Package cycle tourists^′ relationship to time and pace

Abstract

For its slow mobility, cycle tourism has been linked to slow travel. Yet, few tourism scholars have studied the meaning of the pace at which cycle tourists move. This study seeks to shed some light on cycle tourists' relationship to time and pace. For that purpose, mobile ethnography through participant observation and interviews was employed to explore how western tourists experience a package cycling holiday in Vietnam. The cyclists' notion of subjective pace was found to be unconnected from actual velocity or form of travel. Some of the tourists sought speed and closely monitored time as ways to achieve their cycling performance goals. None of the cyclists expressed concerns with the high carbon footprint of their air travel to Vietnam. Furthermore, contrary to the slow travel literature, the cycle tourists did not prioritise social encounters. The findings of this study, therefore, question whether package cycle tourists can be considered to be slow travellers. We thus suggest that the experience of pace as controlled by the traveller her or himself is central to being a slow traveller.

Sustainable Urban Tourism with Green-Slow Mobility: A Case of Ikebukuro, Japan

“…Previous studies on the relationship between slow mobility and slow tourism seem to have focused relatively more on walking (Tiyce & Wilson, 2012;Kato & Progano, 2017) and cycling (Fullagar, 2012;Matteucci & Tiller, 2023) as modes of transportation; however, they have actually considered a wide range of modes including hitch-hiking (O'Regan, 2012), boating on a canal (Fallon, 2012), train travel (Roy & Hannam, 2013), and campervan travel (Wilson & Hannam, 2017). The research objectives of these studies are set primarily with regard to tourists' perceptions of their tourism experiences and the influence of tourism with slow mobility on local communities and the natural environment.…”

Pacemaking and placemaking on the UK canals

“…The pace of movement on canals, as well as in other places, is relational – ‘there is no threshold or minimum limit to slowness or deceleration that we can use to judge particular instances against’ (Vannini, 2014, p. 120). As Matteucci and Tiller (2022) demonstrate in their paper on package cycling tours as a form of slow tourism, the idea of pace is highly subjective and not linked to actual speed or mode of transportation. For the studied cycling tourists, having control over their pace is crucial to the concept of travelling slowly (Matteucci & Tiller, 2022, p. 10).…”

“…As Matteucci and Tiller (2022) demonstrate in their paper on package cycling tours as a form of slow tourism, the idea of pace is highly subjective and not linked to actual speed or mode of transportation. For the studied cycling tourists, having control over their pace is crucial to the concept of travelling slowly (Matteucci & Tiller, 2022, p. 10).…”