FEATURE
A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
Daniel Blackham catches up with Brendan Fox of Destination Sport Experiences to discuss how consumer trends are changing in both the travel and cycling market, as well as what can be done to showcase the sport’s many benefits
C
onsistently tracking consumer buying habits can be one of the hardest things to do in any environment. It’s why many consultants and agencies are paid
tens of thousands of pounds to try. And the cycling industry is no different. However, it didn’t take a psychic to predict that, off the back of the pandemic, international travel would see a spike. As restrictions loosened, people were keen to get back to travelling beyond county borders. One business which saw an uptick in demand was Destination Sport Experiences.
Although a relatively new name in sports travel, Destination Sport Experiences has built a portfolio to cater to consumers across cycling, running and triathlon, offering tours, travel packages and guaranteed entry to marathons, cyclosportives and long distance triathlons around the world, together with VIP hospitality access to many of the top professional cycling events.
www.bikebiz.com In early 2022, Sportive Breaks also became part of
Destination Sport Experiences and the business has continued to expand under the leadership of managing director Brendan Fox. “The team who are working on it now have worked together for 15/16 years and have previously been involved with cycling events and travel to cycling events. So you know, it’s a market we know pretty well,” he explains. “We’ve expanded Sportive Breaks to operate in the US as well as Australia and we have recently announced an operation in China. “The company started operating in China last year, initially really concentrating on the marathon market, but quite quickly it became apparent that we needed to do something in cycling because it was moving so fast.” Despite initially being focused on sportives, it now offers
trips to Grand Tours, the Classics and the Tour de France. As a result, demand continues to rise.
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