posted September 13, 2007 by trek7k

We’ve profiled several towns and regions around the world from Israel to Scotland to the US who hope to revive local economies through bike tourism. But does this ever work and how do you measure the impact?

CNBC has a great story this week about a small town in Montana that hosts an annual 24-hour mountain bike race and it seems to be helping the local economy. The race is in its 7th year and although it’s still a pretty small race (just 130 riders) it does appear to be keeping at least one local business alive.

Bike tourism is working Rapelje, MT because both the community and the mountain bikers have bought into the idea (which, I might add, seems to be rare). Ranchers help cut the race course through their fields and race organizers donate all the race proceeds to help support the local town cafe. Just one race a year can have a big impact on a small town like Rapelje and it’s great to see mountain bikers coming out to support others.

Anyone want to join my 24 Hours of Rapelje team next year? Spread the word.

Related posts:

1. Economic indicator: Spending on high end mountain bikes improves
2. California wildfires impact bike companies
3. Mountain biking for fitness in 2008
4. Green mountain biking
5. Dangers of Mountain Biking in Canada

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 10:27 am and is filed under Hors Categorie, MTB News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response by logging in and using the form at the bottom of this post, or trackback from your own site.