New document on tourist ecomobility experiences in France

In the seminar “Ecomobility en rural areas (http://www.decaba.com/en/ecomobilitat/), held in Paris on the 9^th February, it was announced that a study, based on examples of good practices of ecomobility in tourism and leisure identified in different areas, was in progress.

This report has been published this week by the “Réseau des Grands Sites de France”, and can be found in the “News” section of the following website:

http://www.grandsitedefrance.com/document.php?pagendx=326

The document is based on eleven experiences which took place in different areas of France and Switzerland, and it presents each one of them starting with their creation, their progress and the resources used to put them into practice. All the experiences are very interesting, but we would like to highlight two of them.

On the one hand, those named “La Navette des crêtes des Vosges”, i “La Navette de la vallée de la Clarée”. These are two similar projects, the first in the Alsace region, and the second in the Hautes-Alpes Department, in the south-east of France. Both are based on limiting the impact of private vehicles on exceptional landscapes, through the organization of shuttle buses linking paths located in high mountainous areas with train stations and the valley’s parking spaces. These are examples to be taken into account for development in highly frequented areas such as the “Parc Natural del Montseny” and other locations in the Pyrenees.

Another example to observe is the one in Marais Poitevin, where the important flow of visitors has been redistributed by increasing the area of navigable canals, and also by incorporating a whole ciclotourism and walking network. Based of the increase in the offer of activities, they achieve that visitors lengthen their stay.

On the other hand, we also want to highlight the Languedoc-Rousillon project, which we already mentioned in our article mentioned above. This experience is based on enabling the use of public transport through the promotion and creation of “intermodal” tiquets for visitor mobility throughout the Pyrenees (conventional train + yellow train + bus) or towards coastal locations (train + bus or car sharing). This also implies cooperation with event organizers in the area (concerts, theatre festivals, cinema, etc…), enabling transport adapted to the needs of the general public and cooperating to advertise the program with posters in train stations and lines.