New Audio Guides: Explore Lake Millstatt & Goldeck
We are excited to tell you that we have launched two new audio guides in Carinthia, Austria. One takes you on a scenic tour around Lake Millstatt and the other tour takes you to the peak of Goldeck. But this is not all, those tours are a project of the heart for us as we realized them together with Vividus, the biggest provider in Austria for dementia tourism. Hence our target group is people suffering from dementia. To learn more about this special project and to get glimpses into what the audio guides are about, read on!
Inclusion for Dementia Patients
Our partner for this tour was Vividus, a modern dementia tourism provider. They offer an established dementia competence center where they care for their guests with compassion and due to their expertise they guarantee the individual care of all visitors. Vividus also helps with arranging individual vacations, so if you want to book a trip with a person suffering from dementia, you can reach out to them for guidance. Vividus is part of Harmony & Care, a high-quality service in the 24-hour care sector.
To cater the audio guides to the needs of dementia patients, we had of course adapt our content as well as the audio format. Our target was dementia patients in the first stage, also classified as mild dementia, and their relatives. Therefore, it was important to write the guides in easy, understandable language and to make sure that the recording was spoken a little more slowly than usual. Studies also showed that dementia patients respond better to female voices, so we also took this into account when planning the tours and chose a female speaker.
Lake Millstatt and its Treasures
The first tour is all about Lake Millstatt and its surrounding treasures. It takes you to the most beautiful places in Millstatt, where you will also find gorgeous places to soak in nature. Lake Millstatt is well-known today for the mild climate of the lake, the outstanding quality of the water, and the far-reaching views over the lake.
The shores of Lake Millstatt invite you to relax. ©Gert Perauer – Archiv MTG
The area around the lake has a rich history dating back until the 8th century when Roman Emperor Domitian was converted to Christianity after surviving a tragic accident. He built a church in the Millstatt area and got venerated as the patron saint of Lake Millstatt. Due to the monastery, Millstatt rose to the spiritual and cultural center of Upper Carinthia for a long time.
The lake has indeed shaped the lives of the people living around Millstatt for centuries. Did you know that some farmers even used to row in boats to their fields? A quite unusual form of getting to work in Austria we have to say.
Our tour along the shore and the lakeside promenade will also take you past splendid villas, where lords and ladies from the city used to spend their summer vacation. Those aristocrats were not the only connection from the lake to the bourgeoisie in Vienna, the fish that got caught in the lake also used to serve as a delicatesse for the Imperial Court in Vienna.
The bourgeoisie loved to spend their summer at Lake Millstatt and you can still marvel at their splendid villas today. ©Martin Steinthaler – Archiv MTG
Got curious to learn more? You find the link to the free audio guide here. The good thing is you don’t even need to be on the spot to experience Lake Millstatt, as you can also listen to the guide from the comfort of your own sofa.
Goldeck Nature Experience: A Leisurely Walk to the Summit
When you are at Lake Millstatt, you can already see the Goldeck mountain, a paradise for different sports and the protagonist of our “Goldeck Nature Experience,” where we will take you on a gentle hike to the summit. Like the Millstatt audio guide, this tour is catered to the needs of dementia patients.
From the peak of Goldeck mountain, stunning views await you: you can see from the Hohe Tauern National Park, Lake Millstatt all the way to the city of Villach and to the Karawanken mountain range as well as to the Gailtaler Alps. Along the way, you will discover and learn a lot about the nature of the region, but you will also learn exciting stories about the construction of alpine roads and the development of the ski area. We will also tell you the story of how Goldeck got its name.
Enjoy the marvelous view once you have reached the top of Goldeck. © Sam Strauss – Archiv Goldeck Sportberg
On the way up, you will notice the tall spruce and larch trees that grow high into the sky and defy the wind. They do not only provide shade for people and animals in summer, in winter they serve as protection against avalanches. The alpine flora is also magnificent. In the guide you don’t only learn about the alpine roses covering the ski slopes like a flowering carpet in summer, but you will also learn about numerous ancient medical herbs you find there as well. You can also watch out for edible mushrooms in the shady woods. However, we would only recommend this to mushroom experts, as we don’t want you to get poisoned.
You will learn about the flora and fauna of the mountain in our audio guide. © Goldeck TVB
If you’re lucky, you will also get a glimpse of animals on the way up, as Goldeck is also the home of numerous cows, goats, sheep and horses who love the alpine herbs as well wild animals, some of them even belonging to a rare species.
Finally, at 2,142 meters above sea level, an incredible panorama awaits you on Goldeck and you can enjoy the view and reward yourself with a drink or a meal in one of the restaurants you’ll find there. For the less active ones among you, since 1960, the mountain is also accessible by cable car from Spittal an der Drau. You find the link to the free audio guide here and just like the Lake Millstatt guide, you can either listen to the guide on the spot or from home. Both tours are available in English, German and Slovenian.
Speaking of Spittal an der Drau, we are going to publish a third audio guide in cooperation with Vividus soon, so stay tuned! Another sneak-peak we can tell you about is our cooperation with HLW Spittal. Here, students of a third-grade class designed a modern city walk through Spittal an der Drau for old and young. From the conception of the guide to taking the pictures and recording the audio, the students did everything themselves together with our support during a hackathon. The target group of the tour is the older generation and the guide should set an example for inclusion and intergenerational, lifelong learning, so we are already very excited to tell you more about this project soon!
Credits Featured Image: Kärnten Werbung Zupanc
