Benje Patterson recently released a report that estimated biking’s contribution to the Queenstown Lakes economy in 2025. This research builds on a previous piece of analysis by the author of the role of biking in Queenstown Lakes in 2021.
The objective is to consider not just the current state of biking in Queenstown Lakes, but also to explore how biking has grown over recent years and how might Queenstown Lakes’ bike economy develop in future.
At its heart, this report helps answer the following questions:
- How many people bike in Queenstown Lakes currently?
- How have the number of bikers grown over recent years?
- How much money is spent in Queenstown Lakes by people attracted to the area for biking?
- How might Queenstown Lakes’ bike economy develop over the next 10, 20, 30 years?
A copy of the report is available for download here.
Key findings
- An estimated 344,500 people biked in Queenstown Lakes in the June 2025 year, up almost 90% over the past four years.
- Of these bikers, 338,000 were visitors, while 6,500 were locals who bike regularly for recreation.
- An estimated 15.8% of visitors to Queenstown Lakes bike during their visit and biking formed the main reason for a trip to Queenstown for 41.7% of these bike visitors.
- Collectively these visits motivated by biking are estimated to have generated $280 million of visitor spending in the June 2025 year. Spending by visitors for whom biking was the key motivation to visit has climbed by 125% in four years in real (inflation-adjusted) terms.
- It is also estimated that as many as 1,148 filled jobs in 2025 were supported by spending by visitors for whom biking was the key motivation to visit.
- Given such rapid growth in Queenstown’s bike economy over the past four years, it makes sense to ascertain what potential future demand there might be:
- If long-term average growth trends that have persisted for the past two decades continue then then there will be 100,000 additional bikers in Queenstown Lakes each year by 2035 compared with their 2025 level, while within 30 years there could be 400,000 more bikers each year than today.
- Under this scenario the spending effects driven by bike tourism could rise from their current estimate of $280 million a year to almost $600 million within 30 years if these long-term trends continue.
A copy of the report that assesses the economic impact of biking and mountain biking in Queenstown Lakes is available for download here.