Bikeconomy

The Tour de France kicks off: $900 million inducement, $54 million for Florence

The world's most famous stage race starts with three Italian stages: 780,000 people are expected in Florence, with increases in hotels and short-term rentals

28 June 2024

Jonas Vingegaard durante la presentazione del Tour de France a Piazzale Michelangelo. Firenze. (LaPresse)

3' min read

Saturday sees the start of the Tour de France, for the first time with three all-Italian stages. In fact, the Grand Boucle starts in Florence, touching on Rimini, Bologna and Turin, where it will find queues of fans along the entire route;

It is no mystery that the Tour is one of the most fascinating and followed sporting events in the world, which this year will skip Paris, in the throes of preparations for the Olympics, and close the last stage in Nice, not far from the Italian border.

The 3,492 kilometres of racing with an altitude difference of 52,000 metres will attract more than twelve million spectators with an estimated economic impact of more than 900 million dollars. This is a downward figure that only takes into account the attendance in the stage cities and not the attendance distributed along the route. This expenditure is dominated by catering, which accounts for 47% of the total, followed by hospitality (34%) and transport (19%), confirming the fact that cycling has a high experiential value linked to local resources.

Accounting for the economic impact of the Tour is Data Appeal, an Almawave Group company specialising in the collection and processing of data collected on the web. The data was presented by Mirko Lalli, founder of the company, in the context of Becycle, the Pitti Immagine event dedicated to cycling as a lifestyle, whose first edition was held at the Leopolda in Florence on the very eve of the Tour's departure.

That of the Tuscan capital, where the bet on the yellow race had become a topic of contention in the recent electoral campaign, seems in the end to be a choice that pays off, with an estimated economic fallout of $54 million and the arrival of 780,000 people for the occasion.

But all the Italian cities involved recorded positive effects in economic terms. In all cities, with the exception of Turin, the increase in demand caused a jump in accommodation rates to coincide with the arrival of the race, with a 35% peak in Rimini followed by Florence (+29%). There was also a strong leap for short-term rentals with a peak in Cesenatico where they doubled;

The impact of the Grand Boucle will peak in the last two stages with the finish in Nice, with two million spectators bringing in an extra $198 million in revenue. This confirms that cycling is far from being a poor sport. As is also demonstrated by an Italian production of excellence that has export prices almost double those of imports and a fast-growing cycling tourism. As Banca Ifis data show, the slowdown in the bicycle market, which has been declining after the boom of the pandemic period, is not matched by two-wheeled tourism, which last year recorded a leap of 1.2 million presences in Italy to a total of 7.5 million.

The bicycle is therefore a sector that has great potential in Italy and that deserves greater attention both in terms of industrial policy and urban mobility and cycle tourism, as pointed out by Piero Nigrelli, head of Ancma's bicycle sector. Just this year, Europe approved the European Cycling Declaration, which, as Manuel Marsilio of Conebi, the European Bicycle Confederation, emphasises, highlights the economic value of two-wheelers starting from their recognition as a real means of transport.

Pierangelo SoldaviniVicecaporedattore
Luogo: Milano
Lingue parlate: Italiano, Inglese
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