Event recap · CycleSummit 2024

Bern

12–15 October 2024 · Bern (CH)

The first CycleSummit in Switzerland.

In 2024 CycleSummit came to Switzerland for the first time – to Bern, the federal capital, whose Old Town has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983. A city where cycling is part of everyday life: bike lanes and bicycle streets everywhere, and within about ten minutes you are out of the centre and in the countryside, with the Bernese Alps on the horizon.

Hosted by Switzerland Tourism and Bern Welcome, the summit brought the international cycling travel community to the Swissôtel Kursaal for a Sunday ride from Bern to Lake Thun, a gala evening at the Casino Bern, a Bernese dinner on the Gurten and two days of business.

When

Sat 12 – Tue 15 October 2024

Marketplace

Swissôtel Kursaal, Bern

Participants

114 companies

Hosts

Switzerland Tourism · Bern Welcome

Day by day

From the Aare to the Alps.

Saturday · Oct

Arrival and welcome dinner

Participants checked in at the Swissôtel Kursaal and the partner hotels in town, collected their CycleSummit documents and walked together through the arcades of the Old Town to the welcome dinner at the guild house Zunft zu Webern.

Sunday · Oct

Bike tour from Bern to Thun

Three tours – “Gravel”, “Easy E-Bike” and “Panorama E-Bike” – set off from the Kursaal and followed the Aare towards Lake Thun, with views of the Bernese Alps. The e-bike groups of 10–15 riders were guided by Eurotrek; after a coffee break in Belp everyone met for lunch at the Seepark in Thun, before shuttle buses brought the group back to Bern.

Sunday evening

Official welcome and gala dinner

In the evening the summit officially opened at the Casino Bern – with the welcome presentation, a gala dinner with keynote presentations and evening drinks in the Salon d’Or.

Monday · Oct

Business day 1 and the Gurten

The first business day filled the Panorama room of the Swissôtel Kursaal with 1:1 meetings between tour operators, destinations and partners. After the meetings an exclusive tram and the Gurtenbahn funicular took everyone up to Bern’s local mountain for an apéro and a Bernese evening with dinner at Gurten Park.

Tuesday · Oct

Business day 2 and farewell

The second business day continued in the Panorama room, followed by lunch, the farewell – and the post-tours for those who stayed a little longer in Switzerland.

The host region

Switzerland, the biking country.

More than half of the Swiss population cycles regularly, and so do a fifth of the foreign guests. More than 11,000 km of bike routes and 10,000 km of mountain bike routes, all uniformly signposted by SwitzerlandMobility, run through mountains, river valleys, historic towns and along the lakes.

Switzerland

Switzerland Tourism

Nine national cycling routes and three national mountain bike routes with little or no traffic – from the Aare, Rhine and Rhone to the alpine passes around Andermatt and the “Bike Kingdom” of Graubünden.

Bern

Bern Welcome

Six kilometres of arcades, the Zytglogge and the Minster in the UNESCO-listed Old Town, the Aare all around – and ten Highlight Routes into the Emmental, Gantrisch, Oberaargau and Laupen regions.

Region

Region of Bern

All of Switzerland’s landscapes close together: the Jura hills, the bends of the Aare and the peaks of the Bernese Oberland – with easy routes, e-bike tours and mountain bike trails in the shadow of Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau.

Partner

Travel Switzerland

Public transport as the perfect companion for cycling holidays – from the international train connections to the Swiss Travel Pass and the panoramic trains.

Partner