The aim of the WG is to work on the project:
The General Assembly approved in 2018 the project Leading Quality Trails – Best of Europe, Region. The project should run in 2019-20 and be presented at the General Conference in 2020.
However, the project was delayed one year due to COVID.
In 2021, the Working group presented at a Know How session, at the General Conference in Sibiu.
Calendar for the future:
After almost 3 years of work, 2022 will be the decisive year. The walking routes are installed. The first hiking map were be published in the first half of the year.
The very detailed catalogue of criteria for the label is almost complete and is being translated into the three official languages.
A first audit has already been carried out to evaluate about ten routes in 2021. A second audit was carried out this spring concerning the facilities and various services offered to walkers (criteria 2-5).
Once this stage has been completed, the complete file will be sent to the ERA Board for an approval during the summer.
After approval, the new label was officially and fully presented at the ERA conference in Helsingør, DK at the end of September 2022.
It will then be up to ERA to make it known in Europe, to tourism stakeholders, in particular to regional structures.
The ERA member organisations will be able to play a key role in this process by guiding the research towards regions in their countries that may offer the conditions required for the implementation of the label.