Cycle Tourists Research Articles

Sustainable Development of Cycle Tourism Destinations in Croatia based on Innovative e-Tools

Abstract Cycle tourism in Croatia is not just a significant economic contributor but also a driver of rural development and job creation in sectors like hospitality, tourism, leisure, and cycle path maintenance. The unique preferences of cycle tourists for authentic experiences and local culture also boost the local economy. This research, with its practical implications, aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the level of awareness of e-innovation tools in Croatia’s cycling tourism sector, identify challenges and potentials in terms of technological change, and highlight infrastructural gaps in Adriatic versus continental Croatia using a SWOT analysis. The insights from this research can be instrumental in fostering sustainable and long-term destination development, making it a valuable resource for all professionals in the field.

Sustainable Approach to the Development of the Tourism Sector in the Conditions of Global Challenges

The main objective of this study is to present the feasibility of rerouting the EuroVelo 6 through the Fruška Gora National Park (Serbia) as a sustainable eco-tourism product. Our research was conducted with a survey and field interviews. The first part of this research involved consulting 717 cyclists from six EU countries, and the opinions of local entrepreneurs and employees of the national park were also investigated. An architect made a “blueprint” info board as a proposal for trails within the national park. The purpose of conducting this research was to show the importance of retracing an international route. Cyclists expressed their satisfaction with the proposed F1 track to the greatest extent. The results of the survey of employees of the NP suggested the sustainability of cycling tourists because they showed great responsibility in their behavior, and the results of the domestic entrepreneurs particularly pointed to some economic aspects of the development of cycling, as well as its impact on the empowerment of women in rural destinations. It was concluded that rerouting the “Danube Cycle Route” through the Fruška Gora National Park is feasible and sustainable. The results obtained in this study provide a justification for this retracing because it turns out that cyclists are desirable, responsible, and sustainable tourists who have a significant impact on the destinations and people they are directed to. This research will be applied to every attractive part along EuroVelo 6, thus expanding the network of cycle paths.

Exploring tourist spatiotemporal behavior differences and tourism infrastructure supply–demand pattern fusing social media and nighttime light remote sensing data

ABSTRACT Increased tourism forms subdivide the tourism market. Therefore, distinguishing spatiotemporal behaviors of different types of tourists is of great significance for tourism marketing and planning. In this study, we constructed a Spatial–Temporal-Preference model based on spatial clustering, seasonal-trend decomposition and statistical analysis, using multi-source data. It provides a novel frame for comparing tourist behavioral characteristics from a new perspective. Meanwhile, providing a method to rapidly identify the Tourism Infrastructure Supply and Demand Pattern (TISDP) fusing nighttime light and social media data. Then the framework was applied to analyze the differences between sightseeing tourists (STs) and cycling tourists (CTs) in Yunnan Province, China. The results showed clear spatial differences in location popularity and flow data with STs favoring northwestern Yunnan, and CTs favoring eastern Yunnan. Tourist behavior varied also seasonally and tourists preferred visiting minority areas or areas with better infrastructure. The tourism industry in the study area developed rapidly after 2013, although still with an unbalanced infrastructure supply and demand. The CTs loss areas were greater in northeastern and northwestern Yunnan and south of Kunming. The proposed methods help to identify differences in tourism activities and has important implications to tourism infrastructure planning and sustainable development.

骑行旅游者地方依恋影响因素研究——以环青海湖骑行为例

骑行旅游者地方依恋影响因素研究——以环青海湖骑行为例

Sustainable cycle-tourism for society: Integrating multi-criteria decision-making and land use approaches for route selection

Cycle tourism is a sustainable active vacation, which is quickly growing in recent years. Although it has several benefits for society and users (e.g., social connections, amusement, and physical and mental health), cycle tourism requires an adequate route network to enjoy destinations with historical and landscape peculiarities. Past literature mainly investigated motivations and preferences for cycle tourists and proposed optimisation methods in planning routes. However, applying assessment methods for prioritising cycle-tourist routes is a seldom-explored topic. This study aims to address this gap by applying an integrated method for evaluating and prioritising cycle routes, searching for a compromise between route characteristics, service provided to users, and natural and building contexts crossed. It jointly includes Multi-Criteria Decision Methods (MCDMs) and a land use approach: AHP determines the weights of criteria and parameters describing cycle routes; GIS elaborates spatial analysis of parameters; ELECTRE I and VIKOR help find a compromise solution amongst different cycle routes. The integrated method involved a panel of experts to collect data, and it is applied to the wide-study area of Franciacorta (Italy). Some comparisons with other MCDMs are made to justify the results. The findings could support multi-institutions prioritising cycle route alternatives in deciding their building.

