Ontario By Bike Network:

Industry Update - November 2024

Brockville hotel departure - Ontario By Bike Ride 2024 - 1000 Islands River Ride

2024 Year in Review - Ontario By Bike

With a couple of months left in the year, we continue to be busy working with you, our tourism industry partners and certified bicycle friendly businesses, and are looking towards 2025 - making plans to continue reaching out to connect with consumers, visitors and cyclists of all types. Here and in brief, we are pleased to share with you some of our accomplishments for the year.

REACHING & ENGAGING CYCLISTS

• 72,000+ total readers - print & digital - estimated, 40,000 printed in both English and French of the 2024 edition of Cycling in Ontario/ Le vélo en Ontario (See below for our 2025 marketing partnerships)
• 24 blogs posted, and added new blog page ride type filter
• 508,100 reach in paid social media campaign June through October
• 47,000 monthly page views average OntarioByBike.ca
• 17,150 subscribers to popular monthly consumer e-newsletter sent February to October
• 6 Ontario shows/events, and 1 in Montreal - met with thousands of cyclists
• 177 cyclists on 4 Ontario By Bike Rides - coordinated, booked and hosted, weekend long package tour events in destinations around Ontario

FOR OUR INDUSTRY PARTNERS & ONTARIO BY BIKE CERTIFIED BUSINESSES

• 90 new businesses certified as bicycle friendly by Ontario By Bike to date in 2024, making total across Ontario – 1,680
• 11 webinars & 3 in person workshop for 445 registered attendees
• 2 Ontario By Bike Industry Partnership Advisory Committee web conferences
• Updated business listings to ensure all current, which included removing a number no longer operating, in destination renewal partner regions: York Region; Simcoe County; Renfrew County / Ottawa Valley; Northumberland County; Hamilton; Halton; Oxford/Elgin/Middlesex; Northern Ontario; Parry Sound/Muskoka - RTO12; Bruce County – Southwest
• Published new research study Ontario Cycle Tourism & Cycling Activity Report
• Completed a number of consulting projects for destinations around Ontario
• Attended, represented and presented at a number of industry meetings
• And so much more...

Visit our website to access more on above: OntarioByBike.ca

Or contact us directly by email: info@ontariobybike.ca

2025 Marketing Partnerships

-NOW AVAILABLE-

Print Partnerships 2025

The highly sought-after annual cycling guide is the go-to trip planning resource reaching travellers and cycling enthusiasts looking to explore Ontario. Helping our partners reach an active and targeted audience, and with strong early season demand and distribution, make sure your destination and location are featured in the 2025 edition.

Become an advertising partner in Ontario's only cycle tourism publication. In 2024, the 12th annual edition featured 56 pages of engaging and inspiring stories, ride destinations, events and tourism businesses. From our readers survey: 

• 80% visited websites and used resources referenced in 2024 guide
• 87% found the guide ‘useful’ or ‘very useful’ when planning a cycling trip in 2024

With 40,000 printed in 2024, extensive distribution throughout Canada and into the US, 72,000 total readers, both digital and print, enjoyed the publication. Don't miss this opportunity that sells out each year. 

Digital Partnerships 2025

Digital resources are one of the most frequently used sources of info cyclists use in pre-planning trips and outings. More cyclists than ever are visiting OntarioByBike.ca, engaged through our e-newsletters and following us on social media. Get in front of cyclists with a variety of content partnerships or display advertising options. 2025 partnerships are selling fast.

Event Partnerships 2025

Each year Ontario By Bike is an exhibitor at a number of large scale Ontario and Quebec shows and events. Benefit from this added exposure and reach a new audience, with reduced expenses and resources, through our events partnership. We are already making plans for 2025 that you can be a part of. 



- Booking deadline November 14 for print -

Digital & event deadlines - first come first serve 

Don't miss this opportunity - All options sell out

For all marketing partnership information & media kit visit OntarioByBike.ca/2025marketing

Cyclists enjoying patio in Fenelon Falls - Ontario By Bike Ride 2024 - Trent Severn Trail Tour

New Research - Cycling & Tourism Industry

As we know stats, facts and numbers are important to many of our industry partners, we are constantly updating our resources, accessing new research reports as well as conducting primary research ourselves. The following may be of interest.

Stats Canada National Travel Survey

We have been able to access the 2022 Stats Canada data (most recent available) that relates to cycling activities by visitors in Ontario.

• 1.2 million cycling visits in Ontario in 2022, representing 1% of total visits in Ontario 
• $565 million spent, accounting for 2.35% of total visitor spending in Ontario
• Largest spending categories (in order) are accommodations, food & beverage, transportation
• $537 spent per trip (cyclists) vs. $421/trip (non-cyclists)
• Same-day visitors $337 spent per day (cyclists) vs. $114/trip (non-cyclists)
• 4.2 nights average per trip (cyclists) vs. 2.9 night (non-cyclists)
• 61% of cycling visits were overnight visits (compared to 35% of total visits non-cyclists) 
• Note: 2022 data is domestic (Canadian visitor) results only.

