Mountain Biking Market Analysis – Tropical North Queensland

One of the awesome things about working with TRC Tourism is the super interesting projects I get to be involved with, and this one is particularly good. Having raised my gorgeous children overlooking the Cairns World Championship Mountain Bike Course in Smithfield, I have recently had the opportunity to delve deep into the industry and look at the prospects for growing the market for the region. This was off the back of a job I worked on with World Trail and the delightful Nikki Huddy at Planz Town Planning in about 2015 to develop the TNQ MTB Strategy.  

The report is in draft and may not be released so I can’t talk about the specifics but I have learnt a lot about the Mountain Biking market in Australia, New Zealand and the World. Did you know that more than 40% of European Mountain Bike Riders take their bike on their family holiday? (IMBA 2018) or that the MTB market is heavily overrepresented by men by about 4:1? Or that US and European retailers have reported 80% - 140% increases in e-bike sales since lockdowns started?  

I also had the very good fortune of catching up with Dr. Rick Buning in Hobart whilst I was in the process of researching the Australian NZ MTB markets. His insight into MTB markets, backed up by a solid catalogue of research papers in the US and Australia gave me plenty to build on in my analysis.

The best thing about working on projects like these is the people you get to talk to and the things you learn. Happy days!