Tourism potential of railway services

The purpose of TOPRAIL is to explore the potential of railway services for tourism development and to seek for partnerships between railways, other transport undertakings (e.g. ferry operators) and local tourism industry as well as public authorities, if applicable. The strategy consists in making known best practice and to assess their portability to other cases.

The tourism industry is linked to railway by all means so UIC has to work on this aspect of the railway. A train

• can be a tourism product as such (“cruise train”) without a primary focus on transport (e.g. Orient Express, The Ghan);
• is regarded as a convenient means of direct transportation to a holiday destination (e.g. night and car-sleeper trains);
• is a regular transport product, but can offer a special travel experience (e.g. Qinghai Tibet train, American trans-continental);
• provides local mobility at a tourist destination connected to mainline rail (e.g. Usedom Island Railway).

All these types of trains may promote a positive image both for rail transport and the region.

Benefits: Initiation of business relations among UIC members related to specific products; business opportunities; raising awareness at third parties (tourism industry, decision-makers).