Tourists on shared bikes: Can bike-sharing boost attraction demand?

This study aims to investigate the impact of bike-sharing on tourist attraction demand in an urban destination. Using monthly data on 460 attractions in Chicago, Illinois from January 2013 to December 2019, we propose a difference-in-differences econometric model to examine the availability of nearby bike-sharing stations on attraction demand, measured by the number of TripAdvisor reviews. This model confirms the significant and positive effects of station presence and station number, each of which have a lag of about 9 months. Moreover, empirical results highlight public transport accessibility as a significant moderator of the bike-sharing effect, suggesting a complementary relationship between bike-sharing and public transport in mobilizing tourists within an urban environment. The effect of bike-sharing stations appears largest within an approximate 300-m radius of the attraction. Lastly, a discussion and implications for destination transport planning and attraction marketing are provided.