E-scooter use encourages tourist spending according to a team at Griffith University’s Cities Research Institute. After conducting study focused on the Neuron e-scooters available for hire in the Queensland city of Townsville, they found that those who rode the most (the top third by distance travelled) spent 41 per cent more per day than those in the bottom third.

The research team surveyed tourists between December 2020 and February 2021 and gained an insight into the shopping and travel patterns of 140 visiting e-scooter users, as well as 80 Townsville residents.

Among their findings was that the heaviest users averaged 11 e-scooter trips a day during their stay, during which they covered nearly 26km.

Writing in The Conversation, the researchers said: “Many of these trips (60 per cent) would have been completed by walking if e-scooters were unavailable. They would have taken longer to complete each trip on foot, thus limiting the total number of destinations visited. Other trips wouldn’t have occurred at all.”

In simple terms, an e-scooter opened up the possibility of going to more places, more easily, within the same timespan.

Interestingly, most of those surveyed (69 per cent) had never actually ridden an e-scooter before, but 91 per cent reported that they were easy to use. In a vote of confidence for the vehicles as many 93 per cent said they enjoyed travelling around during their stay.

While e-scooters are often characterised as being for younger people, 46 per cent of tourists hiring them were over 40.

One of the main negative issues raised was actually that users wanted the service area in which the e-scooters operate expanded. Others suggested signage at e-scooter parking locations to make parking them easier.