We kicked off the year with a generational change: After 35 years as faszinatour founder and managing director, Werner Vetter ensured the solid future of the family business by bringing his son Tobias onto the management board, thus simultaneously heralding his own retirement from management.
Another milestone and an important sign for employees, partners and customers was our step towards climate neutrality. faszinatour has been a climate-neutral company since the beginning of 2022. This means: we have recorded our greenhouse gas emissions, are working on continuous reduction and have offset the unavoidable emissions through a climate protection project.
Since we usually travel from Finland to Greece, it was a special bonus as an Allgäu company to realize a project in the Allgäu: For the CenterParcs "Park Allgäu" near Leutkirch, an Adventure Park with four courses at heights of up to 10 meters was created over the turn of the year 2021/22. In addition to various climbing exercises, climbers can also expect several rope slides, so-called "ziplines," in the course. The very wintry weather conditions and the construction during ongoing CenterParcs operations presented our construction team with great challenges!
At the beginning of February, we went back to the other end of Germany to Travemünde, where we built the "Kletterwald Travemünde". With their family-friendly and nature-compatible concept, the operators Tillmann and Nick are so successful that they were able to win an award directly in their first season. Their park offers seven courses with over 60 individual elements and a zipline course that circles the entire area. But Tillmann and Nick already have further visions and plans: in 2023, their Adventure Park is to be supplemented by a demanding Ninja course as a special challenge.
The Hirschhagen Action Parkin Hessisch Lichtenau offers paintball, bubble soccer, archery and other adventures. In spring 2022, we supplemented its offering with a high ropes course consisting of six courses with 80 individual elements and eight ziplines. Our special challenge in the project was the integration of an old military building into the concept of the Adventure Park.
The projects continued in quick succession: Germany's third and so far largest climbing facility on water was built at Ternscher See between Dortmund and Münster - together with our cooperation partner Adventure Lakes. Detailed information about the facility concept can be found in our reference. On October 1st we organized the first "Aqua Chimp Experience Day" at the Ternscher See for Aqua Chimp interested parties from all over Germany. Investors, municipalities and park operators had the opportunity to visit the facility and get to know the business model. There will be the next Experience Day in spring 2023, be curious!
In late fall, we were out and about in the Swabian Forest, more specifically at the Mönchhof school camp, where we were able to creatively add to the leisure options. A net course specially designed for the school camp and a low ropes course now round off the range of activities on offer there. In order to give the project its very own charm, the courses were given a "Limes theme", which underlines the regional reference and the educational aspect.
Our next project took us to Steinheim am Albuch, where in the beautiful Gnannental valley a communal forest playground among trees was transformed into an adventure playground on poles after storm damage. In the style of our rope courses, platforms are combined here with individual climbing exercises, offering children of all ages a great and educationally valuable experience of nature.
In addition to our other trips and projects, there were also trade show appearances in London and Friedrichshafen. At the IAAPA Tradeshow in London, the trade fair for new technologies, services and innovations from all areas of the leisure business, we appeared in September together with Adventure Lakes and a brand new booth. In November, we met the industry at Vertical Pro in Friedrichshafen, the trade fair for climbing gym and ropes course operators, arborists as well as rope access technicians, which scored again this year with a unique networking of all vertical professionals.
With such diverse and varied projects and beautiful encounters, we are happy to continue - our heartfelt thanks go to our clients and partners!