I've been pretty excited about the potential for developing mtb tourism for Santa Cruz county. I believe that tourism is the best framework in order to open more trails and create more volunteer participation in advocacy and trail work. I believe that mountain bike tourism has the potential to develop more economic activity for the local bike industry and the tourism economy of Santa Cruz.
The other day I did a Google search to find information on the demographics of people who would engage in mountain bike tourism. I hit a gold mine when I found this document from the Yukon Tourism and Culture resource center:
Exploring the Market Potential for Yukon Mountain Bike Tourism (PDF 51 pages, 5.05MB)
(NOTE: printing this document pegged my printer at work for about 45 minutes due to the white on black section boxes)
This is a recent document (March 2005) and it's quite comprehensive. Even if you aren't interested in developing a tourist destination, this is a good overview of the demographics of mountain bikers.
Part 1 discusses the history and global demographics of mountain biking. Part 2 talks about the economic impact of various mountain bike related events. Part 3 has case studies of existing mtb destinations and some lesson learned for aspiring destinations. Part 4 and 5 discusses the assets of the Yukon Territories and outlines a strategy for how they can capitalize on the mountain bike tourism market.
When you look at the geographic and logistical challenges facing the Yukon to implement this plan, it seem much easier for Santa Cruz to develop and market itself as a mountain bike destination.
1 comment:
oh man! this is just the doc i was looking for. Thanks so much for a great informative blog and all the work you are doing. Check out what we get up to in Cape Town, South africa (http://www.irdeafrica.com). We are trying to get similar projects as yours going here, so all your articles are a great help for market research etc!
Many thanks and I hope we can ride in Satan Cruz one day!
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