The Slovenian area in the upper course o the beautiful emerald Soča river was bound by the national boarder in the west for many years. Owing to the European bonding and good collaboration between the municipalities and associations on both, Slovenian and Italian sides, today, the border is just an administrative and geographical line, which even adds value to the otherwise unified area. Considering the trends and opportunities that biking offers to the cross-border area in tourism, the interests and plans of the Slovenian, Italian and Austrian municipalities meet more and more frequently. New cycling routes, such as the BiMobis project Cross-border circuit route, AdriaBike, Interbike and Trans Slovenia ‒ together with regional maps and online platforms set up the basis for a successful and recognizable cycling destination.
The BiMobis project lays the foundation for a new tourism product in the area, and thus creates the conditions for further development of the activities of individual tourism providers and the tools to make it recognizable and marketable. This project presents the first step its the way to the systematic arrangement of cycling routes for Municipality Tolmin in its area. The results of the project are mainly based on the collaboration among municipalities, tourist organisations and tourism providers. Especially the later have been integrated in the project already through the iCON project which resulted in the Bike Alpe Adria route. Bike Alpe Adria combines cycling with winery and culinary products in the Soča Valley, on both sides of the Slovenian-Italian border with the purpose of coordination and promotion of tourism providers and preparation of unified tourism packets.
The story of successful collaborations therefore continues, and we are especially pleased for the even closer integration with the Austrians in the north. A novelty in the EU funds absorption programming period 2014-2020 is the Goriška region as an elligible region in the Slovenia/ Austria cross-border programme. Besides this, municipalities Tolmin and Villachhave signed a twinning agreement, which is promising for the collaboration with the whole Koroška region.
The afore mentioned results are a basis for further integration in the future and a possibility to expand and enrich what we already provide in this culturally, historically, geographically and gastronomically extremely abundant area. The possibilities for the expansion and upgrade of the joint cycling story or for a unified tourism destination, created on the foundation od the cycling tourism by projects like BiMobis, are limitless.
The mayor of Tolmin Municipality
Uroš Brežan
22°C