, followed by discussions and workshops on developing an actual, bookable cycling tourism product by the end of the project. In the afternoon, we focused on nature-oriented trail development, nature valorisation in tourism and first-hand experience from existing bike trails.
On 5th July, the focus was put on the project itself, its timeline and work plan, as well as accompanying presentation and discussion on external communication of the project. Our project officer Gusztav Csomor also visited us and spoke about the expectations for the project from the Interreg Danube programme. After all the presentations and discussions, we concluded the meeting with a plan for the first phase of the project for all the partners – before stepping onto a bus that drove us to the first part of our Study visit, the Trail Angels booking center in Obervellach. After a short presentation of the company and their tourism products, we embarked on a guided, rainy hike to Danielsberg, where we dined and met the owners of the Herkuleshof lodge, one of the most successful examples of good practice of accommodation for biking and hiking visitors on the Alpe-Adria Trail.
