Cycling Tourism

Globally, cycling tourism is a rapidly growing sector that creates significant economic activity in the host communities. For example, in 2016 cycling tourism reportedly accounted for 10% of Germany’s total tourism revenues. Numerous studies produced by government agencies and cycling associations (e.g., International Mountain Biking Association) show that cycling tourism creates significant employment and economic activity in the host communities. In this project, we propose to create a new adventure tourism product for Lebanon around the activity known as enduro mountain biking (MTB), in a manner that maximises engagement of MSMEs in Lebanon. Enduro MTB is a cycling discipline practised on technically challenging terrain that is commonly steep, narrow, rocky, and/or loose and which often involves features that require the rider to jump. It is a discipline that is ideally suited to Lebanon’s mountainous foot paths, including the Lebanon Mountain Trail, which most people unfamiliar with the sport consider “unrideable”. The four project advisors working with ALES on this grant application include a group of competitive enduro mountain bike enthusiasts and racers who for the past ten years have opened numerous mountain bike trails in Lebanon, have organised races for the Lebanese Cycling Federation, and who have also travelled together to experience enduro MTB adventure tours in the mountains of Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and France and who have previously hosted visitors from outside Lebanon who came to ride (and write about) Lebanon’s advanced trails.