Hike & Learn in the Austrian national parks – Responsible route planning for outdoor activities

In many national parks we see a development of more and more visitors coming to enjoy nature and share their experiences on social media. Many of them are unaware of the applicable rules or not even aware that they are in a national park. Because of this, there is a raising potential of conflicts between visitors and the national parks’ protection goals because sensitive areas and wildlife may be disturbed.

A better visitor management as well as raising awareness among people visiting the national park of the rules that apply here. We have rangers who inform visitors on sight but cannot reach everyone. There is of course information provided online but this requires people to inform themselves in advance on our websites. We were looking for better ways to reach visitors on the platforms they use to get information and plan their trip.

The cooperation with komoot and the Hike & Learn events enable us to reach people who are interested in outdoor activities through the channels they use to get information and inspiration – new target groups that we would not be able to access on our own. This complements our existing communication and information tools.

Thanks to the two-day format of the event held in a national park, we can communicate our messages clearly and effectively.

The Hike & Learn events consists of a guided visit of a national park, to learn about these sensitive protected areas. The objective is to reach a better understanding of the behavioral rules and why they are necessary. This knowledge is connected to the use of outdoor apps, that are used to plan a trip to a national park. When using komoot as a routing tool, users can choose routes provided by the national parks, that offer an authentic nature experience, while complying with conservation rules

The partners involved were the outdoor app komoot, national parks Gesäuse and Donau-Auen as well as National Parks Austria as a coordinating body.

We established the cooperation with komoot and together, chose one national park to visit during the Hike & Learn. The excursions and the ranger were determined with the national park. Komoot was responsible for the selection and communication with the content creators that participated in the event.

This event has had 2 iterations with a total of 13 content creators, using reels, stories and posts:
– in 2024, reached potentially 3 million people
– in 2025, reached potentially 2,6 million people
Komoot covers most of the costs associated with the events. Mutual trust has been built between all partners. The benefits are felt by all and there is energy to continue the cooperation.

Challenges resulted in the following learnings:
– Choose the content creatives carefully to make sure they will comply with the values of the national parks and communicate it well
– Prepare the participants well with the purpose of the project
– Allow time for questions and explanations
– Create short factsheets for creators to take home
– Small groups are better
– Partners need to agree on who provides which information

– Content creators are experts in communicating on their platforms to their followers so be open to their methods
– Remember the weather!
– Be open to mutual learning through a partnership
– There is still a large lack of awareness about the role, activity and reasons of national parks, even with people active in them