Measuring Cycle Tourism: More Bang for your Buck - By Robert Wong

Measuring Cycle Tourism: More Bang for your Buck!

Robert A. G. Wong, CMRP, MCIP, FMRIA, Principal, RMCG

Inc.

Outline  Cycle Tourism Typology  Measuring Cycle Tourism Impacts  General Awareness Tourism Measures  Cycling Events Tourism Measures  Cycle Tourism Business Measures

 Future Regional Cycle Tourism Opportunities

Cycle Tourism Road, Touring, Mountain Bike

On Road, Pathways, Trails, Bike Parks

Typology Of Cycle Tourism & Measurements (Leisure oriented, on all surface types)

Local Rides (weekday/end ridesparticularly second home hubs)

Holiday Cycling

Charity Rides

Cycling Holiday

(Activity as part of holiday – day use mainly)

(Sportives – some competitive but more charity/community focus)

(Prime reason for holiday, independent, club or guided tour)

Somewhat Achievable: -indirectly measureable -directional measures -more challenging to quantify -but useful evidence

Achievable: -contact information from registration -post event research

Desirable: -long term goal for destinations if market-ready products -need to work with tourism operators

Why do we want to know?

Tourism

Transportation Planning

Cycle Tourism Research Destination Awareness

Economic Development

Cycling Events Business Perspective

Health & Wellness

Measuring Cycle Tourism Impacts

Image: ASI Photo

General Awareness: Peek at Some Insights

Image: RMCG Inc.

Translate to Measures of Tourism Impacts General Awareness Measures  Awareness of as a cycling destination (relative to other destinations) General Awareness 

Do cyclists know about us? 

Are we competitive? 

 

Who are they?

What cycling experiences are they looking for?

Have they come and/or will they come to our destination?

 Types of cycle tourism activities  Types of cyclists  Actual visits to destination (relative to other destinations)  Future interests on our destination

Toronto Bike Show Survey 2015 Intercept interviews at the Toronto International Bike Show March 6-8, 2015

March 2015

Image: Cucle Simcoe.

8

Research Plan & Execution Purpose  Measure the market for cycle tourism in Region 7 Method  Intercept interviews at the Toronto Bike Show Sample for 2015  Interviewed 414 cyclists during three days

Image: RMCG Inc.

9

Coming to the Toronto Bike Show  Most (74%) came to see the bikes  A third (36%) came to learn about biking destinations and some (14%) came to book a bike tour/trip

Reasons for Coming to the Toronto Bike Show 2013 N=417

2014 N=388

2015 N=414 73.9 78 79 31 30

35.7

13.5 9 10

4

Image: RMCG Inc.

8

11.1

10

Cycle Tourism  Last season, 68% of All cyclists took at least one “tourism” bike trip (started > 40 km from home)  Of those cyclists who took a tourism bike trip, the median* number of trips in a season was 3 trips, slightly lower than in 2014 (5 trips)  Of those who took overnight bike trips, the median* number of nights they stayed was 2 nights, comparable with 2014

Image Forks in the Trail B&B.

Tourism Trips and Overnight Trips N=386 At Least One

How many trips in Ontario did you take where biking was the prime reason for the trip and where you travelled 40 km from home to start your ride?

68%

How many of those trips did you stay overnight?

35%

*Median - 50% of cyclists were above and below this value

Median*

3 trips

Mean

10 trips

(N=386)

(N=386)

2 nights

3 nights

(N=128)

(N=128)

11

Interested in BGS in Next 2 Years  83% of All cyclists were very interested or interested in riding in BGS in the next 2 years

 39% of Mountain Bikers were very interested

Interest in BGS in Next 2 Years Int erest ed

Very int erest ed

34.1

47.3

83

32.5

49.6

8 3

39.4

% of respondents

43.9

Image: RMCG Inc.

8 3

12

Cycling Events: Peek at Some Insights

Credit: Terence Scarnicchia Photography

Spin-Offs:

Ontario Cycling Events & Tourism Impacts

Cyclists, Tourism Researchers, Strategists Funded in part by

Translate to Measures of Tourism Impacts Cycling Events Questions  Is it a local/regional or tourist drawing event?  What types of cycle tourism did it generate?

Cycle Events Measures 

Percentage tourists 

Overnight stays 



Spending

Pre / post rides to destination 

 Spin off to CD / RTO

TREIM Economic Impacts

Four Ontario Cycling Events

Credits: Escarpment,Terence Scarnicchia Photography, TourdeHans,LeTourdeNorfolk

Research Plan

Registrants

Postevent Online Survey

Analysis -TREIM

Insights Report

Credit: RMCG

Many Attracted Tourists (>40 km) 40-100 km; 49%

40-100km; 16% Less than 40 km; 9%

<40km; 11%

>100km; 73%

(n = 872)

(n=267)

Greater than 100 km; 42%

40-100km; 30% <40km; 80%

<40km; 42%

40-100km; 13%

(n=30) >100km; 7%

(n =138)

>100km; 28%

Generated Overnight Stays 0.75

0.31 0.12

0 Credit: Forks in the Trail B&B

Resulted in Pre-Event Visitation 0.3

0.18

0.17

0.13 0.09 0.06 0.06 0.04

1 Trip

2+ Trips Credit: Terence Scarnicchia Photography

Insights: Future Visit Next 2 Years 0.7

0.67 0.6 0.49

Credit: RMCG

Insights: Contributed to Regional Economy

$1.4M $174K $50K + GDP + Employment+ Direct & Indirect Taxes Source: Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Tourism & Recreation Economic Impacts Model (TREIM) Credit: BMVA

$6K

Cycle Tourism Businesses: Peek at Some Insights

Credit: RMCG

Translate to Measures of Tourism Impacts

 Business of Cycle Tourism Measures  Range of business types 

Cycle Tourism Business Questions

 What businesses are benefiting from Cycle Tourism?

