TOURISTS using e-scooters are visiting more local attractions and spending more money, a new study found.
The new study, carried out in Townsville by Griffith University in collaboration with Neuron Mobility, found that avid e-scooter users (the top third based on kilometers traveled) would spend 42 percent more per day than those in the bottom third of using it .
It supports previous research from Darwin showing the positive economic impact e-scooters can have on a city.
Researchers found that avid e-scooter users in Townsville made an average of 11 trips, covering nearly 16 miles.
In the user-friendliness survey, over 90 percent said that it was effortless to use and more than two thirds of those surveyed said they had never driven an e-scooter before.
The demographic results also reveal a major misconception that e-scooter drivers are young and predominantly male. Instead, more than 47 percent were over 40 and more than half of those visitors were women.
Recent research by Neuron in Darwin has proven that the e-scooters have been a boon to the city’s economic recovery by expanding people’s reach and allowing them to do more, see more and spend more.
Darwin users gave the e-scooter company a positive rating. 90 percent of respondents said that Neuron had a positive impact on the city.
The top-end study found that almost four out of five trips resulted in a purchase in a store, while 14 percent of respondents said trips without the e-scooters would not have taken place at all.
Around three quarters of respondents in Darwin said they used the e-scooters for pleasure, while more than half said they used the two-wheelers to explore the city and get around faster.
A Neuron spokesperson said sustainability is at the core of the e-scooter business.
“E-scooter trips often replace car journeys, reduce dangerous emissions, traffic jams, take up only a fraction of the space of a car and are extremely energy efficient,” said the spokesman.
