BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
It’s not just local hotels that are among the businesses expecting to benefit from this year’s UK-set stages of the 101st Tour de France, with local campsites also seeing an uplift in interest.
According to Dan Yates, founder of Pitchup.com – a free guide to all types of outdoor accommodation in the UK, Ireland and France – traffic to the site and searches for Yorkshire campsite bookings are already up.
Bike shops tailoring their stock to include touring gear could also be set to tap into the expected surge in camping in the area during Le Tour.
Yates told BikeBiz that his outdoor accommodation-searching site is experiencing higher traffic than normal in the run up to the race.
He said: "Early booking is always recommended for a major event such as this and we’re already receiving around 2,500 searches per day for Yorkshire destinations. Normally the peak booking period would happen a few weeks before the departure date, but given the level of media interest and limited local availability, we would highly recommend early booking."
Pitchup has a dedicated Tour de France interactive map set up to search for campsites along the Tour de France route. The site also has a number of search filters geared up for cycle campers, including for cycle hire, MTBing nearby, pick up from public transport and Wi-Fi filters.
Yates added: "At present searches for sites in Yorkshire are six per cent higher than for the site as a whole. Last year, for the site as a whole, customers booked an average of 21 days before departing, but due to the level of interest in the tour we’re expecting a significant uplift over the coming months and are advising customers to book early to secure the best spots."
