VTT2 – Mountain biking and tourism transition

The project will compare a sample of mountain resorts in France, where the development of mountain biking is largely driven by a logic of diversification, while the main offer remains centered around winter sports, with a network of diffuse tourist destinations in Scotland (the 7 Stanes), where mountain biking is a constituent element of the destination, driven as a development factor for a rural territory. The aim is to gain a better understanding of the relationship between the development of a sporting leisure activity and tourism, according to the different forms of territorial organization.

Our approach is both qualitative ( on-site observations, exploratory and then semi-structured interviews with players in the mountain bike tourism system) and quantitative (using existing visitor data and questionnaires with sport tourists). By comparing the cases of tourist resorts on the one hand and rural tourist areas on the other, we will attempt to identify the modalities of mountain bike tourism governance and local organization of the offer, to identify what characterizes the demand of mountain bikers in terms of sporting experiences, but also with regard to their tourism expectations.