Cycling holidays are money-spinners in the tourism industry
Travel Talk and Holiday on Bike trade show as part of EUROBIKE 2010 – powerful economic factor
An important date in the annual calendar for those who like to go on cycling holidays, but also for tourism companies which offer them, is the EUROBIKE trade show in Friedrichshafen. This year, for the ninth time, the Travel Talk trade show will be held under its auspices. Here, on September 3, 2010, cities and regions, bicycle manufacturers and tourists can all find out about new trends for cycling holidays. One day later, on September 4, the public viewing day at EUROBIKE, those who like to go on cycling holidays will themselves take over the starring role. At the special Holiday on Bike exhibition, those offering cycling holidays will be providing information about their travel destinations for the next year – an offer accepted last year by 21,000 visitors to the show.
To realize that going on a cycling holiday is massively popular, look no further than one of Germany’s many long-distance cycle paths on a sunny day. For instance, the Elbe bikeway, whose 940 kilometers are used annually by around 490,000 people for day excursions and longer distance cyclists. The topic was tackled by the market research institute Trendscope in a rather more scientific way; on behalf of the European Parliament it investigated the economic significance of cycle tourism and in so doing came up with some striking figures.
According to these figures, every year in the EU around 25.6 million people go on a cycling trip involving at least one overnight stay, which equals 3% of all holidays taken by the EU population. Moreover, more than one in every five bicycle tourists in Europe is German: In total, around 5.6 million German citizens every year take a cycling holiday lasting several days. And 21% of all Germans have spent at least one holiday in the saddle of a bicycle.
A cycling holiday can thus be described as one of the hidden champions in the tourism industry. In Germany, the market researchers at Trendscope calculated, at least 10% of the overall value created by tourism can be attributed to those taking cycling holidays.
Holiday cyclists have thus become a very important target group for the bicycle industry as well: “At Koga too, we are aware of the growing demand for our touring bikes. We have also noted the questions being asked at trade shows and in the industry that indicate that our customers are increasingly using their bikes for longer distances and cycling holidays. For this reason are requiring different things from their bikes”, reports Anke Namendorf from the Dutch premium brand supplier Koga.
The Franconian bag supplier Ortlieb also has close connections with cycle tourism: “Of course, the trend towards increased use of cycles on holiday is increasingly reflected in our product range. Also, the fact that cycling ranks in the popularity scale just behind traditional outdoor activities such as hiking, climbing and trekking is supported by us by means of further differentiation of our products for cycling holidays”, says company spokesperson Christoph Schleidt.
Cycle tourists prefer to stay in their home country, which is why they are also very important especially for the overnight stay business in Germany: According to a recent survey by the cycling association ADFC, 85.4% of those people who go on cycling holidays have used a cycling route in Germany during their last cycling excursion. Especially popular for many years has been the Elbe cycle route, followed by the long-distance cycle routes which follow the Main, Weser, Danube and Oder-Neiße rivers.
In total, cycle tourism in Germany generates annual sales of EUR 9.16 billion and provides around 186,000 jobs. A majority of these are in overnight stay businesses: Around 22 million overnight stays per year can clearly be attributed to cycle tourism, which represents almost 6% of all overnight stays in commercial businesses.
EUROBIKE takes place from Wednesday, September 1 to Saturday, September 4, 2010. The first three days of the show are reserved for specialists in the industry while on Saturday, September 4 the show is also open to end consumers. In addition, the EUROBIKE Demo Day for specialist dealers and journalists takes place on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 in nearby Argenbühl im Allgäu.
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