País: Spain

Organization: Wikiloc

Year the initiative began: 2006

Project Website: www.wikiloc.com

Desafío de Geoturismo en el que trabaja el participante:

Quality of tourist experience and educational benefit to tourists, Quality of benefit to residents for the destination, Quality of tourism management by destination leadership, Quality of stewardship of the destination

Indica el tamaño de tu organización:

Small (1 to 100 employees)

Indicate sector in which you principally work:
Industria del turismo

Indica la actividad principal en la que trabajas:

• Living culture
• Nature
• Destination aesthetics
• Indigenous people
• Adventure
• Education
• General tourism
• General destination stewardship/management

¿Cuál es el objetivo de tu innovación? Por favor describe en una oración el tipo de impacto, cambio o reforma que tu enfoque quiere lograr.

Provide local communities with an effective way to create their own maps of georeferenced trails and points of interest and to show off that information on digital maps on the Web and in Google Earth

Escribe un resumen de tu proyecto. Incluye cómo tu enfoque apoya o representa al concepto de geoturismo o turismo sustentable. Este texto aparecerá cuando la gente se pare con el mouse sobre el ícono para tu presentación en el mapa localizado en la página de inicio del desafío.

Wikiloc is a Web 2.0 platform that allows local communities to show off geographic information of their territory to an international audience interested in Geotourism in an easy way.

Describe en detalle porqué tu enfoque es innovador.

The geographic information found in Wikiloc is unique since it comes from anyone who wants to participate including, but not limited to, government agencies, private companies and citizens. A teenager in the Andes has the same right to participate than a mountain bike club in the UK or the best outdoor company in the Grand Canyon. Schools, local guides or kayac enthusiasts are all part of the same community. No barriers nor filters. Everyone can participate freely and it's the community who decides which content is the best.

In the technical side, Wikiloc may be seen as a "social Internet Mapping platform" that allows a virtual community to create and share their own geo-referenced information around the World, enabling the idea that everyone can create geographic information (Neo-Geography) using a web 2.0 approach

¿Cuál es el origen de tu organización? ¿Qué fue lo que motivó el desarrollo de esta innovación?

My passion for outdoor sports and software engineering drove me to start Wikiloc as a personal project back in 2006. I was looking for an easy way to share with friends the places where I had been traveling, hiking or mountain biking. That was by the time Google had just released Google Maps and Google Earth. It turned out that my needs where shared by many other outdoor enthusiasts and travelers worldwide. Soon many people started to create and share their own trails in Wikiloc. That was the beginning of the community. In September 2006, Wikiloc won the Google Maps Award to the best national Maps Mashup, and the media helped to present Wikiloc to a broader audience. I've been working improving the project since then and recently (Jan. 2009), Google perceived the content interesting enough to feature it in their flagship product, Google Earth, in a default preview layer (seen by all users).

I have been focused in the global site until a recently event about sustainable tourism where I had the opportunity to attend. I realized that there's a common need for small communities to promote their territory. I was impressed with all the projects presented and with the hard work its coordinators where doing in this regard. I believe that Wikiloc may offer them an effective solution and at the same time involve actively those local communities.

Provee una biografía personal. Esta puede ser utilizada por Changemakers para su material de marketing.

I'm a 35 years old Software Engineer with a passion for technology, outdoor sports and travel. My professional background has been always around maps and geographic information. I started my career back in 1995 in an urban planning department of a regional government agency. Later on moved to a private company specialized in Internet mapping and location-based services. Finally I became a freelance and created my own company. Was during that latest phase when I started working in Wikiloc in my spare time.

I worked in the company and in Wikiloc for a period until it was impossible to follow both projects. I decided to work 100% on Wikiloc.

Describe qué tipos de experiencias turísticas únicas provee tu enfoque. Sé específico e ilustrativo con tus ejemplos.

More and more people are planning their next trip with the help of Internet, specially those of us who look for alternatives to the 'boxed' travel packages. In this context, Wikiloc is a great source of outdoor activities at the destination, like mountain bike, hiking, horse riding but also some other activites less known like ballooning, dog sledding, bird watching, etc.. The site promotes also thematic activities like gastronomic routes, sightseeing urban trails, walks in archeological areas, competitions & races, popular events...

As a sample, a city walk around Bergen's downtown (Norway) may better illustrate this: http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=311455

The potential of Wikiloc expands with the idea that, together with the trail itself, one may also promote and recommend ultra-local businesses (local guides, accomodation, gear rental, etc..) in the trail's area. Any tourist interested in the trail will likely be highly interested in knowing about all those, often community-driven, local services available in the area. It's a good opportunity for ultra-local small businesses to reach a global and targeted audience.

The channel arrives in the same way to a person who lives overseas than to another who lives in the same country or region. It is shown to regional, national and international potential tourists at the same time.

¿Qué tipos de alianzas o desarrollo profesional serían más beneficiosos para difundir tu innovación?

It would be beneficial to partner with other initiatives that could enrich the content with quality references and links in each point of interest. Quality information that could enhance further the culture, nature, and the value of each location in Wikiloc. Also it could be important to have links to practical information of the place like guides and bookings services.

Describe el grado de éxito de tu modelo hasta la fecha: Explica claramente cómo mides en forma cualitativa y cuantitativa el impacto en términos del aporte de tu modelo al sostenimiento y enaltecimiento de la cultura local, su medio ambiente, herencia y estética? ¿Cómo tu enfoque ha contribuido a hacer de tu destino turístico un lugar único? ¿Cómo has contribuido al desarrollo del turismo sustentable? ¿Cómo es que tu modelo minimiza el impacto negativo?

