Assessing the impacts of a new cycle trail: A fieldnote

In this note we consider the need for social impact assessment that focuses on sustainability outcomes of tourist trails across multiple dimensions, and in an integrated manner, to better inform the planning, implementation and management of trails and tourism more generally in rural regions (as per the recommendations of Reis and Jellum, 2012 and 2014). The note arises from work conducted under the auspices of New Zealand’s Building Better Homes Towns and Cities National Science Challenge (Mackay et al., 2018). The study focused on the Alps to Ocean (A2O) cycle-trail and associated tourism initiatives, and how they are working together to improve the economic, social and environmental performance of settlements in the Waitaki Valley (South Island, New Zealand). The work was not part of the planning process for the trail, but was instead undertaken as research that followed through key aspects of the SIA process: scoping, building a baseline, assessment and evaluation.