If you are looking for additional cycle tourism related research - Ontario, Nationally and Internationally - all can be found at: TransportationOptions.org/Research

If you are interested in further research and stats on the tourism industry in Canada, as well as Ontario, check out Destination Canada's new Tourism Data Collective. For more detailed info on tourism in your area - see the Destination tab and toggle to 'Tourism Scapes'. For 577 destinations in Ontario find visitor spending and origin, seasonality, number and category type of tourism businesses, accommodations types and numbers and more. TourismDataCollective.ca

Congratulations to our 2024 Bicycle Friendly Business Award Winners!

-2025 Award Nominations open January-

We would like to once again extend our congratulations to the 2024 Best Bicycle Friendly Business Award Winners from each region. OntarioByBike.ca/2024AwardWinners

Winning businesses received significant recognition as each one was featured in our highly popular e-newsletter in 2024, included on media releases, received a physical award and print and digital decal to recognize their services and achievements.

Nominations for the 2025 awards open in January. Don't miss out on this opportunity! (All certified bicycle friendly businesses and partner destinations will receive information directly.)

2025 Cycling Events - Free Listing

Be sure to check that any cycling events in your area are listed on our events calendar with 2025 dates as soon as announced.

Remember that events on our calendar are organizer-submitted and must be submitted newly each year.

Don't miss out on this opportunity to get word of your event out to thousands of cyclists!

Event listings can be found at OntarioByBike.ca/Events

Events bring cycle tourists to your destination and to local businesses in the area and help to build longer term reputation of your area for cycling and cycle tourism.

See info and share the following link to activate listings: OntarioByBike.ca/Cycling-Event-Organizers

Photo credit: Kawartha Lakes Classic 2024

Capturing Lake Huron views - Ontario By Bike Ride 2024 - Huron Coast Explorer

Website Updates

We are continuously updating our website, to ensure the resources included are current as well as easy to find for search engines, and ultimately the end users - cyclists and cycle tourists.

Finding Blogs Easier

We updated our well visited blog page to include ride category types. For example, blogs for destinations with rail trails or bikepacking (plus other ride types) can be selected, and all relevant blogs will be displayed. Destination blogs also now pop up under each regions 'Great Place to Cycle' page, another way we are getting all the info and fresh content to cycle tourists.

Key Word Research

This year we undertook research which showed what words cyclists entered most frequently when using search engines to look for related info. Using this research we have been busy updating and adding tags to individual pages on our enormous website.

Itineraries

All our past Ontario By Bike Ride itineraries are now featured as legacy itineraries, so cyclists can make use of them beyond our organized ride events, self-supported. And many cyclists do use them! The updated itinerary page includes all routes on an embedded RidewithGPS map. Cyclists can then find and use the RidewithGPS app for free navigation, as a feature available as part of our tourism account.

BikeTrain.ca

Due to the CMS being long outdated, we have had to move our dedicated website BikeTrain.ca over to the Ontario By Bike site, which has a much more sophisticated and advanced CMS. While still retaining the URL, users will be directed to enhanced transportation pages that include info on bike transportation by trains, as well as ferries, international bridge crossings, bike share, bike rentals and buses.

Any Thing We Missed?

If you are scrolling through our site and spot anything that needs updating, just let us know by email. We can make updates instantaneously.

Tourism Strategy Survey - November 1

If you are picking up our e-newsletter early in issue, and haven't already done so, the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario (TIAO) is leading the creation of a new tourism strategy for the province. This strategy will guide growth for the tourism sector, ensuring it is industry-led and market-driven.

The last Ontario tourism strategy was developed by the Ministry of Tourism in 2016.

As collaboration and input from industry stakeholders is important - take the survey today - it closes end of day November 1. Your voice is crucial to ensuring that Ontario’s tourism industry not only recovers but thrives in the global market.

What's New With You?

We are always looking for stories and updates about what is new for cyclists to discover and enjoy at your location or destination. Please do drop us a line to share. 

We are busy now working on content for our annual Cycling in Ontario / Le vélo en Ontario guide for 2025, and have active social media channels throughout the winter. Also keep us in mind when it gets closer to spring and we restart our monthly consumer/cyclists e-newsletter.

Get in Touch

Louisa Mursell & Peter McMurtry

Ontario By Bike Network

Project of Transportation Options

850 Coxwell Ave ~ Toronto, ON ~ M4C 5R1

Office: 416-827-2774

Toll-Free: 1-866-701-2774

Email: info@ontariobybike.ca

Want to read more: Link to our past industry e-newsletter archive HERE

Link to our past consumer/cyclists e-newsletter archive and subscribe HERE

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