Pulse of Europe in Spain: about urban mobility, smart cities and tourism
Journalists of 11 Serbian media outlets paid a six-day study visit to Spain, organised by the Pulse of Europe - Media Trips to EU project around the topics of urban mobility & urban development, smart cities and tourism.
The visit was organised from 3 April to 9 April 2022; it included a tour of the cities of Barcelona and Valencia. In Barcelona, the focus of the visit was on urban mobility and development, with a tour of the Superblocks, which are specific to that Catalan city and represent urban units in the downtown where traffic is reduced in favour of alternative transport and green spaces. The journalists also had the opportunity to visit the Representation of the European Commission, the seat of the Department for Urban Mobility at the European Institute of Technology, as well as to meet with officials of the City Assembly. A special part was dedicated to the tour of the Barcelona Supercomputer Center, which houses MareNostrum, the second strongest computer in Europe.
In Valencia, while meeting the representatives of the city administration and the Visit Valencia Foundation, journalists investigated why the city was declared the European Smart Tourism Capital 2022 and visited major projects such as the City of Arts and Sciences - a unique complex of museums and public cultural institutions in the dried-up bed of the Turia River. Urban mobility was a topic in Valencia too: Turia Park in the heart of the city with its 12 kilometers of public space for recreation is full of cyclists, while the total length of bike lanes in the city amounts to as much as 160 kilometers.
The study visit gathered journalists of dailies "Danas", "Politika" and "Blic", "Nedeljnik" weekly, Radio Television of Serbia and Radio Television of Vojvodina, Beta News Agency, Circular Economy and Energy Serbia web portals, as well as of Radio Novi Sad and Radio Boom 93. They were joined by a representative of the Secretariat for Traffic of the City of Belgrade. This was the third thematic group visit organised by the Pulse of Europe project for journalists and representatives of stakeholder organisations; media reports on best European practices, this time coming from Spain, are in preparation. Stay tuned!