How Strava & Komoot Shape Destination Brands
How destinations use digital trails, challenges, and communities to inspire active travelers.
You’re reading Talking Places, your creative briefing on how destinations talk, trend and grow.
Today, we explore how destinations like Valencia, Flanders and the Black Forest are using fitness apps to map out fresh ways to engage, guide, and inspire active travelers.
How Strava & Komoot Shape Destination Brands
Fitness apps like Strava and Komoot aren’t just for personal bests. They’re becoming tools of narrative infrastructure reshaping how destinations are found, framed and felt. Their maps are alive, built on sweat and elevation data.
While brands battle for eyeballs on TikTok, this high-value audience is quietly planning its next trip on Strava and Komoot. They aren't scrolling for passive inspiration; they're curating their own active itineraries. The question isn't just whether they'll visit your destination, but whether they'll run, hike, or ride it.
What are smart DMOs actually doing with these tools? Let’s take a look behind the scenes:
1. Valencia – Ciudad del Running
The city brand project "Valencia Ciudad del Running" has significantly elevated Valencia's status in the global running community and took Strava seriously as more than just a logging tool. They uploaded official city running routes directly to Strava, so every visitor could find and follow them from their phone or watch. The real differentiator: Valencia installed QR codes along 12 main running trails and in 50+ hotels. Scan the code as a newcomer, and you’re sent straight to a Strava route. You’re running like a local within minutes. The result? Over 20,000 people now belong to the city’s Strava club, turning digital route-finding into real community.
2. Cycling in Flanders – Iconic Challenges, Real Rewards
Cycling in Flanders (Visit Flanders' dedicated cycling brand) used Strava to gamify its toughest routes. Their "Flandrien Challenge" asks cyclists worldwide to complete 59 iconic cobblestone and hill segments in 72 hours. Strava’s integration means cyclists can track progress, unlock digital badges, and—if they finish—get their name immortalized on a real cobblestone in the local museum. The buzz isn’t just digital: the challenge pulls hundreds of riders to Flanders, all discovering the region as sport travelers, not just passive sightseers.
3. Schwarzwald Germany – Collections for Hikers, Direct on Komoot
Schwarzwald Tourism didn’t make a print brochure; they built a digital presence on Komoot. Through "Collections", they curated themed hikes—family-friendly walks, panoramic mountain loops, lake tours—each bundled with GPS tracks, photos, tips and verified by both local experts and Komoot’s community. They become genuine recommendations inside the app, savable for trip planning and in-field navigation. Over 3.8 million views, and thousands of collections were saved for future trips.
Learnings for Destination Marketing Experts
These integrations lower entry barriers and make your destination “app-present” at every customer journey stage. From digital inspiration, to trip planning, to real-time experience.
The most successful cases combine digital assets (routes, collections, challenges) with physical “nudges” in the destination (QR codes, trail signage, museum partnerships).
The role of community is essential: Instead of just “marketing to” travelers, these apps let visitors, locals, and DMOs all become co-creators. Genuine reviews, badges, club memberships and digital challenges offer powerful (and measurable) endorsement.
Fitness and outdoor apps like Strava and Komoot are channels for authentic experience design and community-driven place branding. The more visible, useful, and interactive you make your destination within these networks, the more likely you are to win not just visits, but loyalty and advocacy, too.
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Thanks for reading :)
Kevin
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