Cycle tourism is flying in Italy: 33 million visitors for 4 billion euros
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For Southern Italy, cycle tourism represents an important opportunity for a lengthening of the seasonality, to counter the phenomenon of overtourism and an important driving force for potential development of inland areas in terms of tourism. «Climate change – explains Venneri – imposes seasonal adjustment. We need to give an alternative to the summer heat, for example, by exploiting the more inland areas or rethinking the use of our mountains in winter, now that snow is scarce”.
High-end cycling
A segment in strong expansion and to which the Isnart Report devotes another focus is high-end cycle tourism, «a niche of cycle tourists with a high spending capacity that is progressively creating an offer characterized by personalized services with high added value». He is a tourist who often comes from the English-speaking world, travels as a couple or with groups of friends, has an average age between 50 and 55, has a high social profile and is curious about Italian territories, food and wine, local traditions and places less traveled by mass tourism.
The cycle tourism market is expected to grow further in 2023 by 9 out of 10 specialized operators, the same ones who, on average, have seen their turnover grow up to almost triple it in the last three years, «also exploiting positively in this case – underlines the Report – the results of the pandemic».
A sector that therefore still has enormous growth potential, but to which it is necessary to give rapid and concrete answers, starting with infrastructure. On this the Report suggests to focus on a strongly characterizing aspect of our country, ie the presence of secondary roads with low traffic intensity abandoned by motorized traffic, a heritage of which Italy is rich, a de facto system of cycle paths.
Not just cycle paths
«Italy – explains Venneri – is the only country in Europe that can boast a connection network made up of small arteries between centers of high tourist attraction and which have the best of the landscape, historical, naturalistic and food and wine heritage, an offer original typical Italian cycle tourism, capable of bridging the gap with those countries of central Europe that have been able to count on a solid network of dedicated cycle paths for years. It is therefore welcome to invest in the system of tourist cycle routes of national interest, but relying only on that means too long a time compared to the growth rate of the sector».
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