Outdooractive Story: The engineering office that built our innovative foundation
The growth and successful track record of Outdooractive are fuelled by the pioneering spirit which inspired our founder from the very beginning. It started in 1994 with Hartmut Wimmer, a young engineering graduate, who set the foundation and had the unwavering vision to transform the tourism industry. Over the next 25 years, Outdooractive’s continuous development of digital services and all-in-one solutions has changed the way tourism stakeholders communicate and do business. The following series is about how Outdooractive became the trailblazers of digital tourism. This is our story.
When Hartmut Wimmer launched his first engineering company in 1994 in his family home in Bad Hindelang, he was setting the early and innovative foundation for what we now know as Outdooractive.
Coming from a family closely associated with the construction industry for over 100 years, Hartmut has always shared this entrepreneurial spirit since his childhood, helping his parent’s tour bus business. After completing an apprenticeship as a carpenter at age 16 and working in various positions at construction companies, he went on to study civil engineering, specializing in structural engineering, at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich.
The professional experience he later gathered working in a precast concrete plant as well as the 15 months spent in a Kempten engineering office lead to a pivotal moment in Hartmut’s career. At the beginning of 1994, he decided to become self-employed and opened a structural design and engineering office.
Initially, Hartmut worked independently. However, just after six months, he began to build a team—first hiring a draft technician, then growing continuously by an average of one employee per year until he had a team of seven engineers and draft technicians.
WimmerPlan completed projects: Sparkasse Bank (left), Immenstadt; Stern Areal (right), Riezlern
The office emerged very quickly as a general partner for complex construction planning. Within a few short years, Hartmut and his team were completing numerous projects for residential buildings, underground garages, company buildings, bridges, and more.
Though his projects varied, Hartmut was largely focused on tourism infrastructure, working with hotels, restaurants, sports facilities, and mountain railways. Notable tourism projects included:
- DAV Climbing wall, Oberstdorf
- Eight-person gondola lift in Hindelang (approx. 6.5 million DM construction costs)
- Eight-person cable car with mountain and valley station Füssener Jöchle, Grän, Austria
- Riding stable Hotel Sonnenalp, Ofterschwang
- Hotel extension Hotel Sonnenalp, Ofterschwang (in progress, approx. 5.0 million EUR construction costs)
- Schattenberg Ski Stadium for the Nordic World Ski Championships 2005 – buildings and grandstands (approx. 14 million EUR construction costs)
- Extension of the Hotel Alpenrose in Lermoos (ca.20.000 m³)
WimmerPlan completed project: eight-person gondola with mountain and valley station at Füssener Jöchle, Grän, Austria.
Hartmut and his team were also pioneers in the construction of climbing walls and high ropes courses. His company provided the first static certifications and accompanied the introduction of standards, according to which all equipment is manufactured today.
From 1994 until 2002, Hartmut’s experience and work portfolio in engineering and tourism infrastructure lead to his first direct tourism project in 2000.
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