Identification of Psychological-Motivational, Humanistic-Educational, and Cultural Factors Affecting the Sports Performance of Tourist Cyclists

Background & Aims: Productivity and profitability among cycling tourists are important. The aim of this study was to identify the psychological-motivational, humanistic-educational and cultural factors in the sports efficiency of tourist cyclists. Materials and Methods: This study was carried out as qualitative-quantitative research that included interviewing experts and designing a questionnaire. The questionnaire included psychological-motivational, human-educational, cultural, and welfare factors, which were prepared through interviews with 13 experts, and 278 subjects were examined using a random sampling method. Results: The results of open code interviews and questionnaires were as follows. These findings were managers’ expertise and experience in the field of sports tourism, focusing on training and increasing motivation of the organization’s educated employees, detecting and solving economic problems, increasing welfare and livelihood, and using the PLS software. The relationships between the categories and the identified variables were psychological-motivational, human-educational, cultural, and productive cycling tourism, and had a good fit. Conclusion: Psychological-motivational, human-educational and cultural factors had an effect on the sports efficiency of tourist cyclists and the model had a good fit. Therefore, based on the results, the tourism organization should have effective and accurate procedures in applying the present model to be productive and consider influential factors (both psychological-motivational, human-educational, and cultural) in their programs.

An extension of the theory of planned behaviour in Thailand cycling tourism: the mediating role of attractiveness of sustainable alternatives

ABSTRACT An extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB) model of cycling tourism was proposed to explore relations among constructs of the model with the addition of the attractiveness of sustainable alternatives and the actual behaviour of cycling tourists in the context of Thai cyclists. Through the analysis of 395 bicycle tourists by structural equation modelling technique, this study extended the TPB model, utilising attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control towards cycling tourism as predictors and the attractiveness of sustainable alternatives as a mediator. The findings revealed that attitude towards behaviour, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, behavioural intention, actual behaviour, and attractiveness of sustainable alternatives were significantly supported, and that attractiveness of sustainable alternatives significantly mediated the impact of behavioural intention on the actual behaviour of cycling tourism. Overall, this study helps us understand the role of volitional and non-volitional processes, behavioural intention, actual behaviour, and the attractiveness of sustainable alternatives in explaining the intention formation of cycling tourism in Thailand.

Development of a Mexican Version of the Cycle-Tourist Motivation Instrument (CtMI)

With the growing interest in cycle tourism in Mexico, it is necessary to understand the motives for traveling and cycling. The aim of this study was to develop and validate the bicycle tourism motivation instrument (Cycle-tourist Motivation Instrument (CtMI)) for Mexico. The instrument was applied to 322 cycle tourists who participated, directly or indirectly, in the 2021 Chichimeca route, a cycle tourism event. Atypical data were removed, Cronbach’s alpha of the CtMi was 0.920, the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) test gave 0.911 as a result, and Barlett’s sphericity test was equal to 0.000; in addition, factor analysis with varimax rotation was performed with factor loadings greater than 0.40, resulting in an instrument with validity and explanatory capacity for the phenomenon of cyclist motivation with 32 items divided into 7 dimensions: health, social, competence domain, exploration, stimulus-seeking, self-presentation and escape, with values equal to and/or higher than those reported in the literature. The CtMI can contribute to future research related to this topic, which will allow us to understand and determine the motivations of the cycle tourist in Mexico. Likewise, this study demonstrates the need for further research to validate the CtMI in other contexts, within Mexico and abroad.

Subjective Bodily Experiences of Island Cyclists in Different Contexts: The Case of Hainan Island, China

A single subjective bodily experience is at the core of sports tourism activities, but the current literature on sports tourism largely ignores both the continuous and ephemeral experiential processes of individuals in mobile sports activities from a bodily perspective. In this study, we developed a “context–body–perception” framework and selected a sample of tourists from Hainan Island, China, in order to explore the embodied experience of cycling tourists, using a qualitative approach. We found that the contexts encountered by island cyclists could be divided into a human context and nonhuman context. The human context included the companion context, pan-companion context, and host context, and the nonhuman context comprised the natural context, mediated facility context, and digital technology context. The cyclists’ physical experiences and perceptions in multiple different contexts were inseparable from each other, and both were embedded in a specific context through the five senses, through the state of body and activity, through emotions and memories, and through interaction with a specific context, all of which formed a dynamic feedback system. Through bodily practices in different contexts, cyclists acquired meaningful representations of their bodies, social relationships, and self-worth. The findings of this study can enrich the study of embodiment in sports and recreation areas, as well as provide an initial foray into bodily research in island-based cycling.

