(Tours) More than 1.8 million cyclists took the Loire by bike cycle route in 2022, according to a study of the Centre-Val de Loire and Pays de la Loire regions published on Wednesday in Tours.
Attendance on this portion of EurovéloRoute 6, which connects the Atlantic to the Black Sea, has thus doubled compared to the last study dating from 2015.
“The rate of annual growth is between 10 and 15%. It’s quite extraordinary”, welcomed the president of the Center-Val de Loire region François Bonneau at a press conference, believing that cycle tourists come to “release the pressure” and “get back in harmony with nature”.
According to the study of 14,745 cyclists, between March and November 2022, a tourist spends an average of 69 euros ($101) per day on La Loire à vélo.
The economic benefits are estimated at 54.5 million euros for the year 2022. “This is 84% compared to the last study, carried out in 2015. of industrial development. And this proves that we can reconcile the challenges of the environment and those of industry, ”said the elected socialist.
An observation shared by many tourism professionals, such as Pierre Lambin, founder and director of Cheverny Voyage: “Our company has refocused around the bicycle tourism business, which was not our project at the start. Our fleet of bicycles has grown […] from a dozen bicycles to 800 today,” confirmed the business manager.