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5/9/2023 | Jerome Baldowski | 0 Comments

Outdooractive Launches Community Feed

Outdooractive connects outdoor enthusiasts, destination experts, and official destination partners to find the best outdoor trips and adventures.

Outdooractive, Europe‘s leading digital platform for outdoor tourism, has recently implemented a new feature which allows a new way of interacting with other members of the Outdooractive community.

Uniquely, this update to its Outdooractive consumer app creates the opportunity for outdoor tourists to interact with, see the latest conditions report from, or ask questions of, their favorite destinations or places they are planning to visit. Thousands of official destination partners rely on Outdooractive’s business solutions to help manage their tourism activity and are already part of the Outdooractive community.

“No more missing out“, is the headline for all Outdooractive users. Has a new track been recorded and/ or a new route been published? Has a new point of interest been added? Has an event been announced? No matter if the official tourism organization of the favorite region or the best outdoor buddy has published anything new, the information immediately shows up in the feed of every member that has decided to “follow“ the person or organization in question.

With its exclusive network of official destination partners regularly adding new hiking, cycling and mountaineering routes; details of events and offers in their region – the Outdooractive community feed is *the* place to be inspired and research your next active trip. With the majority being tourism organizations, partners include a wide range of official stakeholders such as protected areas, associations, trail managers, Search & Rescue-teams, accommodations and many more.

Craig Wareham, B2C-Director at Outdooractive is enthusiastic about the new options: „Besides being responsible for how happy Outdooractive’s users are with our app, first and foremost I am an end-user, too, and it is particularly as such that I am very much thrilled about the new community features and the possibilities they offer.”

Wareham continues to explain: “On the one hand I get informed immediately about the tracks that my old friend from school, Mike, has just recorded during his vacation in Southern France. On the other hand, my feed also shows all the new routes, events and points of interest in Wales that have just been published by the responsible tourism organization. Since that is where I often spend my short holidays and long weekends hiking and biking, I am glad to get all the information right away and always be up-to-date.“

Every user can thus build his own community piece by piece based on their preferences and interests. Outdooractive will suggest other members or organizations to users whose contents are a match for the user in question.

Every user has full control over their own privacy settings and GDPR-compliance guarantees they can adjust them at any time. Each user can completely disable the follow function to prevent any other community members from following them. Alternatively the user has the option to mark certain geographic areas as “private“, thus suppressing them from being viewed by anyone else. The relevant settings and privacy zones can easily be adjusted in the Outdooractive app and on the website.

The new functionality is available within the basic version of the Outdooractive profile to ensure that every user can benefit from the community features right from the beginning.

Company, General, Press, Products

2/27/2023 | Jerome Baldowski | 0 Comments

New Product Feature: Snow Depth Map

Looking for safe trips in the snow? Preferably with a lot of snow for a successful ski tour or as little snow as possible for a wintry but safe route on foot? Introducing our latest feature: the snow depth map for the Alpine region.

Snow Depth

If you enjoy snow, the snow depth and snow cover maps provide information about where and how much of it you will currently find on your trip. Using high-resolution satellite images and ground measurements, we show you what to expect when planning your trips.

Snow Depth Map

As a Pro+ user, you will find the ‘Snow Depth’ as a ‘Style’ option for both the Outdooractive map and the OpenStreetMap as part of your “Weather & Climate” information, which is accessed by selecting the ‘Maps and trails’ button at the bottom right of the map panel. You can activate the snow depth map in almost all map views and use it when planning your routes and trips. The information can also be used in combination with the Outdooractive Avalanche Report which you can activate under the ‘Additional layers’ section and run at the same same time. Now you have all the information you need to plan and safely enjoy your trip.

Current Snow Cover

Snow can be a huge source of fun, but it can also bring many dangers, and while some might be on the lookout for the best snow conditions, such as ski tourers, others will prefer to avoid it altogether, like mountain bikers. In order to gain a comprehensive overview of snow conditions, ExoLabs has developed an innovative solution based on satellite data and ground measurements.

Satellite data enables up-to-date mapping of snow cover across an entire mountain range. ExoLabs uses data provided by satellites from both NASA and the ESA that is then converted to create a high temporal and spatial resolution of the snow layer. This map is updated daily and allows is accurate to within 20 meters (with individual image pixels corresponding to an area of 20 x 20 meters).