Cycling Tourism: A Literature Review to Assess Implications, Multiple Impacts, Vulnerabilities, and Future Perspectives

Cycle tourists are increasingly prominent in the profile of world tourism and, in the light of the literature, it is essential, among other things, to examine more closely who they are, what their concerns and motivations are that generate the choice of a cycle tourism product, and, as a priority, the level of economic, social, and environmental impact they cause at destination. In this context, this literature review aims at identifying authors’ and publishers’ interest in cycle tourism, the positive and negative effects of this form of tourism on the economic environment (direct and indirect), as well as effects on the social environment (benefits and potential drawbacks for local communities, along with health benefits for practitioners) and, last but not least, the degree of vulnerability to economic crises generated by travel restrictions. The conclusions reported in this article, as they have been drawn from analyses and examples of best practice, based on natural and anthropogenic geographical conditions, will be prioritised as future research directions. The usefulness of this approach lies in the information with significant applied and novelty aspects, addressed to local, regional, and national authorities, cycling and cycle-tourism associations, and various private interested enterprises, with a view to promoting cycling for recreational purposes and implementing cycling/cycle-tourism infrastructure as a sustainable way of developing small towns and rural areas with tourism potential.

Package cycle tourists′ relationship to time and pace

For its slow mobility, cycle tourism has been linked to slow travel. Yet, few tourism scholars have studied the meaning of the pace at which cycle tourists move. This study seeks to shed some light on cycle tourists' relationship to time and pace. For that purpose, mobile ethnography through participant observation and interviews was employed to explore how western tourists experience a package cycling holiday in Vietnam. The cyclists' notion of subjective pace was found to be unconnected from actual velocity or form of travel. Some of the tourists sought speed and closely monitored time as ways to achieve their cycling performance goals. None of the cyclists expressed concerns with the high carbon footprint of their air travel to Vietnam. Furthermore, contrary to the slow travel literature, the cycle tourists did not prioritise social encounters. The findings of this study, therefore, question whether package cycle tourists can be considered to be slow travellers. We thus suggest that the experience of pace as controlled by the traveller her or himself is central to being a slow traveller.

Cycling in Tibet: An analysis of tourists’ spatiotemporal behavior and infrastructure

Cycling tourism has grown in popularity worldwide, motivating its inclusion in the development strategies of tourism organizations. This paper builds an analysis model based on spatial analysis and Empirical Mode Decomposition, providing a data-driven way to utilize GPS cycling trajectory data to analyze the spatiotemporal behavior of Chinese cycling tourists using a case study example of the Tibet Autonomous Region. The results show that: (1) The fluctuation of the number of cycling trajectories in Tibet presents multi-modal characteristics, corresponding to fluctuations in China's tourism industry and economy; (2) Cycling tourists in Tibet prefer to use national roads (arguably due to the safety of the road infrastructure and the availability of supporting tourism infrastructure); (3) Cycling tourism is highly concentrated in and around the popular attractions of Tibet. The presented data and methods help to understand the spatiotemporal behavior of cycling tourists, which is of great significance for tourism management.

Potentials and Challenges for Cycling Tourism as a Sustainable Model of Transportation for Tourist Destination Promotion– Case Study in Ella-Sri Lanka; An Exploratory Study

Presently, lots of countries have initiated sustainable approaches to destination development. As result, cycling is also promoted due to the enormous environmental benefits it offers to ensure a smokeless tourism industry. Accordingly, this study aims to identify the potential and challenges of cycling tourism as a sustainable mode of transport for destination promotion. Further, the study explores the challenges of promoting cycling along with the tourists' perception. Ella-Sri Lanka was chosen as the main study location, and for in-depth analysis, the scenario study employed a qualitative approach. Purposive sampling and semi-structured interview techniques were applied for the data collection and at the data saturation point, 20 cycling tourists' responses were recorded for data analysis. The thematic analysis method was used for data analysis. Findings associated with the benefits of cycling were divided into four main themes economic, social-cultural, environmental and health, and other benefits. Additionally, tourist perception and the related challenges were categorized under three themes namely, safety and security-related issues, product, and process-related issues, and infrastructure facilities. Finally, implications for developing a more participatory policy approach towards sustainable destination development are highlighted considering the cycle renters, tourist guides, travel agents, accommodation providers, tourist services and facility providers, local authorities, government, and other relevant stakeholder groups involved in the tourism sector.

