The New Zealand Cycleway Project

Marketing New Zealand Cycle Tourism to the World

Although New Zealanders have always travelled around the country with their bikes and many very professional tourism operators have existed in this country for some time, cycle tourism is still very much in it’s infancy in New Zealand.

The Government-led Jobs Summit thrust the potential for cycle tourism into the spotlight in February 2009 when Prime Minister John Key enthused on the idea of a National Cycleway.  This concept has since morphed into a series of “Great Rides” around New Zealand capitalising on existing infrastructure as well as many of the already popular mountain bikes in this country.

The Government subsequently set aside $50 million to develop these Great Rides - but no money for actually marketing them; this being left to the communities and regions that hosted the rides or already had existing tourism and biking infrastructure and Tourism New Zealand.  While many of these rides are now in development - some will have large sections rideable for the 201 summer season - case studies in Australia and the UK show that a lack of a centralised marketing effort mean’t the cycle trails in these destinations fell short of their potential.

NZbyBike.com is subsequently being developed on the back of the New Zealand Cycle Trail Project to aggregate a very large newly developing industry, bringing together owner-operated local businesses with the professional long stand larger touring companies and corporate organisations.  Find out more about NZbyBike.com and how you can be involved.