Spillover Effects Between Urban and Non-Urban Cycling Tourism in Italy. What Is the Role of Public Transport?

Abstract

Cycling tourism gained a growing popularity in non-urban travel experiences, but the use of eventual complementary motorised vehicles may generate emissions, negatively impacting the environment. The paper, focusing on the role of public transport for intra- and inter-destination trips, has a twofold objective. First, it aims to identify the different determinants of the destination choice by bikers, considering both urban and non-urban places. Second, it investigates whether the choice of urban destinations might influence the decision of varying the frequency of cycling in non-urban places. By using primary data from an Italian survey on cycling tourism in 2020, the work outlines unobserved effects and reveals the existence of a behavioural spillover effect that is enhanced when cycling tourists use public transport. Thus, public and private investments in transport services are needed to connect urban and non-urban tourism destinations, attracting more tourists to non-urban places.