Note: Currently the snow maps are only available on the web, but not on the App.

As transmission, processing, and analysis of satellite images can take up to 24 hours, our daily snow layer most closely matches the conditions of the previous day, and cloud cover is a critical limitation to the unobstructed view of the satellites. To fill these data gaps, ExoLabs uses information from the most recent cloud-free satellite imagery as well as imagery of the immediate neighborhood to best model the spatial snow distribution. It should be emphasized here that prolonged periods of overcast weather can lead to larger uncertainties in snow cover. The last direct observation may vary in age depending on the geographic area. In very densely forested regions, snow on the ground may be masked by a snow-free canopy.

Current Snow Depth

For many users, the height of the snowpack is of great importance, as it determines the choice of activity and the equipment needed. To model the snow depth in the best possible way, ExoLabs uses the measured snow depths from measuring stations. With the help of geostatistical methods, which take into account local as well as regional differences in snow distribution, the spatial snow distribution can then be modeled. Topographic influences on snow distribution are also taken into account such as a steep slope which can carry a lower snow load than a topographic depression.

The resulting daily snow depth thus takes into account the main influences on snow distribution and represents them at a 20 m areal resolution. When interpreting the data, it is important to understand that these figures represent an average value for the immediate area. There can be a great deal of local variation in the snowpack which cannot be captured in detail at the 20 m resolution. This means that the depth given given uses an approximate average value for this area.

Linked to the University of Zurich, ExoLabs specializes in environmental monitoring. Using satellite data as well as weather and climate models, and modern machine learning techniques, ExoLabs is able to gain a comprehensive insight into the condition of our environment. This valuable information is then presented in a user-friendly format in order to facilitate informed and sustainable decision-making.

The snow height maps were developed and piloted as part of a project supported by ESA Space Solutions.

Company, Press, Products, Trends & research

6/29/2022 | Carina Dietrich | 0 Comments

Successful trail management for an optimal guest experience

The quality of the trail network determines whether a guest experience turns out well or poorly. Adequate signage, clear wayfinding and marking, are just a few of the key points that describe successful trail management.

The outdoor experience must be consistent with marketing communications to achieve good ratings and reviews.

Consistent quality can only be achieved with a hybrid model: Communicated promises and reality on the ground are based on the same database.

The quality of hiking and biking trails with their signage and markings are an essential part of the tourism infrastructure.

Tourist infrastructure projects were the real origin of Outdooractive and the knowledge from 20 years of planning flows into our system. We make the bundling of our know-how available to our partners in the form of our platform, which supports the management of trail networks and visitors. Only with fully integrated trail management in the tourism system can the guest be offered the best experience.

Why should you use digital trail management?

By being able to identify defects faster and more accurately, you save yourself not only time but also money. Repairs take less time and at the same time you increase your efficiency.

Take advantage of real-time data and make the job easier for yourself, trail managers and coordinators. Information can be shared more easily, tasks created directly as soon as hazards are identified.

Guide your guests through your destination in a structured way and provide accurate distances. This not only improves the quality of service for your guests, but also ultimately their experience in your destination.

With Destination Pro+, trail management is already fully possible. In addition to a perfectly maintained infrastructure, benefit from live tracking of customers, your state-of-the-art website and much more.

Company, General, Products

5/24/2022 | Carina Dietrich | 0 Comments

Outdooractive @ Google I/O

Google I/O is the annual conference hosted by Google in California and is their biggest event of the year for presenting their latest products and software. A global audience of millions is addressed over the two days the event runs.

Google works with a very small number of developers to showcase their latest technologies and Outdooractive has had the huge honor of having been selected as one of them.

Effective advertising using the Travel Guide’s combi- and activity pages to generate traffic

The combi pages of the Outdooractive Travel Guide are the biggest driver of traffic to the platform and therefore of critical importance to our customers. Outdooractive’s top priority is to expand this traffic, which is why we continuously work on ways to improve these pages.

The Outdooractive Travel Guide is your key to more visitors

Over the last 150 years of their existence, visitors have become accustomed to using guidebooks. Nowadays the informative content and a sophisticated structure of the Outdooractive Travel Guide have come to define and form a digital twin to let your visitors learn more about your destination and all the activities that are available.