Visit Lincoln has launched a free online course for Lincolnshire’s businesses to help them increase business from cyclists to attract a growing market worth an estimated £520 million to the UK economy.
Cycling represents a growing and valuable tourism market, particularly in rural areas. In June 2020, it was reported that there was a 100% increase in weekday cycling with that rising to around 200% on the weekends when compared to pre-Covid-19 levels.
With this growth comes new audiences and new opportunities for local trade and businesses. According to Cycling UK, 1.23 million overnight cycle trips in the UK contribute around £433m to the economy and the DfT found that cyclists spend around 9% more per trip than the average visitor with an average spend per day of a cycling trip of £46.75.
Cycle Lincolnshire’s ‘Cycle Friendly Charter’ has therefore been launched to help businesses gain an understanding of how to make their business more appealing to the cycling market and benefit from this growing audience and offers a free online course open to all businesses across Lincolnshire to be crowned ‘Cycle Friendly’.
Visit England Director, Andrew Stokes, said: “It is great to see that the success of Cycle England has been the creation of Cycle Lincolnshire, bringing together businesses to build on current routes available and create new products and experiences county-wide. This Charter will support local businesses understand how they can become cycle friendly, and we hope Cycle Lincolnshire goes from strength to strength.”
Charlotte Goy, CEO at Visit Lincoln, said: "Our natural evolution into Destination Lincolnshire is the perfect time to launch Cycle Lincolnshire and our Cycle Friendly Charter. Lincolnshire’s city, coast, countryside, and market towns have so much to offer; Cycle Lincolnshire will attract new audiences to the county and create brilliant opportunities for local businesses to tap into a new, growing market.’