Wikiloc has had from the beginning a strong identity of showing off the best trails with beautiful photos and videos of the area. As the site grows, newcomers perceive this characteristic and try to do the same when sharing their own trails. Wikiloc is about describing as best as we can unique places of the planet, but equally important is the fact that the target audience is outdoor enthusiasts and active travelers. People that respects the nature and the culture of the place and behaves similarly online and in the real world.

How many "Inca Trails" are out there in Latin America? probably many and comparable in natural beauty and cultural background, but also likely to be unnoticed without an effective way to promote and tell the world where they are, how to get there and what local facilities we may find in the area. If we explore trails in Latin America from wikiloc.com we'll discover already many unique trails that doesn't appear in the official tourism destination guides and brochures. The same happens for the majority of regions.

The success for the site may be measured by the fact that volunteer collaborators have translated the site to 14 languages, the site itself presents a growing curve both in Internet traffic (+2.000.000 pageviews per month) and content (+65.000 trails, 6000 new every month and with already more than 100.000 photos and videos taken along the routes by a growing community of 60.000 users worldwide). The project won an award from Google for its technology and later on, its unique content and targeted audience, has allowed it to be a featured participant of the Google Earth community.

Wikiloc allows local communities to create maps, with quality and complementary information, with the goal to promote quality offers and connect them with a targeted global market

¿De qué manera los residentes del lugar son integrados activamente a tu trabajo, incluyendo la participación y opinión de la comunidad? ¿Cómo es que la comunidad ha respondido o se ha beneficiado con tu modelo?

Wikiloc is already used by schools where teachers find a great way to teach neo-geography to children, e.g: http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/user.do?name=Colegio+Aguamansa , individuals, clubs, local-communities and everyone who is willing to participate.

Wikiloc Community Maps wants to be a tool for local communities to create new tourist product directly, without intermediates, and ?from their own knowledge and criteria. This product is essentially based on the geographical territory where they live. The community can create services around that place or create routes around their services. The popular vote of the visitors in the virtual community will evaluate the quality and interest of it.

¿Cómo es que tu programa promueve el entusiasmo de los visitantes, su satisfacción e involucramiento con la población local?

Wikiloc makes easy for visitors to contact directly the author of the trail, point of interest or service that apears on the map and ask for more information, booking, extra activities, etc.. and have a direct and authentic conversation, without intermediaries.

A possible scenario we could imagine is that of a local guide in Venezuela sharing trails she knows of in Wikiloc.com, later on a French group is planning a trip to Venezuela and find those trails online. They could ask the author for the best time of the year to go, recommended gear, etc.. the author could even promote him/herself as a guide or recommend local huts or b&b to overnight. It's a win-win collaboration and an easy and effective way to put in direct contact a touristic product and the local community with a targeted audience of active tourists.

A real sample of that interesting sinergies may be perceived in the comments from users on this trail in Costa Rica: http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=185959

Describe cómo tu innovación ayuda a los viajeros y a los residentes locales a entender mejor el valor del patrimonio cultural y natural del área, y cómo los educa en cuestiones de medio ambiente local.

Usually it is the local resident who better knows the region, its most interesting paths, its secret places, the local history... Wikiloc provides a platform to explain and show off all that knowledge and at the same time, make it easily discoverable and visible to an online community that likes to explore the world by itself. The place is the main tourist product by itself. By attracting tourism, local residents will have a sense of ownership and motivation to take care and improve that natural and cultural resources and, at the same time, this fact guarantees the satisfaction of future visitors.

¿Cómo se financia tu iniciativa en este momento? Si lo sabes, provee información sobre tus finanzas y organización: Presupuesto anual, Ingreso anual generado, Numero de empleados (full-time, part-time, voluntarios).

Wikiloc has a minimum income from Google Adsense that helps to mantain the cost of the Internet Server Provider and basics. My couple has been incorporated as a volunteer to work with the business part and financials. She is an experienced engineer with a MSc. in Industrial Organization and has been involved in Wikiloc from the begining.

¿Tu iniciativa es financieramente sostenible? De no ser así, ¿qué necesitarías para que lo fuese? ¿Cuál es la demanda potencial para tu innovación?

To further develop the Wikiloc Community Map we will need a team working in this branch. We belive it is a sustainable product because it helps communities to promote their territory without intermediates, reaching immediately a targeted international community of travelers and outdoor enthusiasts.

¿Cuáles son las barreras a las que te enfrentas en el manejo, implementación o replicación de tu innovación?¿Qué barreras impiden a tu programa tener un mayor impacto.

Lack of resources to finance the team to build the application. The project is replicable worldwide

¿Cuál es tu plan para expandir este proyecto? Indica cómo harías para hacer crecer o mejorar tu innovación o pedirles a otros que lo hagan.

We would like to enrich the Wikiloc georeferenced content with additional and complementary local information that brings added value to the place, information that communicates the natural and cultural heritage and also practical information for travelers, the ultimate goal is to position the region as a destination for geotourism.

Información de contacto
Mr Jordi L. Ramot
Founder
Wikiloc
C/Miquel Suris, 15. Sant Feliu de Guixols 17220 (Girona) SPAIN
jordi@wikiloc.com