Situation
Destinations and experience providers across the country see great potential in attracting more both Danish and international cycling tourists. Cycling tourism aligns both with a nationally anchored ambition to market Denmark as a cycling nation and with a number of megatrends that generally shape the experience and tourism market: growth in outdoor and nature tourism, climate-friendly forms of holidaymaking, and recreational experiences that offer freedom and the opportunity to mentally switch off.
Complication
However, the target group “cycling tourists” in practice covers a highly diverse group of people who choose to go on cycling holidays based on very different experiences, preferences and expectations. For some, a cycling holiday is, for example, about working up a sweat on a mountain bike, while for others it is about enjoying nature or cycling to explore local cultural treasures and gastronomy. The diversity within the target group therefore challenges tourism actors who, on the one hand, want to work strategically with cycling tourism, but who, on the other hand, find it difficult to get an overview of which preferences and needs they should specifically cater for and market themselves on.
Recommendation
To frame the complexity of cycling tourism target groups and thereby create a more nuanced yet precise language for working in the field, Epinion carried out a comprehensive study of the Danish population in connection with the Cycling Summit in 2022. On that basis, we have developed an easy-to-use target group tool, communicated in a simple and accessible way, which divides Danish cycling tourists into five main groups. The target groups were identified through a segmentation of 5,000 nationally representative responses to questions about, among other things, cycling holiday preferences and habits, as well as the main barriers to going on a cycling holiday. The target groups can be reproduced statistically and easily integrated into future studies for tourism actors.
