The second cycling tourism session brought together speakers from 5 different European countries, with a focus on cycle tourism data.

Jesus Freire, Business Development Officer at the European Cyclists’ Federation, moderated the session. How can data address some of the main needs of cycle tourists? Properly collecting and analysing data impacts the development of long-distance cycling and the success of lobbying for further investments, etc.

Camille Thomé, director of Vélo & Territoires, opened the discussions by presenting the process of collecting, aggregating and using cycling GIS and POI-data for cycle tourists and public authorities. At Vélo & Territoires, the target is to make France the first cycling tourism country, before Germany, and to complete the French National Cycle Route Network (over 22 000 km of cycling routes) by 2030.

This IT-tool has two end-users. Firstly, the cycle tourists who need proper information and guidance to organise their trip. Secondly, the public authorities, who build, maintain and invest on cycling infrastructure. As Camille summarized:

“The developers of the network, being in France the public authorities, need to monitor the level of development in order to know where to allocate their efforts and investments. The cycle tourists need suitable, reliable, updated information. Eventually, end users provide feedback for the developers.”

The 9 EuroVelo routes in France are the champions of cycling tourism. For instance, EuroVelo 1 – Atlantic Coast Route has 72% of off-road sections and is a great route to target families! Data shows us that the strategy of Vélo & Territoire is working: 3 years in a row, France has been the most popular cycling tourism country for EuroVelo.

Next up was Casper Ottosen from Danish Cycling Tourism, a members’ association founded in 2014 by 6 associations and also the EuroVelo Coordination Centre in Denmark. In his presentation, Casper presented the quality assessment of bicycle routes in Denmark.

We need quality assessments to keep the routes relevant and up to date. Natural deterioration of the signage and the routes themselves happens, and public authorities need to be aware of it. When you are a cycle tourist, the road itself is the destination, and it is important to take the need for qualitative data into account.

In order to evaluate and highlight the deficiencies of the routes, Danish Cycling Tourism developed an innovative digital method based on both ECF’s European Certification Standard and ADFC’s route assessment and certification model. This route assessment method provides data that is easy to use for municipalities and that can be combined into clear reports.

Data collection consists in many variables: infrastructure, speed, traffic density, surface, but also landscape – the qualitative variables. The data is automatically transferred to a spreadsheet, from where it can be analyzed further, and visualized to reflect the deficiencies.

Mary Lawler, researcher at the University of Central Lancashire, presented her case study of cycle tourism monitoring in Europe, as part of the work to develop EuroVelo 1 – Atlantic Coast Route, a series of three workshops were held across Europe to investigate the monitoring of cycle tourism.

A variety of approaches were proposed to compare data amongst countries, ranging from route specific methods to more general, such as surveys on social media.

Moreover, a good understanding of the market target groups came out of that monitoring. The monitoring also shows trends in cycling tourism and highlights the importance of the route quality.

Finally, Micaela García Etxeberria and Uxue Itoiz Mariñelarena from Nasuvinsa, Navarra’s territory sustainability agency, gave a presentation on GIS as a tool to design and develop EuroVelo in Navarra.

GIS data was used in frame of the EuroVelo 1 project for route design. These geodatas contain information on the main facts needed for selecting the best route (type of road, traffic volume, speed limit and so on). Looking to the future, they want to create an app for the common users to register incidents. Through the flow of data, the route manager will receive the information on the incidents immediately.