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Recreational mobility on the agenda: INTERIM kick-off
In 1955, recreational travellers caused the first traffic jam in the Netherlands, when some 50,000 vehicles set off towards tourist attractions on Whit Monday. The number of recreational journeys has only increased since then. Yet the tourism and recreation sector and the mobility sector still largely operate in isolation. Where recreation and tourism focus on visitors, mobility policy has traditionally centred on the commuter. As a result, recreational travel patterns – which are often irregular, dispersed and difficult to predict – tend to fall outside the picture.
Given the shared challenges around sustainability and accessibility, there is considerable potential in closer collaboration. To identify, facilitate and operationalise such collaborations, BUas and HZ have set up the INTERIM project, which focuses on the integration of tourism and recreation into mobility policy.
On 10 March 2026, the public kick-off took place at Breda University of Applied Sciences. The project's framework was presented, and the five pilot regions outlined their specific situations. Representatives from municipalities and destination organisations in the Kop van Noord-Holland, Schouwen-Duivenland, the Biesbosch, Hart van Brabant and the Zuid-Limburgse Heuvelland discussed the challenges surrounding recreational mobility and presented earlier approaches. The challenges, available data and approaches show notable similarities, which both underlines the urgency of the issue and provides a strong starting point for further collaboration.
Alongside the pilots, national initiatives were presented. Marco Martens from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management presented the programme 'Vergroenen Reisgedrag'. Anne Durand from the Knowledge Institute for Mobility shared research into the emissions and modes of transport associated with recreational travel. Finally, Fabio Tat from Visit Brabant presented findings from the MONA project, which examines recreational movement to and within nature parks.
The kick-off concluded with a discussion on governance, data sharing and policy application – specifically the obstacles encountered and the knowledge still required. Mobility experts from organisations including the RDW (Netherlands Vehicle Authority), municipal mobility departments and the ANWB (Royal Dutch Touring Club) engaged in a debate with destination organisations such as the Club van Elf and Visit Brabant & Limburg. Key topics included responsibility for the interface between mobility and recreation, the sustainability of collaborative partnerships, and support with data interpretation.
INTERIM will now explore governance structures and bring together data sources relating to recreational mobility. Over the coming eighteen months, various pilots, provinces, regions and organisations will be brought together to generate scalable insights into this intersection.
INTERIM is led by BUas and HZ, as a collaboration between the Academy for Built Environment & Logistics and the Academy for Tourism. For more information, please contact Sjors Martens via [email protected].
