E-Bike in Extra-Urban Context: A New Era for Slow Tourism
摘要
This chapter analyses the integration between slow tourism and electric cycling, placing it within the broader debate on sustainable tourism and the reduction of environmental impacts linked to tourist mobility. In the face of the climate crisis and the critical issues of mass tourism, slow tourism is emerging as an alternative paradigm, based on low-emission travel practices, the improvement of local contexts, and a more conscious experience of the territories. In this context, cycling tourism is one of the most significant expressions of slow tourism, with significant economic and social benefits, particularly in rural and marginal areas. In recent years, the spread of electric bicycles has deeply changed the sector, expanding the user base and redefining how people access territories. The chapter addresses this process through the conceptual lenses of inclusion and empowerment, distinguishing between the ability to engage a plurality of users and that of making traditionally difficult-to-reach territories accessible. It highlights both the inclusive potential of e-bikes in cycling tourism and the emerging critical issues related to access costs, environmental impacts, safety, and infrastructure dependence. It is therefore argued that electric cycling tourism can contribute to the objectives of slow tourism only if it is part of a conscious planning and policy vision capable of combining technological innovation, social equity, and protection of the local areas.