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What do cycling tourists want? Better infrastructure and public transport connections!

Thursday, February 27, 2025
Last year, the European Cyclists’ Federation, in collaboration with the Danube Office, carried out a transnational online survey for cycling tourists with a special focus on the Danube Region. With more than 5,000 responses from Europe and beyond, the survey provides interesting insights into cycling tourism, and in particular into its combination with public transport.

The Danube cycling tourist online survey was carried out between September and October 2024, in 14 languages. It is an activity of the Interreg Danube Region project Active2Public Transport (A2PT). ECF implemented the online survey as a service provider for the action leader Danube Office Ulm/Neu-Ulm. A report on the main learnings from the survey data is now available and will form part of the EuroVelo Data Hub, the platform collecting data and findings about EuroVelo and cycling tourism.

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Assembling more than 5,000 complete answers, 76% of which came from the Danube Region, the sample is not representative of the general population. Male respondents, middle age groups and regular and occasional cyclists are overrepresented compared to the general population. Thanks to its focus on respondents having experience with cycling and cycling tourism, the survey is still an interesting portrait of cycling tourist profiles and needs in the Danube Region, and especially on the topic of multimodality. 70% of the sample has already been on a cycling holiday, 50% of which in the Danube Region. However, large national differences in experience with cycling holidays – even among those who cycle regularly in their daily life – show that there is still a lot of potential for growing cycling tourism in the Danube Region.

The survey offers useful insight into the most important criteria for planning a cycling trip and overall satisfaction levels. While most cycling tourists are very satisfied with their cycling holidays (4.6/5) and almost all would go again, they decide where to go based on good infrastructure, the possibility of carrying bicycles on public transport, cycling-friendly services and accessibility of the destination by public transport.

Bike-train intermodality in Austria
Bike-train intermodality in Austria

Public transport connections are, indeed, in high demand for cycling tourists: 53% of respondents used railways to get to their holiday destination or back, and another 35% even used public transport during their cycling trip. 75% of respondents carried their bicycle on public transport. Compared to the very positive cycling tourism rating, public transport offer is less satisfactory, with an average rating of 3.5 out of 5 – users confirm that there is a lot to do to improve the offer of cycling-friendly services on public transport, such as the possibility of taking bikes on board, infrastructure at connection hubs, and so on. Providing the correct information is a key factor in developing better multimodal connections for cycling tourists.

ECF has drafted five key recommendations for the growth of cycling tourism in the Danube Region:

  • Develop cycling tourism in the Danube Region further, to benefit from its high potential
  • Increase the quality of cycling infrastructure in the Danube Region to support the growth of cycling tourism, including sections close to public transport hubs
  • Improve the cycle-friendliness of public transport to increase cycling tourism
  • Provide sufficient capacity for carrying bicycles on public transport (especially trains and buses)
  • Improve online information on cycling tourism and public transport, including for international audiences.


The summary of the Danube cycling tourist survey results and the full report are available on the Resources section of the EuroVelo for Professionals website, and at the end of this article.

Article by Jessica Casagrande, Agathe Daudibon and Holger Haubold