Development of Mountain Bike Trail

Wed, 15 Nov 2023

The development of a Mountain Bike Trail Park has been approved by the Economic Strategy Board.

The Mountain Bike Trail Park will enhance 50km of existing trails and create 14km of new trails to connect seven plantations across the Isle of Man.

It is hoped that the new park will elevate the Island’s outdoor tourism offering by enhancing the Isle of Man’s proposition as an established cycling destination and increase the number of cycling leisure and event visitors to the Island each year.

The project is aligned to Visit Isle of Man’s objective to grow annual visitor numbers to 500,000 by 2032.

The three phases:

• Phase One: The development of a total 64km of mountain biking trails and increased signage, has been approved following a feasibility study conducted by a local company dedicated to building and maintaining mountain bike trails in the Isle of Man. The feasibility study supported the initial decision for the need for a Mountain Bike Trail Park to accelerate the cycling offering on the Island in line with other jurisdictions and to compete with the best of what the UK has to offer. The next step will be to go to an open tender process for the work involved in delivering Phase One.

• Phase Two: Support the development of a Visitor Centre consisting of cycle hire, bike shop, and recreation hub at South Barrule, which will go to market for privately funded proposals.

• Phase Three: An ambition to secure private investment for a luxury glamping/lodge accommodation provision. The inclusion of new ‘non-serviced’ accommodation supports the Visitor Accommodation Transformation Programme laid out in Visit Isle of Man’s ten-year Visitor Economy Strategy, ‘Our Island, Our Future’.

The provision for a feasibility study for Phase Three has been approved alongside the approval for Phase One.

Following the tender process, the work on the new Mountain Bike Trail Park is intended to commence in 2024, with completion in time for the 2025 season.

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