The answer to this is that it depends. Many airlines charge nothing extra to bring your bike as luggage whereas shipping a bike internationally will cost quite a bit. So if you plan to bring your own bike and your airline charges you nothing extra shipping a bike is much more expensive.
However, if you are comparing the cost of hiring a bike vs shipping a bike then the equation may change. The cost of hiring a bike for more than a week will start to get much closer to shipping your own bike.
We have a more detailed article about shipping bikes that will provide you with some further information on this topic.