[Closed] "Mountain biking currently generates £119m-a-year for the Scottish economy..."

The majority of the visits are from folk travelling from afar; I suspect that the increased cost of travelling will impact very severely on the number of visitors.

We used to go 3 times a year.
We no longer go.
It's too expensive to travel.

No, but it's about time we do as at the grand old age of 25, I'm starting the journey to a career in the big ol' bike industry.

Training, experience, learning, teaching. A long way to go.

I [i]need [/i]to work with bikes outside for the rest of my life and so far there has been nothing but support & enthusiasm from all sectors. Inspired & full of hope.

crikey - Member

The majority of the visits are from folk travelling from afar; I suspect that the increased cost of travelling will impact very severely on the number of visitors.

The counterargument is that less people are flying abroad for holidays. And as great as scottish mtb is, I don't think we attract an awful lot of international visitors so more UK holidays is probably a net benefit.

In terms of travel cost, have to say I'm not totally convinced. Fuel costs are up but even if you do a thousand mile trip in a fairly inefficient car or van you're still looking at an increase of well under £50 per vehicle. Does that stop many mountain bikers from making a trip?

Hmmm, good point. It has stopped me and my friends from the odd weekend at GT, or the odd 'Let's do Kirroughtree and Ae' and stay overnight kind of thing.

Maybe we've just grown away from that kind of thing?

I need to work with bikes outside for the rest of my life and so far there has been nothing but support & enthusiasm from all sectors. Inspired & full of hope.

awesome..

Classic (Michael Porter) model of competitive advantage deriving from geographical factors. Develop a brand identity for Scottishness to compete on the world stage for bike clothing for example. Becomes the mark of quality / excellence.

Swiss chocolocate, German cars, Scottish waterproofs...

Good job the Scottish biking economy isn't depending on me. Lately most of my riding has been local, I seldom ever ride at trail centres, mostly ride recycled bikes and parts and prefer to wild camp. I don't feel as though my experience is downvalued in any way. 🙂

Well it is "Europe’s Adventure Capital" after all 🙄

That's amazing if the figure is anywhere close to that.

Yet more subsidy for Scotland from the rest of the UK.

Scottish waterproofs...

well Charles Macintosh (the inventor of the "Mackintosh" rubberised rain coat) was Scottish - and the brand still lives on today.

And Endura are based in Scotland.

Scottish waterproofs

maybe Scottish insect repellent? (for the midges).

Yet more subsidy for Scotland from the rest of the UK.

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the inventor of

its a given that Scots invented everything, including Englishmen and Frogs

Yet more subsidy for Scotland from the rest of the UK.

Obvious troll is obvious.

I've no doubt mountain biking makes a reasonable contribution to Scottish Tourism but i would hazard a guess that the majority of it is travel from within the UK.

Scottish trails are good and the facilities at places like Glentress are first class, but are you really going to travel from France / Germany etc to ride Scottish trails? Are bikers in North America dreaming about a riding trip to Fort William or the Scottish Borders?

So growth from foreign visitors probably isn't going to be massive.

If we can push the success of the trails to grow some more bike or bike related companies in Scotland and the UK as a whole of the back of it then that can only be a good think

maybe Scottish insect repellent? (for the midges).

for that to succeed though we'd need to export breeding populations of scottish midges to our target markets

£119m a year that is almost a whole Peel Centre a year!

"Recent figures show that more than 1.3m visits are made to Scotland each year for mountain biking, nearly 600,000 of which are to sample purpose-built trails, such as the 7stanes in the south of Scotland."

Where are the other 700,000 going? Is McMoonter taking them all wild camping?

aracer - Member

Yet more subsidy for Scotland from the rest of the UK.

Ridiculous troll is ridiculous. And obvious, obviously.

ijs445ra - Member
"Recent figures show that more than 1.3m visits are made to Scotland each year for mountain biking, nearly 600,000 of which are to sample purpose-built trails, such as the 7stanes in the south of Scotland."

Where are the other 700,000 going?

Where are the other 700,000 going?

Bad estimating maybe?

Are there 1.3million mountianbikers in the UK? Do they include riding to the shops on a BSO as mountainbiking because the BSO was sold as a mountainbike?

mcmoonter can take me in the rough anytime he fancies !

http://www.absolutelyandy.com/absolutely/videoclips/ check this out aracer

And it costs the Scottish NHS £119,000,000 and 10p.