BICYCLE INITIATIVE
Historical Peninsula
Bicycle Train
The Istanbul Historical Peninsula is one of the most special regions in the world with its thousands of years of historical and touristic importance. This region is home to many historical structures such as Zeyrek Mosque, Süleymaniye Mosque, Sultanahmet Square and Hagia Sophia, which are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The pedestrianization projects carried out in the Historical Peninsula aim to increase pedestrian access by reducing motor vehicle traffic and improve the overall quality of life. These projects were implemented to protect the historical texture of the region and to provide visitors with a more comfortable tour. The best solution for the Historical Peninsula is to encourage transportation by bicycle. Bicycle tours both contribute to the protection of the region and enable visitors to travel in the most beautiful way. In addition, hotels need to contribute to bicycle transportation in order to be sustainable environmentalists.
What is a Bicycle Train?
A Bicycle Train is an organized mass movement for safe transportation by bicycle. These are bicycle convoys with specified routes, known departure and arrival times, that can be joined from the stops at the transition points, that move at a constant, slow pace, that everyone can join, that move in single file, that are guided by a leading locomotive bicycle and controlled by a follower bicycle, and that are used for touristic trips or transportation in daily life.
Historic Peninsula Bicycle Train:
The Bicycle Train Project is the most realistic and applicable solution that encourages bicycle transportation in the Historic Peninsula. Within the scope of this project, bicycle convoys departing from certain points pass in front of the hotels included in the bicycle train application and pick up the guests. They tour the Historic Peninsula in a guided and safe manner and return them to the hotels. In this way, visitors both discover the historical areas and have a safe bicycle experience.
Bicycle Train Tourism Application:
Bicycles are of great importance as an environmentally friendly, silent, economical, healthy and entertaining means of transportation in historical and touristic places. In regions such as the Historic Peninsula, the use of bicycles both offers an environmentally friendly transportation alternative and helps preserve the historical texture of the region. The importance of bicycles is also great for sustainable hotels; bicycle transportation supports the environmentally sensitive and sustainable tourism approach of the hotels.
The Bicycle Train Project is the most realistic and applicable solution that encourages bicycle transportation in touristic areas. This project offers guided, technically supported, continuous and safe bicycle tours with bicycle convoys departing from certain points. The bicycle train application allows both tourists and locals to discover historical and touristic places by bicycle.
Implementation Method:
1. Departure Points: The bicycle train departs from the designated places. These points pass in front of the hotels, pick up the guests and the guided tours begin.
2. Guided Tours: Safe and informative tours are organized with professional bicycle guides. Guides provide information about historical and touristic places and also provide technical support.
3. Technical Support: The technical support team maintains and repairs the bicycles throughout the bicycle train. In this way, participants complete their tours safely.
4. Continuous and Safe Tours: The bicycle train departs regularly at certain times and carries out its tours safely. In this way, participants always experience a safe and regular bicycle tour.
The Bicycle Train Tourism Project offers an environmentally friendly, quiet, economical, healthy and fun transportation alternative by encouraging the use of bicycles in historical and touristic places. Bicycle transportation is of great importance for sustainable hotels and this project supports the hotels' environmentally sensitive tourism approach. Discovering the beauties of the Historical Peninsula is now easier and more enjoyable with guided, technically supported, continuous and safe bicycle tours.
Requirements for the Project to Start:
Each hotel provides its own bicycles through leasing. In this way, hotels provide additional service to their customers with their own bicycles. With the leasing system, bicycles pay for themselves and provide additional income to hotels. By offering these bicycles to their customers, hotels provide both an environmentally friendly transportation alternative and contribute to sustainable tourism.
Solution Partners:
1. Group A Tourism Agency: Bicycle tours are carried out with agency services such as guided, technical service, security and insurance.
2. Bicycle Initiative: It carries out the necessary route work for the bicycle train, bicycle guides, bicycle technical staff and social media promotions.
3. Kapbike: It enables hotels to rent bicycles through the bicycle leasing system.
4. Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality: It provides the necessary arrangements and supports the project.
5. Historical Peninsula Hotels: It takes its own bicycles by participating in the project and gains the advantage of being a station.
Stages:
1. Determination of Hotels: The hotels that will be included in the project must be determined. The hotels that will be included will be decisive in the preparation of the bicycle train route map. Depending on which hotels will be passed, the hotels will be referred to as bicycle train stations.
2. Preparation of the Bicycle Route: When the bicycle route is prepared, video and photo work will be done and promotions will be made on social media.