 Evidence of cycle tourism for their business  Change from year to year

 How much of their business is from cyclists?

 Type of cyclists & magnitude of tourist component

 Are we growing, staying the same or declining?

 Willingness to share

 Are our marketing efforts creating impacts on the ground?

 Benchmark and longitudinal

Photo Credit: Robert Wong

Simcoe & Grey Counties Cycle Tourism Business Tracking 2015 December 2015 Prepared for

Prepared by

Simcoe Cycle Tourism Businesses  Invited 52 businesses, all members of the Ontario by Bike Network in Simcoe County, to share their experiences with cyclist  28 businesses responded (53% response rate compared to 60% in 2014)  Very good cross section of tourism businesses responded with a strong response from B&Bs Types of Businesses (N=28) 10

2015 N=28

2014 N=24

6 4

4 2

1

1

Simcoe Cycle Business Activity 2015 Business Type

# of Cyclists

Attractions

60-20,000+

Bike shops/Mobile bike shop

500-15000

Touring companies

Up to 300

Resort/Residence

25-600

Motel/Hotel

10-15

Café/retail/bakeries

50-300

Winery/cidery/brewery

Up to 500

Farm Gate/Local Food Market

Up to 150

B&Bs/campground

 Six businesses were relying on cycling as their core business while over a third (10) indicated they had “ a regular flow of cyclists”

Business from Cyclists in 2015

2015 N=28 6 10

0-30

9 2

28

Simcoe Cycle Business Trends 2014-2015 Cycle Business Trends 2014-15 (N=28)

Stayed the same; 34%

Increased; 59% Photo Credit: Cycle Simcoe

Decreased; 7%

Business Type

Trend 2014-15

Attractions



Bike shops



Touring companies Hotel/Resort/Residence

 

B&Bs/campground



Café/retail/bakeries



Grey Cycle Business Trends 2014-2015 Cycle Business Trends 2014-15 (N=21)

Stayed the same; 52% Increased; 43%

Business Type

Cycle Trend 2014-15*

Bike shops (5)

 

Touring companies (0)

NA

Café/bakery/general store



Winery/cidery/brewery (3)

 

(3)

Image: Grey County.

Decreased; 5%

Attraction (2) B&B (4) Hotel (1)



29

  



30

Simcoe Cycling Tourists in 2015

Regional 40-100; 33%

Photo Credit: Jane Wang

Cyclist Residence 2015 (N=27) Long haul >100; 30%

Local <40; 37%

Regional 40-100; 53%

Cyclist Residence 2014 (N=19)

Long haul >100; 16% Local <40; 32%

* Based on highest percentage of business from cyclists travelling from home

â&#x20AC;˘

82% of businesses reported serving cycling tourists, up from 69% in 2014 (i.e. permanent residence >40 km away).

â&#x20AC;˘

11 businesses reported catering to international cyclists

31

Awareness of Cyclists Using/Talking about Interactive Cycle Maps

â&#x20AC;˘ 41% of the businesses had heard or noticed cyclists using the Cycle Simcoe interactive cycle maps â&#x20AC;˘ 25% (8 businesses) wanted to learn more about how they can have their business on the map

No; 34% Awareness of Interactive Map (N=28)

Want to learn more; 25%

Yes had noticed; 41%

32

Cycle Tourism Tracking in Simcoe County ď&#x201A;´ Simcoe County businesses were positive about sharing their cycle tourism business experiences

Businesses Willing to Participate in Annual Tracking (N=28)

Yes; 26

Maybe; 2

Image: Grey County.

Cycle Tourism: Future Measurement Opportunities

Image: Tour de Norfolk.

Translate to Measures of Tourism Impacts

 Future Measurement Opportunities



Future Cycle Tourism Questions

 How can we standardized measures so we can compare and aggregate for a bigger picture?

 How important is Cycle Tourism to RTOs?

 How can we measure volume of cycle tourists sustainably?

 What is the volume of Cycle Tourism?

 How can we engage our tourism business community to help us measure tourism impacts?

 What cycling experiences generate tourism impacts?  Do we have a market ready international cycling product?

Cycle Tourism Regional Research Project 2016 Developing the methodology for 2016 summer/fall measures Working with : RTO 1 RTO 3 & RTO 9 Funded in part by

Trail Counts

Cycling Events

Last Words  Cycle Tourism can be measured  Takes time, thought & resources  Economic impact research is very expensive, but tourism impact measures are achievable  Need to decide on what questions you need answered and at what costs  Take leadership in your region to capture tourism impacts to help make cycle tourism business decisions Image: RMCG Inc.

Questions & Discussion Robert A. G. Wong robert@rmcg.ca

Image: RMCG Inc.