Tourism trails as tools for cross-border integration: A best practice case study of the Vennbahn cycling route

Arie Stoffelen

doi:10.1016/j.annals.2018.09.008

Abstract

This paper evaluates which processes determine the leverage of cycling tourism trails for mainstreaming cross-border contact and ‘soft’ region-building. Reflecting on the Vennbahn between Germany, Belgium and Luxemburg, the paper shows that the influence of routes on cross-border integration depends on the trail’s strength as a tourism product, its cross-border institutionalization, and the geography and scale of the trail and the involved destinations. Tourism trails could contribute to cross-border integration, vindicating the substantial money spent on such projects in INTERREG programmes. However, border-related barriers remain robust even for tourism projects that are best practices of cross-border cooperation. As such, there is an unfulfilled potential of tourism trails in their contribution to cross-border communication and social cohesion in many European borderlands.

Highlights

Hiking and cycling trails have become significant tourism phenomena throughout Europe
A calculation using the lists of beneficiaries of 53 out of 55 INTERREG IV-a programmes throughout Europe shows that themed trails and hiking and cycling routes combined received more than 35% of the funds spent on tourism between 2007 and 2013, totalling roughly 370 million Euros
This paper established a conceptual frame of analysis (Fig. 1) to evaluate which processes determine the leverage of cycling tourism trails for mainstreaming cross-border contact, socio-economic development and ‘soft’ region-building

Summary

Introduction

Hiking and cycling trails have become significant tourism phenomena throughout Europe. Tourism trails could utilize existing infrastructure and abandoned railway tracks for route development, join local stakeholders in a shared cross-border project and lead to increased cross-border mobility of tourists and locals (Stoffelen & Vanneste, 2017; Timothy & Boyd, 2015; Timothy et al, 2016). Following these assumed synergetic impacts that move beyond benefitting just the tourism industry, hiking and cycling routes receive a strikingly high share of the funds spent on tourism in the INTERREG co-financing scheme. A calculation using the lists of beneficiaries of 53 out of 55 INTERREG IV-a programmes throughout Europe shows that themed trails and hiking and cycling routes combined received more than 35% of the funds spent on tourism between 2007 and 2013, totalling roughly 370 million Euros

Stoffelen

Literature review

Results

Discussion and conclusion