This page is intended for businesses and partners on the route.
Why would visitors come to East Neuk 50 cycle route?
EN50 is aiming to develop a 50 mile sustainable tourism cycle route from Kirkcaldy railway station, round the East Neuk of Fife, up to Tayport before ending at the train station in Dundee. Apart from the well documented health benefits of cycling this route other benefits include:
- The route takes cyclists close by attractive locations and businesses in the area including through the villages, harbours, farm shops, historic locations and viewpoints
- Wide range of accommodation options and locally sourced food
- The route includes fantastic sea views and picturesque countryside
- Provide a visitor experience which can take several days to complete allowing cyclists to enjoy the local views and learn about the story of Fife as they travel through the area utilising the key themes of industrial and maritime heritage, arts and culture, royalty and food and drink
- Tourist attractions along the route are well signed-posted
- Offer a good route for those cyclists who will travel it in one single journey
- Promote cycling as a mode of travel
- Support local economy and jobs
- Provide accessibility at either Dundee, Kirkcaldy or at intermediate railway stations, such as Leuchars or the new station being developed at Leven
Advice for businesses wanting to target cyclists
Cyclists have specific needs that are sometimes a little different to regular visitors, for example somewhere to store their bike or even charge it while they have a meal.
There is some great advice available on this link:
https://www.visitscotland.org/supporting-your-business/marketing/toolkits/cycling
Market research
We have carried out market research that shows the route has huge potential. Here are the key points:
- The market research suggests high levels of interest in cycling the proposed route and this results in a large potential target market in Scotland and the North of England. Those who claimed they would be ‘extremely interested’ to cycle the route either in full or in part represent the potential number of people who would be likely to cycle the route if they were in Fife: up to 780,000 would be keen to cycle the route in full, and 950,000 would be likely to cycle parts of the route
- Although more women have completed the survey than men, the overall target market are proportionally more likely to be male than is the case in the broader population surveyed, and they are also more likely to be under 45 years. They are also more upmarket than is the case in the population overall, and reflecting the large proportions of adults aged 25-44 in the target market, the proportions with children in the household are also higher than average
- The potential target markets are frequent cyclists with three quarters cycling for leisure at least monthly. All would consider road cycling on a Scottish holiday, but there is a great appetite for other types of cycling on such a holiday – especially off-road and mountain biking
- Overall, two thirds of the potential target markets have visited Fife in the last couple of years. This is important as it suggests that there will be fairly high levels of awareness of Fife’s appeal for visitors which the proposed route can ‘tap into’
- The appeal of the proposed route is clear with nobody interviewed describing it as unappealing, and over half describing it as ‘very appealing’. The reasons provided largely focused on the scenic beauty of this part of Fife – a mix of sea and countryside and the variety of villages and places to see en route
- Amongst the target market, there is real interest in cycling the route – especially sections of it: just over half are extremely interested in doing so whilst over four in ten are extremely interested in cycling the whole route.
- Most potential users estimated they would spend 2-3 days to cycle the route and this was most likely to be on a 1-3 night short break, typically with their partner or a friend.
