Good practice:

Barjanka Cycling Race

Ljubljansko barje is 150km2 large plain next to Ljubljana (SI). In 2008 the area was protected as the Nature Park. Its landscape, natural, & cultural sights give opportunities for development of sustainable tourism. So far, there have been only few events in the park that would invite domestic & foreign tourists.
Barjanka is an event that presents natural beauty of the Ljubljana Marshes & evokes memories of the beginnings of cycling competitions, then held on macadam roads. Participants explore 2 faces of the river: the urban & the nature one. Actors from public & private sector have joined their forces to design, organise & implement the 85 km long cycling race through Ljubljansko barje.
Partners: Ljubljana cycling club Rog, Company BTC City Ljubljana, 7 municipalities from Ljubljansko barje, local tourist & firefighters’ associations, Ljubljansko barje Nature park & Ljubljana Tourism. The main beneficiaries: local museums, caterers, & accommodations. Back in 2018 the nature park and the Secondary School of Design & Photography Ljubljana organised an educational programme that resulted in the exhibition of the race on the Ljubljanica riverbank in the city centre. The high school students also prepared proposals for a medal. The 10 best medal proposals were exhibited together with the photos of the race and the winning proposal was used as the proposal for a real medal. The race was well accepted by cyclists and inhabitants living on the territory of the park.

All partners contributed - financial means or human resources. In total 52,000 EUR were needed - entry fees & sponsors. For organising the race & taking care of safety 320 persons were needed, plus more for promotion, exhibition, design, translation, at info points & for safety in municipalities.

The public institute Ljubljansko barje Nature Park managed to connect 7 municipalities and 20 local firefighters & tourist associations, museums, caterers.
Since 2018 the municipalities have been directly collaborating with the main organizer.
300 cyclists (local & foreign) each year in the race, more visitors at info points & the successful exhibition of photos from the race, 10 proposals for the medal.
Good press coverage of the race and the exhibition in the main Slovene media.

Challenges, and at the same time also opportunities to learn more about connecting all partners & the local associations, promoting the event, including a high school professors & students in the process of designing a medal and an exhibition of the race, getting the sponsors for the race.

We got the model from Italy & upgraded it from 4 to 5 - we managed to join sport, tourism, culture, nature & education.
The practice was adjusted from Italian to Slovene circumstances, so it is transferable to other regions. If you want to present an area of natural and/or cultural heritage that has been less in focus of visitors & tourists, you can do it through a sport & tourist event. Barjanka offers a sustainable tourist product in the protected area, it connects several partners from public (municipalities, the institute Ljubljansko barje Nature Park, Ljubljana Tourism) & private sector (a very successful company BTC City Ljubljana), as well as NGOs (LTOs, associations) and a secondary school. Partners have been successfully led by the Ljubljana cycling club Rog, the organiser of even bigger cycling event - Marathon Franja BTC City (since 1982).
There is an initiative among the included municipalities & Ljubljana Tourism to turn Barjanka into a permanent (marked) cycling route.