We held an unofficial get-together and crammed together in a small room to brainstorm and get to know one another. After 2 and 1/2 hours (and that was after a full day of conference-ing), we agreed to set up a kind of caucus for bike touring within the Adventure Travel Trade Association. It was so stimulating, hob-nobbing with colleagues from Croatia, Southeast Asia, Colombia, Namibia, Venezuela, Germany, Cuba, Montenegro, New Zealand, Brazil, and many more countries. I made sure many of them got Adventure Cyclist magazine!
Also at the conference, I connected with proprietors of walking and trekking companies who are edging into bike tours, to diversify and because they see new revenue streams. In fact, they are finding that bike tours can outperform their walking tours. Some companies, like KE Adventure (based in the UK but with global operations), saw their bike tour sign-ups jump nearly 90%, driven in part by cycling in the Olympics and the fact that a Brit won the Tour de France.
Next dispatch, a nirvana for adventure cyclists: Switzerland!
Photos courtesy of Jim Sayer. Top photo: More than 40 bike tour operators from around the world gathered to talk shop at the Adventure Travel Summit in Lucerne, Switzerland. Bottom photo: Jim Sayer and Marybeth Bond, a leading travel columnist and blogger at GutsyTraveler.com
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JIM SAYER is executive director of Adventure Cycling Association.
Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/10/more-wow-indicators-of-bike-travel-boom.html
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