A Global Leader: Hannover in the Spotlight for Geocachers (July 7, 2014)

“Ge(o)secrets of the Hannover Region” and “Treasure Keeper” are the names of the world’s most popular geocaching tours, which lead the rankings by a wide margin ahead of the American metropolis of Seattle. This is shown by a recent analysis conducted by Hannover-based geocaching professionals and tour developers from the company GeheimPunkt GmbH. Active geocachers can award a so-called “favorite point” for every ten caches they find. The ratio of total finds to favorite points awarded then indicates the popularity of an entire tour. And here, the Hannover tours are way out in front!

© HMTG

On March 15 of this year, Hanover’s—and indeed Germany’s—first GeoTour, titled “Ge(o)secrets of the Hanover Region,” was launched. This modern form of treasure hunt, which uses GPS technology, requires detective-like intuition and musical knowledge. Spanning 113 km, it connects seven cities and municipalities in the Hanover region. A total of 17 “Musical Ge(o)mysteries” are waiting to be discovered. By mid-August 2014, the Geotour portal is set to be expanded to include another Ge(o)mystery tour along the “Grüner Ring” circular walking and biking trail.

To mark its tenth anniversary, the Hannover Region Waste Management Association (aha) launched its own geocaching series centered on waste disposal and street cleaning, called the “Treasure Hunt.” The aha geocaching series includes twelve caches throughout the Hannover region. The treasures are hidden in specially prepared, anchored, and labeled promotional trash cans—which cannot be used to dispose of waste—as well as in a grit box. The 29 caches from the “Musical Ge(o)Secrets” and “Schahatzsuche” series have been found approximately 5,600 times so far.

Since March 21, the 12 caches on Sparkasse Hannover’s “Treasure Keeper” tour have been found about 2,200 times. As another connected GeoTour in Germany, this tour lets participants track down exciting hiding spots in Hannover and the surrounding area. The treasure types include, for example, a donation feature for charitable projects, guarantee entry into a raffle, or simply provide plenty of fun and excitement.

All three tours were developed by the team at GeheimPunkt GmbH, a startup based in Hanover that won the kre|H|tiv Network’s drei|V competition back in 2012 and was honored at the national level with the “Kultur- und Kreativpiloten Deutschland” industry award.

As a result, Hanover was able to achieve a leading position worldwide in the recreational trend of geocaching through its innovative concepts on the www.geocaching.com platform.

General Information – What is Geocaching?

Geocaching is a global game in which participants hide small or large treasures, record their geographic coordinates, and post them online. This allows other participants to set out in search of the caches using a GPS device or smartphone. A cache, or geocache, usually consists of a container with a logbook in which successful finders can sign their names. Often, small items for trading are included, which can be taken if you leave something of equal value in their place. There are now over 2 million caches worldwide!

To obtain the necessary information for participating, "geocachers" can register on the website www.geocaching.com.
An overview of all GeoTours worldwide is available here: www.geocaching.com/adventures/geotours.

For more information about the "Ge(o)heimnisse" tours, visit: www.hannover.de/geoheimnisse.

For more information about the aha tour, visit: www.schahatzsuche.de

Attached is a table comparing the results of the tours in Hanover.