It doesn’t have to be the Tour de France.
A bike tour can be as simple as cycling a few miles, staying overnight and coming home the next day, says Jim Johnson, a local trail activist and owner of Bike Tours Direct.
These tours are a growing trend in travel and they have the potential to create a huge impact on local economies, he said. That’s one of the reasons why Johnson and several others are heading up an initiative to extend the Silver Comet Trail through Walker County into Chattanooga. The trail already spans 61.5 miles across three counties in Georgia.
“We’re talking about the potential of adding, over a period of 10 years, the potential for a multi-billion dollar economic impact,” Johnson said. “It’s not just people in our region. It has the potential of bringing in tens of thousands of additional bike tourists.”
Walker County Commissioner Bebe Heiskell recently approved a grant application for a feasibility study on extending the trail.