On 25th of November 5th Riga Cycling conference was held in Riga, Latvia. The topic of the conference was Cycling tourism, gathering together the experts from Latvia, Estonia, Denmark and the Netherlands to share the best practices of cycling tourism development in Europe.

Last Friday on 25th of November 5th annual Riga Cycling conference was held at Riga City Council. As previously, it was organized by Latvian Cyclists’ Union and the Traffic Department of Riga City Council. This year the embassy of the Netherlands in Latvia took active role to help organize the event. The conference was supported by Latvian Investment and Development Agency, Nordic Council of Ministers, Ltd Virve, Ltd Velokurjers.

This year the topic of the Conference was cycling tourism, to promote not only leisure and daily cycling but bicycle as a means of transportation while traveling. During the conference such important topics were discussed: hospitality industry in Latvia readiness for cycling tourists, effective maintenance of cycling route signs, cycling tourism development statistics in Riga and strategy for cycling development in Latvia, as well as case studies of cycling infrastructure development in Europe and National Cycling policy project.

The Conference was opened by E.Jakrins, director of Traffic Department of Riga City Council, H.E. Pieter Jan Langenberg, the Netherlands ambassador to Latvia, and K.Soms, director of Entrepreneurship Competition Department of Ministry of Economics of Latvia.

During the Conference Latvian Cyclists’ Union award ceremony was held to honour Cyclists of the year for their efforts to promote and improve cycling infrastructure in Latvia. 

This year the Conference was attended by 119 participants from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, Denmark and the Netherlands.