Mapo Tapo: the startup for those who love climbing. Here are 7 walls not to be missed

Sports tourism is growing strongly, especially among the younger generations. What’s it about? On a holiday where everything revolves around your favorite sport. There is one with a cycling theme, there is for surfing, football and many other sports. The one dedicated to climbing was missing, at least in Italy, and it has arrived. Mapo Tapo does just that: organize trips for climbing enthusiasts to the most beautiful places in Europe and beyond.

Sustainable outdoor travel

Founded in August 2020 with the idea of ​​making a digital platform available to mountain guides and instructors to organize group climbing and ski mountaineering trips, it has recently formalized the closure of a 355,000 euro loan. But be careful not to confuse it with a normal tour operator. The founders – Daniele Calvo Pollino and Alessia Fontanari – have created a network of selected alpine guides, with the desire to be primarily a community of enthusiasts who find the opportunity to come together to live unique experiences. In practice, the startup helps guides in creating travel packages (from 2 to 7 days), both in Italy and abroad, promoting travel in its online community, which already has 25,000 enthusiasts.

«The main need we satisfy is that of aggregation: it is already difficult to find someone who has the same holidays and the same budget with which to go on vacation, let alone find companions with whom to go climbing or ski mountaineering. In fact, 90% of Mapo Tapo travelers book alone »he comments Daniele Calvo Pollino, CEO and co-founder of Mapo Tapo. This is true both in Italy and abroad, and in fact over half of the trips have foreign participants. «We wanted Mapo Tapo to be international from day zero: we have the competitive advantage to be based in one of the most beautiful countries for the outdoors, a dream destination for sportsmen from all over the world “.

Promote sustainable tourism attentive to the territory

In addition to the great focus on safety by working with certified guides, Mapo Tapo’s priority is to promote a sustainable tourismworking with locals: professionals and local B & Bs, which usually operate off the beaten path mainstream and attentive to the territory. Also supporting initiatives to develop tourism in depressed areas: in 2021 it donated over three thousand euros for the equipment of climbing areas in the Sicilian hinterland and in Greece.

«Climbing is becoming more and more popular, and some of the most famous areas suffer from too high tourist flows. At the same time there are thousands of equally beautiful areas that have almost no visibility. And a responsible tourism promotion of these places could make the difference for local communities ”, explains Daniele. Between one lockdown and another, the Mapo Tapo team launched a crowdfunding campaign to create “The Climbing Travel Guide”, a photographic book of the 50 most beautiful destinations in the world to climb that has seen the collaboration of over 60 outdoor photographers from all over the world and which today is the business card of the startup to all intents and purposes.

Some of the most beautiful places to climb according to Mapo Tapo

A five day trip to the incredible sandstone towers in the Wadi Rum desert. It doesn’t get more authentic than this: accompanied by a Bedouin guide you sleep in the beautiful camp under the stars Bedouin Outdoors, and in addition to two days of “classic” climbing, you can explore one of the “Bedouin routes”, the ancient Bedouin mountaineering trails with abseil through sandstone labyrinths. After the full immersion of climbing in the desert, you cannot miss a stop in Petra on the way back to Amman.