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Applications have officially opened for the sixth edition of the Italian Green Award 2021, an award given to the “greenways” of the Italian regions that have distinguished themselves in the care and attention of slow tourism and in the enhancement of cycle paths, enriched with services and infrastructures dedicated to the development of cycle tourism.
The award ceremony will take place at a golden moment for the bicycle: as ANCMA data shows, in fact, 2,010,000 bikes were sold in 2020, recording a +17% from 2019.
But it's not just sales that are growing: the need for social distancing, greater attention to the environment, the desire for outdoor holidays and the various incentives that have boosted the strong demand for e-bikes have also seen a constant growth in cycle tourism.
This success serves as a sounding board for a trend that is already underway: the Report on Cycle Tourism produced by Isnart-Unioncamere and Legambiente, in fact, estimated that approximately 5 million Italians used bicycles during their 2020 summer vacation, with an expenditure of approximately 4 million euros out of a total of 23.
From the June 18th to 20th Abruzzo, the 2020 cycling tourism Oscar with the Bike to Coast cycle path, will host the awards ceremony in the city of Pescara.
Furthermore, some previews of the Observatory on cycle tourism created by Isnart and Legambiente will be presented, in view of the Bike Summit 2021 which will take stock of the economy generated by cycle tourism in our country in the autumn.
In these three days the bicycle will be the real great protagonist and will involve the population, the operators and all those who are approaching the world of two wheels, highlighting its sustainable side in an environmental and social sense, as well as highlighting employment opportunities and future prospects.
Sponsors of the 2021 edition of the Italian Green Road Award will be Peugeot, as Title Sponsor, Legambiente and Istituto di Credito Sportivo, as institutional sponsors and Ferrovie dello Stato.
“The themes of the Cycle Tourism Oscar are perfectly consistent with the Bank's mission heritage”, reported Andrea Abodi, President of the Institute for Sports Credit, “Full support, in spirit and content, for this initiative that allows us to underline and renew the commitment of Credito Sportivo to contribute to the development of cycle paths and cycle routes. The goal, through slow mobility, is to promote broad-spectrum sustainability and, at the same time, a different way of approaching the environmental and cultural heritage of our country. This commitment of ours, substantiated with a line of financing dedicated to the theme through a call for proposals created in collaboration with ANCI, was also supported by the Special Funds, a public instrument entrusted to ICS in separate management, with over 4 million euros of contributions towards interest on mortgages. This year I hope the level of collaboration with institutions and bodies can increase, with a more fruitful dialogue between the incentivized public financial measures, starting with the funds of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan which, through the National Cycle Route Plan, provides for the construction of 1,000 km of urban and metropolitan cycle paths and 1,626 km of tourist paths. It will be essential to work together on the development of networks and connections with the major routes, as well as on services to be offered along the routes, factors of sustainable growth to which Credito Sportivo will not fail to give all its energy.”.
Legambiente, a long-time partner of the Italian Cycling Oscar, will present the results of the Cycling Tourism Observatory together with Isnart. “For cycle tourism we are ready to record another record season for our country that can count on two million more bicycles than the previous year and on a turnover of between 5 and 7 billion euros. The development of local tourism and the growth of the e-bike market have also favored the discovery of new cycling territories. It is now necessary to give new and safe spaces to this desire for pedals: new cycle paths, but also new cycle itineraries created on low-traffic roads, in order to create ready-to-use tourism products that give a future to the internal areas of our country" said Sebastiano Venneri, head of tourism at Legambiente.
Roberto di Vincenzo, President of Isnart, is keen to underline that: "Italian tourism has made holiday choices that are directed towards experiences, such as cycle tourism, that were almost unexplored before. In fact, sports activities with bicycles were among the main reasons for holidays, with a third of Italians who set off to practice sports from cycle tourism to trekking. It is vital, then, to rethink the organizational model, since forms of tourism with high environmental consumption, that is, which live on the increase in the number of visitors, are destined to function less and less after the pandemic. On the contrary, it is necessary to work to develop forms of tourism, such as cycle tourism, oriented towards the production of value and that is, tending to improve the quality of the offer and increase the services provided by individual operators and territories, also to return to attract tourists with low environmental impact and, among these, international cycle tourists, who we hope will be able to return to our country starting next summer".
In the next few days, the organizing committee of the Italian Green Road Award will send the participation applications to the regional administrations and each territory will be able to nominate a maximum of 2 greenways by submitting the applications by May 31st.
For “Green Road” it means a road reserved exclusively for non-motorized vehicles, or a dirt road with little traffic or a secondary road with little traffic.
The award takes into consideration paths identified by name and signage, designed to allow cyclists to travel them safely. A great boost to green roads has come from disused railways as well as from river banks and waterways, now converted into cycle paths.
These cycle routes allow you to visit a region while contributing to the conservation and enhancement of local heritage, allowing the growth of non-motorized commuting and thus reducing the effects of pollution, as well as significantly improving life by impacting the economic, social and tourist development of the territories.
In past editions, high-level cycle routes have been awarded, such as: “L’Assisi – Spoleto- Norcia” in 2015, “L'Alpe Adria” in Friuli Venezia Giulia in 2016, “La Ciclovia dell'Amicizia” in Veneto in 2017, “La Ciclovia del Fiume Oglio” in Lombardy in 2018, and, in 2020, the “Bike to Coast” in Abruzzo, a 131 km cycle route that mostly runs along the old railway line overlooking the sea, from Martinsicuro to San Salvo, a mainly coastal route that offers spectacular views of the Costa dei Trabocchi.
SOURCE: Green Road Award 2021