Measuring growth in bike tourism

Overview

Action 4.5: Implement mechanisms to gather data to measure and report on the growth of bicycle tourism in Queensland.

Lead agency: Department of Transport and Main Roads

Status: Complete

Achievements

We supported WeRide Australia to undertake the ‘Australian Cycling and E-Scooter Economy Report’.

The report is the biggest study of cycling and e-scooter economic impact in Australia so far. It covers the importance of cycling tourism to Queensland and the Australian economy.

The report is published on the WeRide Australia website.

Key findings from the report include:

• cycle tourism in Queensland contributed about $354 million directly to the economy. 78% of this spend was in regional areas
• cycling tourism for overnight trips, where cycling was the main purpose, generated $234.9 million each year in direct output across Queensland
• for overnight trips, regional Queensland had the second highest total spending in Australia, at $181 million per year. It was only behind regional New South Wales
• the average spend per cycle tourism trip in regional Queensland was $952.

The report contributes to the case for more investment in bike riding, e-scooters, and bicycle tourism. We also counted bicycle riders and other users on key tourism routes. We also supported local governments to undertake counts on routes on the locally-controlled network. These routes included the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail and Moreton Bay Cycleway.

Next steps

We will keep collecting data at regular intervals. This way, we can track changes in the bike tourism market over time and in certain places.