Using G.I.S. Products for Analysing the Potential of Practising Sustainable Tourism and Developing Z e ce Hotare Village

Zece Hotare village (Bihor County, Romania) is part of the disadvantaged areas category, being a former mining village, due to the exploitation of bauxite and clay resources. Today, its socio-economic situation is precarious, the economic sector being poorly developed, and the population is constantly declining. At present, it is an agricultural and forestry village. One of the solutions that could lead to achieving a balance and improving the economic situation and maintaining the existing population in the village, would be to capitalize on local resources by practicing rural tourism, in particular agritourism. Although recreational tourism is sometimes practised, agritourism is currently non-existent within the area. However, by practicing agritourism, the specific values, customs and traditions would be promoted. This study aims to propose and analyse possible options for the development of rural tourism, mountain tourism, ecotourism, agritourism, and cycling tourism, as well as which activities should be undertaken to practise these forms of tourism and to attracting tourist flows towards Zece Hotare village. Some of the proposals for tourism development in Zece Hotare provided in the study are as follows: construction of boarding houses; presentations addressed to locals about what the practice of agritourism involves, in order to observe their degree of openness and availability to contribute to practicing this form of tourism as hosts; creating thematic paths for picking medicinal plants; creating a cycle tourist route that includes a tour of the hamlets in the village; building boutiques where locals can sell their products, such as honey, bakery products, woven and embroidered clothes, wooden objects, etc.; arranging places for camping, arranging places for leisure activities, and others.

Customer Involvement in Sustainable Tourism Planning at Lake Balaton, Hungary—Analysis of the Consumer Preferences of the Active Cycling Tourists

This study uses an innovative tourism product development approach, based on co-creation or customer involvement, related to Lake Balaton, a mass tourism-based destination in Hungary, from the point of view of the market segment of active cycling tourists. The investigation of opportunities for the development of cycling tourism first of all relies on the new approach of attraction and product development around the destination, in which it is important to take into consideration the consumer preferences of the most important related group of tourists—active cycling tourists. The sustainable approach of tourism product development also provides an opportunity to decrease the spatial and temporal concentration of tourism, which is largely concentrated on the summertime season. The aim of this study is to explore aspects of the customers’ demand for tourism development in terms of cycling tourism with the help of primary data collection, in order to provide adequate directions for sustainable tourism development in the destination. Revealing the demand side of active cycling tourism related to Lake Balaton, the authors used both qualitative (focus group discussions and structured interviews) and quantitative questionnaire survey (computer-assisted data collection) research methods. The latter online surveys were carried out in November and December, 2019, and resulted with an appraisable sample of 809 questionnaires. As for the method, descriptive statistics and relationship analyses were applied. More than five thousand (5050) possible relationships were examined between the closed answers of the questionnaire by Kendall’s rank correlation coefficient (τ) and Cramer’s V, depending on whether they could be measured on a nominal or ordinal scale. The results show that the content analysis of the primary research provides well determined directions for the sustainable tourism development of cycling tourism at Lake Balaton, so customer involvement seems to be a win-win situation both for the customers (tourists) and the decision makers.

From Online Community to Offline Travel Companions: Technology-Mediated Trust Building and Ad Hoc Travel Group Decision Making

This article explores how cycling tourists build trust in the process of transition from online community to offline travel companions. It uses data collected from participant observation and interviews of a cycling tourist group in China. The findings indicate that after building a social circle in an online community, the members of the “community” build trust by: identifying travel companions’ attitudes, values, knowledge, and experiences to build dispositional trust; identifying companions’ preferences, activities, or the patterns of cycling behavior to build institutional trust; identifying companions’ cycling experiences, occupations, and hobbies to build interpersonal trust. After the identification of travel companions and trust has developed, online community members make the decision to travel together as companions and their online social circle becomes a regulated group without hierarchy. A “triple-jump” explanatory model to explain the trust-building process and practical recommendations from these insights were outlined.

