Journey of Hope Cross-Border Cycling Tour

The Journey of Hope cross-border cycling tour had as its overarching objective to provide a pan-European event promoting the European Week of Sport (EWoS) in the weeks leading up to EWoS, culminating in a cross-sector PR event in Slovakia to mark the Flagship day of EWoS on 10 September in Kosice and 16 September in Bratislava with a closing event in Vienna in Austria on 17.9.2017. The tour was a journey of a team, composed of 4 recreational cyclists from Turkey that biked for 31 days and 2530 km from Copenhagen to Vienna.The project raised awareness among European citizens of events and opportunities offered in the upcoming European Week of Sport, and the benefits of being physically active. We engaged communities along EuroVelo routes in seven countries physically in side events and digital communication efforts, and other participants Europe-wide through an online activation platform. New networks and partnerships were established to get the opportunity to sustainably repeat the event in the coming years.The tour took its starting point from a concept tested by ISCA in 2015. The test run demonstrated great potential for the event to be rolled out as a larger scale European event, with necessary adjustments made according to the previous experience and it was a great learnings for ISCA to organize a bigger event. We demonstrated that a symbolic activity in the form of a “bike tour across Europe” connect the key aspects of the European Week of Sport and gave broader-reaching social media and PR campaign, featuring a #journeyofhope and online activation platform with detailed information on the tour. The tour has shown that cycling has high effect to communicate the important cross-sector aspect of the EWoS. The project and tour have demonstrated a combination of local, national and European activities, allowing local side events throughout the routes, national kick-off and press events. The Journey of Hope cross-border cycling tour promoted voluntary activities in sport by involving volunteers in organising the events, promotion and dissemination. Last, but not least, the Turkish members of the cycling team were also volunteers themselves.Annex 1: Report Journey of Hope: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3exjxdsnxwes5em/Annex_1_NWB2016_Report_All_In_Final.pdf?dl=0