Sustainability SI: Exploring Heterogeneity in Cycle Tourists’ Preferences for an Integrated Bike-Rail Transport Service

Bicycle tourism has recently become an important niche tourism market, and one that is growing along with rising awareness of the need for sustainable development. However, one major concern is that such tourism might generate additional car journeys, as cycle tourists often put their bikes in cars and drive to the location where their cycling will take place. This paper focuses on an integrated bike-rail transport service, and examines cyclists’ preferences with regard to this service by using a discrete choice experiment in Taiwan. The preferences of different groups segmented by cycle tourists’ recreation specialization level and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for service attributes were examined. Data were collected using an on-site choice experiment survey, with choice sets designed based on service attributes in the integrated bike-rail transport service context. Mixed logit models were analyzed to explore the varied preferences of the respondents. The results revealed that cycle tourists in general are concerned about the service attributes of the integrated bike-rail transport service, such as price, type of bike storage, bike storage location and service frequency. In addition, varied preferences and differences in the WTP for the attributes were found among the different groups.