Exploring Motivators and Deterrents of Cycling Tourism Using Qualitative Social Research Methods and Participative Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)

Cycling tourism is an environmentally friendly way to explore a destination. Nowadays, it is becoming more and more popular worldwide, since it permits an in-depth communication both with nature and people. In this context, the aim of this paper is to explore, in detail, mainly the environmental motivators of cycling tourists, and their significance, in Greece, by using qualitative social research (in-depth interviews and focus groups) and participative analytical hierarchical process. The results show that regarding physical environment, the element which attracts cycle tourists the most is the variety of scenic views along their route. Existence of lakes, rivers and beaches were also valued. On the contrary, “Biodiversity” and “Untouched natural landscapes” were ranked low as a description of the quality of the natural environment. However, the rise of cycling tourism depends considerably on the appropriate infrastructure, namely roads with low slopes, appropriate quality of surfaces and cycling infrastructure. Planners, policy-makers, and competent authorities should give emphasis on the critical factors in order to enhance cycling tourism, thus resulting in positive multiplying effects such as environmental protection and economic growth.

ДЕТСКАЯ ОПЕРА А. Н. ФАТТАХА «БРАТЕЦ КРОЛИК»: ОСОБЕННОСТИ ЖАНРА И КОМПОЗИЦИИ

Azon Nurtynovich Fattah (1922–2013), an outstanding composer, pianist, Honored Artist of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, is known among professional musicians primarily for the charm of his songwriting. Yet his music is little known to modern audience. The peak of composer's popularity came in the 1960–70s, when his songs were performed, for example, by Joseph Kobzon and Lev Leshchenko, Maya Kristalinskaya, Gelena Velikanova and Elena Kamburova. Fattah's works include a significant number of chamber-instrumental compositions and plays for orchestras by Yu. V. Silantyev, B. P. Karamyshev, V. V. Meshcherin, several musical comedies, the most famous of which was “Winged” (on the libretto of the wonderful children's poet V. I. Viktorov). The composer also created three operas, among which — the children's opera “Brother Bunny”. The interest of the widest audience in Fattah music at that time was initiated by the composer's film works, namely, music for tapes for children and youth: “The Tale of the Boy-Kibalchish”, “Scuba Diving at the Bottom”, “Young from the Schooner Columbus”. The audience especially remembered the songs that became real hits: “There Was a Stormy Time”, “How Can We Live Without the Sea”, “Song of Cycling Tourists”. Thus, the children's theme occupies one of the central positions in the composer's heritage. It is important that “Brother Bunny” opera stands out among the composer’s opera works by genre type and performing composition and continues the line of Soviet music compositions for the youngest ones, begun by Sergei Prokofiev. “Brother Bunny” is not only an opera for children (figuratively and subjectively accessible to the younger audience of listeners), it is intended for execution by children themselves, which determines the features of its structure, the composition of the participants and some characteristic features of the musical language. This article is an attempt to analyze this opus from the perspective of style guidelines and musical language in the context of Russian music traditions.

Analysis of Inter-Destination Cycle Tourist Movement Using Volunteered Geographic Information in Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan

Analysis of Inter-Destination Cycle Tourist Movement Using Volunteered Geographic Information in Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan

Urban bicycle tourism: path dependencies and innovation in Greater Copenhagen

During the latest decade, a renaissance of bicycling in urban transportation has occurred in many Western European cities. This opens up for a development of bicycle tourism as a form of urban sustainable tourism, taking advantage of improved infrastructure and facilities for cycling tourists. The aim of this study is to conceptualise the dynamics behind the development of urban bicycle tourism. This development may be viewed as an innovative process based on incremental changes in local socio-technological mobility systems. An analytical framework is proposed, based on the following categories: urban planning, bicycle tourism services, communication, and place making. In the analysis, evidence from the Greater Copenhagen region is used to contextualise particularly these perspectives of the development of urban bicycle tourism. In each of the four categories, evidence of innovative services or procedures supporting bicycle tourism was found. However, the most important source of incremental innovation is likely to be found on a systemic level, between the actors in the destination. It is also argued that the development of urban bicycle tourism is highly path dependent, related to the local bicycle culture. Bicycle tourism should not be viewed as isolated from the locals’ everyday cycling.