Sir, – Your Editorial (May 23rd) celebrates the return of the bicycle.
We are straggling behind the rest of Europe when it comes to cycling tourism. Our 100 or so kilometres of cycle trails pale into insignificance when compared to that of just one German province: North Rhine Westphalia boasts almost 8,000 kilometres of trails and cycle paths. The Mayo Greenway will keep a visitor happy for a day at most, but it will never form the basis of a one- or two-week holiday product. It needs to be massively extended to include disused railway lines all over Mayo and Sligo before we can even begin to compete, but pro-rail lobbyists have managed to block this from ever happening, and the tourists flock to countries with cycling facilities.
A Fáilte Ireland report of 2006 identified the deficit in our cycling tourism business, but despite the exponential growth of this market segment elsewhere, we have not addressed the issue in Ireland, and there are no plans to do so any time soon. – Yours, etc,