Tour International Danubien (TID)
Setting sail in a kayak on the Danube TID.
Background
The TID, or Tour International Danubien, is an annual tour by kayakers down the Danube River. First organized in 1955, some 11 to 12 countries are represented by some 200 participants from all ages. Even during the Cold War, Western European participants were permitted to paddle past the Iron Curtain into Eastern Bloc countries.
The tour and its participants are great symbols of people working with and celebrating nature along the Danube.
The 2005 tour, from June 25 to August 28, was the TID's 50th anniversary. TID welcomed WWF to help coordinate and implement activities related to communicating messages about sustainable Danube navigation.
What WWF did with the TID
- Informed TID participants along the tour about the unique values of the Danube, key navigation threats, and sustainable navigation solutions.
- Invited the media to locations along the tour where they took great pictures of the hundreds of kayakers, and where they interviewed WWF, TID participants and local mayors about sustainable navigation.
- Journalists hired by WWF paddled with the TID and sent back great stories - read the Tour Diary.
"The color is coincidental, I found this material. I built the boat in my spare time." Plamen Petrov at the TID, in his self-made boat.
Folk dances organised by the inhabitants of Bogojevo for TID participants. "This year the festival is much larger than it was formerly, because it is the 50th anniversary of the TID," says Anika Ohajdu from Bogojevo.
