The Euro Mobility Festival & how mobility cycling is recruiting new sports and leisure cyclists
The countdown to Spain’s third Euro Mobility Festival is on. CIN delves into the growth of this sister show to Sea Otter Europe, which is tapping into Spain’s burgeoning ‘mobility cycling’ market and helping bring new customers to the table…
Think cycling as mobility and there’s a fair chance that you don’t think about southern Europe. Curiously hewn from the same rock as the altogether wetter UK, the sport and leisure side of cycling tend to be the focus in Spain, Italy, Portugal, et al. Traditionally.
There’s plenty of nuance that upsets that sweeping generalisation. Barcelona is one such outlier, having invested millions in creating what it calls a “coherent, connected and complete” cycling infrastructure network, with an Urban Mobility Plan committing a sizeable influx of cycling infrastructure for that city’s residents and visitors. The city reportedly has the EU’s highest density of cars with all the noise and air pollution that comes with it (source: The Guardian) but recent years have seen it grow with more than 270km of cycle lanes, introduce infrastructure such as cycle traffic lights and boost pedestrianised areas to combat those issues.
A mere five hours by bicycle up the coast from Barcelona (or 40 minutes on the train) lies Girona, the setting for not only the expanding Sea Otter Europe (SOE), but also the slightly
newer Euro Mobility Festival, which runs alongside SOE.
“Catalonia, Barcelona, and especially Girona, are leading destinations in the world of cycle tourism, and also as centres of industry and development in the bicycle sector,” explains Albert Balcells, CEO of Ocisport – organiser of Euro Mobility Festival and SOE.
“Public institutions have been and continue to be betting for years on making cities more friendly [for cycling] with investments in infrastructure and promotion to develop and
grow the use of bicycles as a healthy and sustainable means of transportation. It is no coincidence that festivals such as Sea Otter Europe in its eighth edition and now the Euro Mobility Festival in its third edition were born here and have become one of the world references in cycling and urban mobility festivals with more than 60,000 visitors and more than 400 brands present,” he tells CIN.
Born under the umbrella of Sea Otter Europe, the Euro Mobility Festival has “immense potential for growth”, says Balcells: “It goes far beyond the bicycle sector. Car brands, motorcycles and many other transport sectors and technology, are entering urban individual sustainable mobility. We are seeing how growth is very rapid and we have a great demand for information and requests for space reservations, not only in the specific area of Euro Mobility Festival, but also within the traditional area of Sea Otter Europe.
“There are many brands of lifelong cycling which are also entering the urban mobility segment but do not want to change their historical location for years in the Sea Otter Europe
venue, so it is difficult to say an exact number of exhibitors and meters occupied by the brands of urban mobility. Yes, it is true that in the specific area of the Euro Mobility Festival we have more and more stands and brands from the traditional world of cycling that have decided to change location due to strategic interest, apart from others from outside the cycling sector that also want to be present and as we said, there are a large number of brands located in the Sea Otter Europe area that also offer urban mobility innovations and solutions.”
“In the end everything is connected and there can be synergies between segments within the bicycle sector, and that is good.”
While it is useful for the industry to separate the mobility and sports/leisure side of cycling for commercial purposes, the reality is a bit more fluid than that. Labelling someone a commuter cyclist doesn’t mean they don’t step into baggy shorts and speed down mountains on two wheels at the weekend. That fluidity plays into the Euro Mobility Festival and Sea Otter Europe combo, says Balcells, adding that in some cases people are being recruited into cycling from the urban mobility side and then getting into leisure/sporty riding: “It is a trend that we are observing, but it is still something very incipient and we do not have concrete data about it. However, it is true that we see that a number of people who were not regular users of bicycles and of course not of the sports part, are now interested in participating in sports events and tests, coming from their initial experience in urban bicycles
as an element of sustainable transportation. In the end everything is connected and there can be synergies between segments within the bicycle sector, and that is good.”
As for the Euro Mobility Festival itself, the ambition is for it to become something fully autonomous, as this was the idea from the beginning: “The origin of the Euro Mobility Festival is something natural, there were already many brands that came to exhibit and that had a division oriented towards urban mobility. But within Sea Otter Europe they showed themselves more as sports brands. There was no problem in that regard. But brands solely focused on urban mobility did not seem to fit the sportier nature of Sea Otter Europe.
“The Euro Mobility Festival arrived and they started to have their own space, with their own communication and the ability to reach the audience they are looking for. They have more visibility and prominence. The Euro Mobility Festival was born under the umbrella of Sea Otter Europe when it had already been consolidated, now little by little the mobility festival is gaining strength, size and personality of its own, and we are sure that it will soon be a festival in itself in parallel to Sea Otter Europe.”
For now, the show remains part of the Sea Otter Europe package, something that continues to grow despite the ticklish climate. Why are the shows on an upwards trajectory, CIN asks? Balcells believes it’s down to a multitude of factors: “The location in Girona, on the Costa Brava and in Catalonia, as places with a great cycling, sports and industrial tradition,
an ideal environment for its practice, roads and trails suitable for all modalities, a climate perfect almost all year round for its practice, gastronomy, culture, support from institutions, and of course, a 360-degree festival model that includes an exhibition area, professional and amateur events of all modalities and styles, a large and free demobike with hundreds of bicycles available to visitors, gastronomy, music, fun for the whole family and all audiences, professional conferences… all of this together makes for success.
“The presence of these festivals in Girona is not only having an impact on the city, but also on the entire region, and is causing industry, commerce, tourism and sustainable
mobility to experience a great boost in the territory,” he concludes.
