Tourism New Brunswick recently announced an ambitious plan to put considerable public money into promoting cycling tourism, an increasingly popular travel niche. Because the province's shorelines and river valleys already draw millions of visitors each year, the agency is convinced that number will climb higher still if it markets the region as a destination for cyclists. The hard part is deciding where exactly those advertising dollars should go. The agency's marketing coordinator, Renée Cormier, says the plan, for the moment at least, is to sell the province as a premier destination for recreational cycling. "Riding lets visitors experience our landscapes without disturbing the surrounding environment," says Cormier, "and because paved touring and off-road trail riding are both highly marketable, our agency's next step is deciding which to prioritize."

Operator Gérald Boudreau is pressing for most of the available funds to go to established road-touring outfits like his own, Coastline Cycle Tours, arguing that casual visitors have long been drawn to the smooth coastal highways, where there is almost no need to steer around obstacles. "These trail-riding companies springing up lately market themselves as more of an extreme, adventurous pursuit," says Boudreau, "but a road tour delivers an equally exhilarating, yet far less punishing, outing. It suits a remarkably broad range of people, including the older cyclists who would rather not be rattled over roots and rocks."