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A new guide promoting electric bike use combined with a love of food has been launched from an Island business, thanks to funding from the council.
Created by The Seaview Hotel, Seaview, with routes by CycleWight and featured eateries chosen by Isle of Wight restaurant critics, Matt and Cat; the new ‘Cycling Gourmand’ guide will help promote ride routes that take in some of the Island’s best food establishments, providing a boost to other Island businesses.
Cabinet member for infrastructure and transport, Councillor Ian Ward, said: “This is a really exciting project from one of our Sustainable Transport Innovation Grant winners and it is great to see the active travel message being carried out in such a creative way.
“I’m sure visitors will be encouraged to drive less and see more of our beautiful Island, with a little help from electric bikes and at the same time, helping support our local tourism economy. I’m delighted to see the success of this local business and we will continue to support their active travel initiatives.”
Tracy Mikich, marketing manager at Seaview Hotel, said: “We hope that the combination of bike riding and stopping off for good local food will become a unique and sustainable Isle of Wight tourism experience. The ‘Cycling Gourmand’ guide and short break offer combines a love of food, enjoyment of the natural world and a passion for cycling but with a little support from the electric bikes, if you need it.
“You can definitely see more of our beautiful coast and countryside from a bike and what better way to refuel than a lovely locally-sourced lunch at one of the Island's delicious eateries, at the same time as making a greener sight-seeing choice.”
The guide recently received a boost when the hotel invited Island food bloggers Matt and Cat to try out the routes they had helped create.
Cat James from Matt and Cat said: “We were delighted to be asked to curate the rides for the ‘Cycling Gourmand’ trails. It was hard to restrict ourselves to just six featured eateries for the ebike adventure, as there are so many fantastic places to eat on the Island. We had a great day riding the hotel’s electric bikes visiting lovely venues.”
Visit www.MattandCat.co.uk or twitter (@MattandCat), to find out how they got on.
The Seaview Hotel successfully bid for funding following the launch of the Sustainable Transport Innovation Grant Fund in July 2018, when the council put out the call for organisations to submit applications for funding to deliver their own innovative sustainable transport projects.
More information on ‘Cycling Gourmand’ short breaks is at: https://www.seaviewhotel.co.uk/cycle-wight.aspx
Cycling Gourmand was funded competitively from the Isle of Wight Council’s Active Travel Innovation Grant. The Sustainable Transport Innovation Grant forms part of a wider programme of sustainable transport interventions being delivered by the Isle of Wight Council up to 2020, after securing £1.35 million funding from the Department for Transport (DfT) Access Fund for Sustainable Travel.
For further information on current projects, please visit: http://www.iwight.com/ |
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