Nearly 1,500 km of rated trails, a network managed to international standards, and a recognition handed over at the FSA Bike Festival in Riva del Garda.
Garda Trentino is the first destination in the world to reach Gold, the highest level of the ITRS Destination Certification. The recognition was presented during the FSA Bike Festival Riva del Garda, held from 1 to 3 May 2026, with the ITRS team on site for the official ceremony and for a programme of sessions dedicated to destination managers, tourism operators and riders.
For ITRS Mischa Crumbach and Edoardo Melchiori delivered the award to Silvio Rigatti (President of Presidente Garda Dolomiti S.p.A.) and Oskar Schwazer (General Manager di Garda Dolomiti S.p.A.) alongside the team that made this happen: Stefania Oradini and Emanuele Biagi.
It is a milestone for the destination, and equally a milestone for ITRS: the first time a full trail network has been assessed, documented and managed to the standard’s highest tier.
What Gold actually certifies
The ITRS Destination Certification is built on top of the Trail Certificate, and Gold is the level that applies to an entire network rather than to individual trails. It is not a promotional label. It attests to three things at once:
- Rating quality. Every route is rated by Certified Trail Raters (CTRs) working with the ITRS App, then reviewed by an ITRS expert: the four-eyes principle that makes the data consistent across the whole network, not just accurate trail by trail.
- Data reliability. Ratings are maintained over time, not captured once and left to decay as trails change.
- Professional network management. A working maintenance concept and its execution, user and accident data to support fact-based decisions, and coherent signage and communication across the territory.
In practice, Gold means a rider can trust that the symbol on a sign at one trailhead means exactly the same thing as the symbol on a sign forty kilometres away.
Four dimensions, one shared language
ITRS describes a trail through four independent dimensions, each of which can make a route demanding in a completely different way:
- Technical difficulty: the riding skill the trail requires
- Fitness demand: length and elevation gain combined
- Exposure: the consequence of a mistake
- Wilderness factor: remoteness, rescue access, mobile coverage, water, wildlife
Each dimension carries its own scale, communicated through an intuitive colour. Filled and empty dots are used alongside colour so that the rating remains readable for colour-blind riders, an accessibility choice built into the system.
A process that started in 2022
Gold was not awarded to a marketing plan. It is the outcome of work that began in 2022, when Garda Dolomiti Azienda per il Turismo presented an innovative MTB signage proposal at the Bike Festival and trialled it on Monte Brione, then across the wider Tremalzo and Valle di Ledro area.
Since then, the APT’s ITRS-certified Garda Rangers have progressively rated the destination’s entire MTB network (nearly 1,500 km) using the ITRS App, while developing the operational side that Gold requires: ongoing maintenance planning, continuous monitoring, data analysis and periodic updates to keep the published information accurate.
That combination, field rating capability in-house, plus the management structures to sustain it, is precisely what separates a rated network from a certified destination.
From destination to provincial standard
The Garda Trentino experience has already outgrown its own boundaries. In December 2025, the Autonomous Province of Trento approved the new MTB signage standard for the entire provincial trail network replacing the previous standard. Tourism boards across the province have until 31 December 2030 to complete the changeover: a horizon set with the 2031 Cycling World Championships in Trentino in mind.
The Consorzio ApT del Trentino, which brings together the province’s tourism boards, pointed to the positive results of the Garda trial when it asked for the standard to be extended province-wide.
What began as a local experiment is becoming the way an entire region communicates its trails.
At the Bike Festival
Alongside the ceremony, ITRS ran a B2B session in Riva del Garda. The workshop on 30 April brought industry professionals together at Hotel du Lac for an introduction to the certification structure, followed by a field session on Monte Brione covering live rating, maintenance prioritisation, signage and risk mitigation, with a demonstration of the rating app. The team of APT Garda Dolomiti joined to set out what being a Gold certified destination involves day to day.
What comes next
Garda Trentino has set the reference point. The framework that made it possible is available to any destination prepared to do the work: rate the network properly, keep the data alive, and manage the trails to match what the signs promise.
To find out what certification would involve for your destination, get in touch with the ITRS Team here.
Photos: ITRS (ph. Mischa Crumbach & Edoardo Melchiori) and Garda Dolomiti Azienda per il Turismo S.p.A. (ph. Mattia Bonavida / Tommaso Prugnola)