Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
specialized, serious leisure activity, and at the other a casual pursuit with
lower levels of motivation, commitment and duration. There are some empir-
ical data collected over a number of years in the 1990s to support this
approach (Borde Failte, 1998). It may be possible to combine the categoriza-
tion of duration of stay with level of seriousness and interest.
Sport cycling is a fourth category and tends to be an organized group
activity that differs from the wider cycle tourism market in this respect. This
is a form of sport tourism (Bull, 2006). Some forms of mountain biking (rid-
ing off-road trails) also involves competitor activity within groups, but there
are also off-road trail riding and more casual forestry rides that fall within the
frameworks of cycle tourism described above.
Cycle tourism is not exclusively a rural tourism phenomenon. The use of
the bicycle as part of the city tourism offer is enjoying a renaissance across
Europe. This is principally because of the wave of public bicycle-sharing
schemes being set up in cities such as Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels,
Copenhagen, Lyon, Oslo, Rennes, Seville, Stockholm and Vienna (Bührmann,
2008). The most extensive scheme is in Paris, which accounted for 27.5 mil-
lion trips in 2008, although the number of leisure or tourism trips is not
known (Midgley, 2009). This followed on from the success achieved in Lyon
with the Vélo V network (Borgnat et al, 2009). Paris decided to invest in urban
cycling by designing a comprehensive pick-up-drop system, partly funded by
the advertising company JCDecaux in return for use of advertising sites. The
scheme is known as Velib (Vélo Liberté); it commenced in 2007 with over
20,600 bicycles located at 1450 cycle stations, integrated with other forms of
public transport. Designed initially for use by residents, it also has appeal to
visitors to the city and is being marketed as a slow travel way of enjoying the
destination. Schemes designed for residents are beginning to attract tourist use,
especially in saturated destinations such as Barcelona and La Rochelle
(Midgley, 2009). There are over a hundred such schemes either in operation
or in gestation across the world, including Beijing, Rio de Janeiro, San
Francisco and Washington. In addition, there are, in most cities, cycle hire
companies who also offer guided tours. For example, in Berlin it is possible to
take a self-guided tour following the route of the Berlin Wall that once divided
the Eastern Bloc from the West.
The scale and scope of cycle tourism is difficult to determine with any
degree of accuracy, for the data on which to make interpretations are not
recorded. Most cycle tourism is domestic and focuses on independent travel.
Germany is the largest of the European markets, with an estimated spend
amounting to 4.5 billion euro, per annum (Trendscope, 2008). However, in
some cases destinations attract a high percentage of cycle tourists from neigh-
bouring countries. For example, a high proportion of cycle tourists in
Denmark come from Germany (Koucky, 2007). The German market is also
important for Austria and Switzerland. Cycle tourism in Europe is closely
associated with slow travel, especially in Austria, France and Switzerland,
where cycle routes and networks have been developed especially to capture the
essence of a destination, such as the Lower Danube or Loire Valley cycle
routes. Overall cycle tourism in Europe is estimated to entail 2.8 billion cycle
