It’s hard to predict with any certainty who the cycle tourists of the coming years will be and which destinations they will choose. The data gathered over the past year, however, points in some fairly clear directions, and anyone deciding today where to invest in product, services and promotion can work from those. Italian cycle tourism is worth 49 million overnight stays and 6.4 billion euros of economic impact for destinations, according to the sixth Isnart-Unioncamere and Legambiente Report. The useful question now is where that demand is concentrating and how the person generating it is changing.
The regions building an advantage
The Cycle Tourism Index, produced by Bikenomist with Komoot by analysing cycling activities recorded in 14 European countries, measures the actual presence of foreign cyclists region by region. First place goes to Trentino-Alto Adige with 52.1 points, seventh in Europe and the only Italian region consistently in the continental top ten. Sardinia (32.83) and Liguria (25.79) follow, then Tuscany, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto.
Trentino’s figure is confirmed on the ground: in 2025 the province’s cycle paths recorded over three million passages, peaking at 805,339 at the Linfano counter. Where the infrastructure is continuous and monitored, the flows arrive and can be counted, and that is the advantage that builds up over time.
Further down the ranking there are two results that invite a rethink of a few preconceptions: Sicily comes out ahead of Lombardy, and Calabria ahead of Emilia-Romagna. These are regions whose shares are still small in absolute terms, and with room for growth that established destinations no longer have.
The calendar matters as much as the geography
The same index shows that every region has its own seasonal curve, and this is the most operationally useful information for building an offer. Trentino-Alto Adige holds up all year round. Sardinia and Liguria keep attracting cyclists outside the summer months too. Tuscany also has a balanced profile, while Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto concentrate their peaks between spring and summer.
The southern regions show their appeal above all in the shoulder seasons, with autumn as the strongest moment. For the South, the window worth investing in (in product, communication and keeping accommodation open) is September and October, when foreign cycle tourists are looking for a mild climate and quiet roads.
The fastest-growing profiles
If you want a clue as to who the customers of the coming years will be, the speed at which some segments have moved in twelve months is the best one available. Women have gone from 29.7% to 47.1% of cycle tourists, and the under-30s have almost doubled, from 9.3% to 17.3%. These are two audiences asking for services different from those designed for the adult male sports cyclist: perceived safety along the route, shorter stages, luggage transfer and reliable rail connections for the former; experiential content and shareability for the latter.
Spending power, too, contradicts the image of the low-budget cycle traveller. In 2025 average daily spend was 69 euros on accommodation and 91 euros on goods and services, up from 65 and 70 euros the previous year, with 22 euros a day on eating out, 10 euros on local products and 17 euros on wellness services.
The way this audience buys is digital: six cycle tourists out of ten book online and one in two shares the experience on social media. This summer, according to the Confturismo-Confcommercio Observatory with SWG, over 11 million Italians used a bike on holiday, and of these 6.6 million rented one at their destination — 1.1 million more than the previous year. Much of the growth runs through the service a region manages to offer on site.
The place where the next few years show up first
The numbers photograph what has already happened. To understand where the market is heading you need to be in the room where decisions are made: to hear what international buyers are asking for, see which regions are presenting new product, and talk to travellers while they are choosing their destination.
That is the function of the Cycle Tourism Show in Padua, the only Italian event entirely dedicated to cycling holidays. The 2026 edition closed with 27,000 visitors and 268 exhibitors and co-exhibitors from 20 countries, up 67.5% on the previous year. The audience is a qualified one: 72% of visitors had already taken at least one cycling holiday, and 81% chose and planned their next destination during the days of the event. The trade-only day generated over a thousand scheduled meetings with 48 international buyers.
The sixth edition will be held in Padua from 19 to 21 March 2027, with Friday entirely dedicated to B2B: over 60 buyers from around the world and a schedule of meetings with destinations, tour operators and accommodation providers. Early bird rates for exhibition space are held until 30 November 2026. Fill in the form to see the packages.
