Bambike is a Philippines-based social enterprise that brings together bamboo-based manufacturing, sustainable mobility, and community-led tourism. Through handcrafted bamboo bicycles and guided tours, the company offers low-impact travel experiences that connect visitors with local culture, history, and the environments they move through.
Founded in 2010 by Bryan Benitez McClelland, Bambike began as a bamboo bicycle manufacturing initiative and has since evolved into a more integrated model that links production, tourism, and education. The business trains local artisans to build bamboo bicycles and uses those same bikes to support tourism experiences that generate ongoing income for both the company and the communities it works with.
Over time, the company shifted toward tourism as its primary revenue stream, recognizing that experiences offered a more stable and scalable way to support livelihoods while maintaining its environmental focus.
With its flagship operations in Intramuros, Manila, Bambike has welcomed travelers from more than 70 countries and has become a well-established example of community-based tourism in the Philippines.
The Bambike Origin Story
The idea for Bambike began during Bryan McClelland’s travels in Africa in 2007, where he first encountered bamboo bicycles. He saw clear potential for adapting the concept to the Philippines, where bamboo is widely available and deeply embedded in local building traditions. By 2009, he had built his first prototype.
The early years were shaped by experimentation and persistence. Developing bicycles that could meet international performance standards required years of testing materials, refining designs, and working closely with local communities. At the same time, Bryan was navigating language barriers and building supply chains in a space where little formal infrastructure existed.
As the business took shape, a broader opportunity became clear. The bicycles themselves could serve as more than a product. By integrating them into tourism experiences, Bambike created a model that allows visitors to engage more directly with place, while creating a more consistent and locally rooted source of income.
How Bambike Is Making A Positive Impact
Bambike’s work sits at the intersection of environmental sustainability, local employment, and tourism development.
The use of bamboo is central to the company’s approach. As a fast-growing, renewable material, bamboo provides a lower-impact alternative to conventional inputs such as steel and aluminum. Bambike uses bamboo not only for its bicycles but also across parts of its infrastructure, demonstrating its practical application at both product and site level.
The company also creates stable employment through its network of artisans, known as BamBuilders. These roles provide technical training and steady income in rural areas where opportunities are often limited. In many cases, workers are able to move into more secure economic positions through the skills they develop.
Tourism expands this impact further. Bambike’s tours and rentals create additional jobs across guiding, hospitality, and operations, while directing visitor spending into local economies. The experiences are designed to provide context, helping travelers understand both the cultural history of places like Intramuros and the environmental thinking behind the business.
From an environmental perspective, the model emphasizes low-emission mobility through cycling, relatively low-energy production processes, and the use of renewable energy and resource-efficient systems across its sites. The company also supports bamboo planting and nursery development, and is involved in efforts to establish a marine protected area in Batangas, extending its work into coastal conservation.
Taken together, Bambike reflects a model where tourism activities are directly linked to both livelihood creation and environmental management, rather than operating separately from them.
Why the UnTours Foundation Invested in Bambike
Through the Sustainable Tourism Impact Fund, in partnership with Agoda and WWF-Singapore, the UnTours Foundation invested in Bambike to support the continued development of its tourism model.
Bambike demonstrates how different parts of the tourism value chain can be connected in a way that strengthens both local economies and environmental outcomes. By combining manufacturing, mobility, and visitor experiences, the business creates multiple points of value within a single system.
The investment is supporting the development of Bambike Ecotours Ligtasin Cove, a coastal site in Batangas that expands the company’s work into nature-based tourism. The site includes bamboo-built accommodations, low-impact transport, and conservation-focused activities, alongside local hiring and training.
This expansion builds on an existing model while testing how it can be adapted to new environments, particularly in areas where tourism can play a role in both livelihood development and environmental restoration.
How You Can Support Bambike
Travelers can support Bambike by participating in its guided bicycle tours or visiting its ecotourism sites. These activities contribute directly to local employment and ongoing environmental initiatives. Tourism businesses and partners can also work with Bambike on sustainable mobility, tourism development, and the use of bamboo-based materials.
