Cycling is now 2nd most in-demand adventure activity in Britain
The number of Brits wild swimming has boomed in recent years (a phenomenon which has sadly coincided with the nation’s honourable water companies frequently discharging large volumes of sewage into rivers). Now swimming is Britain’s top adventure activity, followed by cycling, according to SportsCover Direct research.
The insurer analysed Google search data of over 8,000 adventure sports keywords across UK cities and found swimming and cycling generated almost 85 million searches between them in the past year. The firm’s internal data revealed an 183% increase in travellers taking out adventure travel insurance policies.
The findings echo Sport England’s latest Active Lives Survey, which found cycling for leisure has grown to around 6.1 million UK adults, with swimming holding steady at 4.4 million, further showing that these two activities remain the backbone of Britain’s sporting habits, even as interest in more niche pursuits continues to grow.
The strength of interest in open water activity also mirrors a wider national boom in wild swimming, with the number of Britons regularly swimming in lakes, rivers and the sea more than doubling since 2017, from 266,000 to 543,000.
SportsCover Direct’s research also reveals which cities have the most adventure sports enthusiasts, with Norwich topping the table with 4,388 annual searches. Bristol ranked in second place with 4,099 searches, followed by Manchester’s 3,730. Worcester placed fourth on 3,547 searches, with Plymouth completing the top five at 3,428.
The top five sports nationwide (swimming, cycling, ice skating, kayaking and trekking) were mirrored across both Norwich and Bristol. However, in Manchester, rock climbing proved to be especially popular with local residents, ranking as the third most in demand sport behind swimming and cycling. The popularity of rock climbing aligns with a wider surge in the sport nationally, with the Association of British Climbing Walls reporting that climber numbers across the UK are at a record high, making it one of the country’s fastest growing adventure activities.
CIN recently took a deep dive into the topic of cycle tourism and the potential for that market to grow.
