A Conceptual Evaluation of Cycling Tourism in the Context of Sustainable Tourism

Abstract

In recent years, the changes in people's lifestyles, the inactivity caused by work life and sustainable environmental goals have increased the importance of cycling. There are numerous economic, health and environmental benefits of cycling. A significant number of people of all ages around the world have realized these benefits and have adopted cycling as a lifestyle. These people also want to use their bicycles for travelling. Those who use bicycles for sports may travel to participate in bicycle races. Recreational cyclists travel to attend cycling festivals in different cities and countries. Some people make all their trips on bicycles and travel to different cities and even different countries using bicycles. All of these activities carried out by bicycles constitute cycling tourism. This type of tourism, which has an important place among alternative tourism types, also contributes to the efforts of a destination to spread tourism over time and space. Besides, bicycle infrastructure projects to be implemented within the destination will encourage local people to use bicycles. In this study, bicycle tourism, which has become increasingly important worldwide and has limited studies in the Turkish literature, has been discussed in different dimensions. In this context, bicycle tourism has been presented under the titles of "The Development of Cycling Tourism in the World", "Cycling Tourism within the Scope of Sustainable Tourism", "Importance of Bike Sharing Systems in Cycling Tourism", " The Economy of Cycling Tourism" and " The Factors Affecting the Development of Cycling Tourism" by reviewing the literature with the systematic review method.