Partner’s name: ERDF PP3 HCA
Project manager: Balázs Szőllőssy
Region: Hungary

What was your task in the Iron Curtain Trail project?

Besides being leader of Work Package 6, we were mainly responsible for the development of the Austrian-Hungarian border region of the Iron Curtain Trail and the national dissemination of the project for the relevant stakeholders (other NGO's and government authorities)

What is your overall opinion on the project?

Our overall opinion is that the project was a great success: many stakeholders got to know more about the importance of cycling, sustainable tourism and cycling tourism from local authorities and NGO's up to government bodies. It was important to have the trainings and the promotional events in order to raise awareness of these topics in the border regions where it was not that much cared about. This project was also able to develop cycling in the South East Europe region which scarcely had any  experiences of this except for Slovakia, Austria, Slovenia and Hungary - we hope that while being part of the project, we could also share good and useful practices with our partners from the southern part of the consortium.

What are the main achievements of the project for your region?

The most tangible achievement is that we were able to signpost both sides of the Austrian-Hungarian border sections of the trail, which allows visitors to use the ICT until the Slovenian-Austrian-Hungarian border point. We hope that this development will be continuous and follow with signposting until the Hungarian-Serbian border point, until where it can connect with the EuroVelo 6 and 11 as well.

How do you think this project can have a follow-up for your region?

Further signposting and training is needed as well as infrastructural and soft development as it is written in the Action Plans produced by the project.