Where do cyclists go
From biketrip.org
A few days ago, we did a map of the links of biketrip.org. That's all the links we have pointing to other sites, mostly travelogues. On biketrip.org, links are categorized by country. We actually mapped the number of links for each country and came up with this very interesting map:
Why is it so interesting ? Well because it shows a bit more than just the links, it's pretty accurate in showing what are the favorite destinations and what are the area less cycled in. You'll notice that this map and the one on the links page are slightly different. The map on this page shows only the links for travelogues whereas the map on the links page shows all the links, regardless of the link nature.
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[edit] Discussion
Before we go any further in commenting the map, here are a few things that biased this map:
- Some countries might be misspelled, or spelled differently between the name of the page on biketrip.org, which is one reference, and the name in the cartographic database.
- A lot of hardcore cyclists don't have a website or published a travelogue, sadly these cyclists go to the most remote and unbicycled countries...
- The map is very dependent on the internet access in each country. African cyclists traveling in Africa might not get internet access to share their experience.
- We're of course missing a lot of links on the internet.
- Some links to travelogues are labeled as 'Around the World', which is an old category on an older biketrip.org that we're trying to get rid of by replacing it with the actual list of countries visited. It's a long and boring task though.
[edit] Popular places
Without surprise, North America, Argentina and Chile, Australia, China and France are amongst the most cycled in countries. Well, here size matters. Big countries are more likely to have more cyclists than small countries, next step will be to make a ratio with size / population / nb of links. France is so well represented mainly because biketrip.org has strong french roots, but it's a very popular destination for touring. Argentina is a highway for tourers, so is Chile and Ushuaia has always been a very frequent goal for trips. China is more and more popular, but it includes Tibet which is an even more popular destination.
[edit] Surprising
Central America, from let's say from Mexico to Panama is maybe under represented. These are still easy countries for cycling and traveling, that's maybe an effect of the 'Around the World' category.
[edit] Emerging
Eastern Europe, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland is most likely to get more and more cyclists. Being in the European Union with a rather still cheap cost for food and hosting, together with nice landscapes and friendly people make them a good choice right now. Southeast Asia, with Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam is also getting more and more popular: easy to cycle with a lot of touristic information and infrastructure and very cheap.
[edit] Far behind
Africa looks really far behind. Maybe some of the reasons discussed above are a possible cause but very few cyclists are traveling there.
