Saddling Up

A Comprehensive Design Training Approach to enhance Cycle Tourism Experiences

Context
With over 33 million visitors and an economic impact exceeding 4 billion euros in 2022*, cyclo-tourism represents an immense opportunity to Italy, offering new ways for tourists to discover and experience the country.

Such an interesting potential has not gone unnoticed by Italian regional entities. One of them called on our Service Design team to craft an extraordinary initiative aimed at boosting the availability of cyclo-tourism online offerings through the entity’s official platform.

*“Viaggiare con la bici 2023: 3° Rapporto sul cicloturismo”, curated by ISNART/Legambiente

Journey
As for every main cluster, also the one of cyclo-tourists is made by diverse sub-groups. Services, accommodations, experiences needed to be designed around different cyclo-tourist archetypes.
To tackle this complex challenge and get the most out of it, our Service Designers adopted a user-centered and ecosystem-based design methodology.

It was necessary to gather the broadest knowledge and to depict the widest range of attitudes and behaviors in cyclo-tourism.  We thus decided to co-create with a hundred tourism operators, engaging them through online training sessions and surveys.

The results of the investigation were validated and refined through an in-person collaborative workshop aimed at enhancing the institution’s range of integrated commercial offerings. Leveraging on such an interactive collectively orchestrated method the project paved the way to a range of new integrated travel packages tailored on the attentive mapping of cyclo tourists’ expectations, habits and preferences.

Results
Investigating and systemizing the multitude of attitudes and behaviors detectable on the reference target helped tourism operators focus on different offerings and shape them around real users’ needs and bike-related partnerships opportunities.

Choosing a collaborative and listening-driven approach boosted the availability of cyclo-tourism offerings on the regional platform by 30% and helped the institution to adopt a design mindset that can now be replicated to face new challenges.

Last but not least, being open to unseen chances represented an opportunity to capitalize on the region’s breathtaking landscapes and charming towns from new point of views , allowing travelers  to explore them at a leisurely pace while aligning with an increasing awareness regarding health and environmental consciousness.

Cover credits Freepik