3. Road Arrangements: If there are problems on the determined road, arrangements will be made by the municipality.
4. Timing and Guides: Which days, at which times, where and how many hours the Historical Peninsula Bicycle Train will start will be determined and bicycle guides will be created.
5. Media Promotion: When these stages are clarified, media promotion work will be done and bicycle train applications will be started gradually.
Designed Route:
- Small Tour Route: The bicycle train locomotive starts in front of Sirkeci train station in the early morning and evening hours when the area is empty. It proceeds by collecting guests from Sirkeci hotels while heading towards Sultanahmet Square. The bicycle train, continuing to Küçükayasofya region, collects guests from the hotels here. It reaches Yenikapı via the bicycle path on the coastline. It reaches Süleymaniye Mosque by collecting guests from the hotels in Laleli region. It passes through Saraçhane, Vezneciler, Beyazıt, Çemberlitaş regions from Vefa direction and drops the guests back to their hotels.
- Big Tour Route: The bicycle train locomotive starts in front of Sirkeci train station in the early morning and evening hours when the area is empty. It proceeds by collecting guests from Sirkeci hotels while heading towards Sultanahmet Square. The bicycle train, continuing to Küçükayasofya region, collects guests from the hotels here. It reaches Yenikapı via the bicycle path on the coastline. It collects guests from hotels in the Laleli region and arrives at the Süleymaniye Mosque. It continues from Vefa, Saraçhane to Fatih, Cibali, Fener, Balat, Ayvansaray, Eyüp, and the coastal road around the Golden Horn and returns to Sirkeci.
Advantages of Hotels:
Bicycle Friendly Hotel Certificate
Bicycle Friendly Hotel Certificate is a document given by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to promote sustainable tourism. This certificate was created to promote bicycle tourism and to determine facilities that offer suitable accommodation opportunities for bicycle users. The certificate is given to bicycle friendly accommodation facilities if they provide services that meet certain criteria.
Advantages It Brings to Hotels:
1. Environmentally Friendly Image: Bicycle Friendly Hotel Certificate shows that hotels adopt an environmentally friendly and sustainable tourism approach. This strengthens the environmentally friendly image of the hotel and becomes the preferred choice of environmentally conscious tourists.
2. Increased Customer Satisfaction: Hotels that offer bicycle-friendly services increase customer satisfaction by meeting the needs of bicycle users. This helps the hotel receive positive reviews and create a loyal customer base.
3. Competitive Advantage: Bicycle Friendly Hotel Certificate provides hotels with a competitive advantage and a differentiation from their competitors. Hotels with this certificate are preferred more by tourists interested in bicycle tourism.
4. Economic Benefit: Bicycle tourism provides additional income to hotels. Bicycle users benefit from the bicycle-friendly services offered by the hotel during their stay, increasing the hotel's income.
5. Encouragement of Healthy and Active Lifestyle: Bicycle-friendly hotels encourage a healthy and active lifestyle for their guests. This increases the value the hotel offers to its guests and increases the overall satisfaction of the hotel.
Bicycle Leasing Opportunity for Hotels:
What is Bicycle Leasing?
Bicycle leasing is a financing method that allows hotels and other businesses to rent bicycles for a certain period of time instead of purchasing them. This system allows businesses to use bicycles without spending a large capital. Leasing is known as "financial leasing" in Turkish and is generally preferred as a long-term financing solution.
Advantages of Bicycle Leasing:
1. Capital Savings: Bicycle leasing allows hotels to use bicycles without spending a large capital. In this way, capital can be directed to other strategic investments or business activities.
2. Flexible Payment Plans: Leasing companies usually offer flexible payment plans that are suitable for the tenant's cash flow and financial situation. In this way, hotels can create a payment plan parallel to their income and pay their rental fees without experiencing financial tightness.
3. Tax Advantages: Leasing payments are generally considered as operating expenses and can be deducted from taxes. This creates a serious tax advantage for businesses.
4. Easy Access to Technology: Leasing is a great opportunity for businesses that want to keep up with rapidly changing technologies. Access to new equipment or technologies can be provided and replacing old assets becomes easier.
5. Operational Conveniences: Leasing companies provide consultancy services in transactions such as purchasing, insurance and maintenance. In this way, hotels can easily maintain and repair bicycles.
