11/01-06   -   Press releases

Walkingworld Guide Now Has Over 3,000 Routes

Walkingworld, Britain’s largest walking guide, has burst through the 3,000 mark for routes published in its online format.

Walkingworld has broken the mould of walking guides by making it easy for contributors to submit their favourite routes, in a format that is easily followed by walkers. This format makes heavy use of colour photographs, with one at each important decision point (or waymark) on the route.

David Stewart, MD of Walkingworld Ltd, explains: ‘The breakthrough is in enabling our walk contributors to use photographs to help describe the route. This means we are not relying on the quality of their written descriptions – something that is tough even for the most experienced of writers. We all know how difficult it is to describe a particular gate, barn or tree on the horizon. With our guides, the photographs show clearly what the walker actually sees at major decision points on the route. If you can see a picture you can be very sure you are in the right place – it works for both the writer and, crucially, for the walker.’

In addition, Walkingworld routes provide a downloadable Ordnance Survey map at the popular 1:50,000 Landranger scale. David Stewart considers the map a vital element. He says: ‘The map is the other essential component of a route description. Many online guides don’t provide them and you have to buy the map separately. But that makes identifying the correct route much more difficult. Our maps have the photographed waymarks marked clearly on them, so it is easy for the walker to match the photograph with the point on the map.’

Walkingworld also stands out for its policy of charging a subscription for access to the entire library of walks. Although routes can be bought individually for 1.50 GBP, the majority of users of the site opt for the annual subscription. At 17.45 GBP(inc. VAT) a year, the subscribing member gets the run of the database.

David Stewart comments: ‘We believe absolutely in the subscription model, especially for online products such as ours. On a website you need to be able to browse all the content just like you would in a book. If the full information for each walk is locked away until you have paid for it, you cannot be sure you are choosing the right route. With our subscription, you can browse to your heart’s content, and only print out a walk when you are sure it’s what you want. With so many routes in our library, that’s very important.’

The combination of easily followed guides, downloadable Ordnance Survey maps and full-access subscriptions is certainly proving very popular. With little advertising and most publicity coming through word of mouth, Walkingworld has gained over 60,000 members. Membership is growing at over 1,500 a month.

Notes for editors
Walkingworld is published by Walkingworld Ltd, a private limited company run by David Stewart, his wife Chris and a small family team. The website was first set up in 2000. It was one of the pioneers of paid-for online content, with the first subscriptions starting in 2003. New routes are being added at a rate of around 50 a month.

Walkingworld is an Ordnance Survey Licensed Partner.

Walkingworld has a network of some 200 contributors around the UK. A new development is to publish routes in Europe, with the first in Spain and France.