In October 2018, we launched the publication “Guide to the Slovenian Karst by Bicycle,” a 52-page ebook produced in cooperation with the local promotion body to promote cycling tourism in the area.
The feature of this publication is that it is available for free download upon registration.
Almost a year later, we wanted to try to measure the impact of this operation.
Through promotion through Bikeitalia.it and its social media, the ebook and its contents have been viewed more than 40,000 times and has been downloaded by about 2,000 people.
At the end of the summer we wanted to test its effect, so we sent out a questionnaire to everyone who had downloaded the ebook. The response rate was low, as expected, about 8.5 percent (thus 171 responses) however, it offered us some very useful information and is worth presenting below.
Sixty-nine percent of respondents said they had taken a vacation in Slovenia during the past 6 months, and 69.4 percent of these said they had visited the Green Karst area.
57.4% said they spent between 3 and 7 days there.
84.6 percent said they were very or very satisfied with the experience.
90.4% used bicycles during their vacation
59% slept in a hotel or B&B.
56.4% of respondents said they used our guidebook
When asked “how satisfied are you with the ebook,” 37% said “quite a bit,” 48.1% said “a lot,” and 7.4% said “very much.
On the age question, 63% of respondents are over 50 years old.
What does this data tell us?
- That our operation has tapped into the niche of“silver cyclists,” which is that demographic segment with more time and money on their hands;
- That offering information about one’s area to potential tourists is still the most effective promotional method;
- That using digitally evolved communication tools to promote bicycle tourism allows the return on investment to be measured;
- That if we very conservatively assume an individual expenditure of 100 €/day, that bicycle trips generally take place at least in pairs and an average stay of 5 days, only those who responded positively to the questionnaire, spent on the territory an amount of around 64,000 €. If we then consider the representative sample of all those who downloaded the ebook, the total figure is around 980 thousand euros spent on the territory. And that’s only in the first year (an ebook is forever)!
Admittedly, it is difficult to determine the impact that the Bikeitalia.it ebook had on choosing the Slovenian Karst as a vacation destination, but we have the certainty that those who do nothing to promote themselves as a cycling tourism destination are unlikely to achieve results of any kind.
The one on Green Karst is just one in a series of ebooks on cycling tourism produced by the Bikeitalia.it editorial staff (in addition to Copenhagen, Valencia, Costa Brava, Costa Daurada, Gran Canaria, Czech Republic and more to come).
For more information about ebooks, download the presentation here: click
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