Kapbike Bicycle Leasing:
Kapbike offers hotels a bicycle leasing system, allowing them to rent bicycles without any additional costs. Thanks to this system, hotels provide additional service to their customers with their own bicycles. With the leasing system, bicycles pay for themselves and provide additional income to hotels. By offering these bicycles to their customers, hotels both provide an environmentally friendly transportation alternative and contribute to sustainable tourism.
Bicycle leasing is an ideal solution for hotels to promote cycling and provide environmentally friendly services to their customers. This system allows hotels to reduce costs and support bicycle tourism by renting bicycles instead of buying them.
No Personnel Expenses
The Historical Peninsula Bicycle Train project offers many advantages to hotels. One of these advantages is that there are no personnel expenses. In the Bicycle Train application, hotels do not have to deal with bicycles or hire separate personnel. All of these tasks are carried out by the Bicycle Initiative. In this way, hotels save on personnel costs.
The Bicycle Initiative undertakes the supply and adjustment of bicycles. Hotels do not have to deal with this process and can offer ready-made bicycles to their guests.
Professional bicycle guides manage the bicycle tours and guide the guests. This allows hotels to offer quality and informative tours to their guests.
The Bicycle Initiative ensures the safety of bicycle tours. This allows guests to ride bicycles safely and explore historical sites.
The maintenance and repair of bicycles is done by the technical support team. In this way, hotels do not have to deal with technical problems of the bicycles.
Firsts Win:
Although the Bicycle Train is implemented in Europe, it is being launched for the first time in our country in the Istanbul Historical Peninsula. Being the first in tourism is always advantageous and this project offers great opportunities for hotels.
Advantages of Being a Pioneer:
Firsts are always advantageous. The hotels that first join the Historical Peninsula Bicycle Train project will be at the forefront in promotions such as the prepared hotel map, website, phone application, brochure. This allows the hotels to reach a wider audience and increases their awareness.
The hotels that join the project first will gain a competitive advantage over the hotels that will join the project later. It will be difficult for the hotels that join later to be included in printed publications. Therefore, the hotels that join first will benefit from the project to the maximum extent.
European Tourists' Interest in Bicycles and the Advantages It Brings to Hotels
European tourists are known for their interest in bicycles and their demand for environmentally friendly transportation alternatives. Bicycle tourism is a rapidly growing sector in Europe and plays an important role in many tourists' travel plans.
Bicycle tourism has a large market potential in Europe. Germany and the United Kingdom are the largest source markets for bicycle tourism, with the Netherlands also playing an important role in this area. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the desire to explore nature has increased and the demand for bicycle tourism has increased rapidly.
Bicycle tourism is popular among tourists of different age groups and demographics. Young adults, elderly people and families prefer bicycle tours.
Bicycle tourism is divided into various specializations such as road cycling, mountain biking, family cycling and tour/expedition. This diversity appeals to the different interests and needs of tourists.
The popularity of e-bikes is also increasing. E-bikes make bicycle tourism more accessible by making it possible to travel longer distances with less effort.
Website and Mobile Application
Within the scope of the Historical Peninsula Bicycle Train project, a website and mobile application will be developed where users can easily get information and plan their bicycle tours. These platforms will include the locations of bicycle-friendly hotels, bicycle train stations, route routes, departure and arrival times and all other details.
Location of Bicycle-Friendly Hotels:
- The website and mobile application will show the locations of bicycle-friendly hotels on the map. These hotels will also serve as bicycle train stations. Users can easily find and book hotels where they will stay.
Routes:
- Bicycle train routes will be presented with detailed maps and descriptions. Users will be able to see which routes are available, the difficulty levels of these routes and important points on the route.
Departure and Arrival Times:
- Bicycle train departure and arrival times will be presented in detail so that users can plan. In this way, users will know in advance at what times they can join the bicycle train and when they will arrive.
Guided Tours:
- The website and mobile application will provide information about guided tours. Details of the tours with professional bicycle guides, introductions of the guides and tour programs will be shared with users.
Technical Support and Security:
- Information will be provided about the technical support and security services provided throughout the bicycle train. Users will be able to learn how to benefit from the maintenance and repair services of their bicycles.
Reservation and Registration:
- Reservations and registrations can be made for bicycle train tours via the website and mobile application. Users can easily register by selecting the tours they want to participate in.
User Comments and Evaluations:
- Users can comment and evaluate bicycle train tours and hotels. In this way, useful information is provided for other users.
Social Media Integration:
- The website and mobile application will be integrated with social media platforms. Users can share their bicycle train experiences on their social media accounts and increase interest in the project.
