Future of hiking
Soap box
I’m very much an information driven person and over the years I’ve followed the changes and developing trends in the broader outdoor industry and while the focus has been on Australia I also play close attention to whats occurring overseas as sometimes these tends will often flow through to whats happening at home.
In this article we look at where the future of hiking is heading and discuss what it means for hikers, including changes we’re likely to see in trail design and use, the impacts of social media on the trail, notable gear trends, and the use of technology on the trail, both the good and bad.
To provide some context I come from a design based background with a strong interest in trail design and ‘place making’ which focuses on a people centred, rather than a purely management approach to our outdoor spaces that can transform physical spaces into vibrant, inclusive, and meaningful public areas that strengthen the connection between people and the places they share. I am a strong believer that without this connection these places will fall disrepair and run the risk of being lost forever.
Much of this discussion in this article involves generalisations based on what I am seeing both online as well as on-trail and which you may, or may not agree with.
Who's hiking?
So who is the typical hiker these days? Hikers come in all shapes, all sizes, and all demographics but from an age perspective it tends to be younger and older adults who make up the bulk of those we see on the trail. What these two particular groups have in common an availability of time and by that I mean they don’t have family commitments that parents with young children have. Once children start leading independent lives, parents gain the free time to get back into hiking again.
There is an old saying that goes ‘We don’t know what we don’t know’. Like any other activity, this is true for hiking. In the ‘good old days’ our introduction to hiking was often based around clubs, scouts, or through family outings and while for many this is still the case, there are more and more hikers who just take the leap.
When we first start hiking we all know very little so will often require help to get out bush and that drives us to look for guidance on options band this is where clubs, meet up groups and more and more commonly commercial entities who have identified that there is a market for people who want ‘curated’ experiences either because they are sure what to do, or who love the outdoor but just armed into the organisation component.
I’m old enough to remember life as an adult pre-internet and at that stage sporting based clubs, including hiking clubs, were the go-to destination if you wanted help getting into the outdoors. In the ‘old days’ these clubs would meet on a regular basis and were social outlets just as much as team based sporting clubs. While team based sporting clubs continue to thrive non-traditional sporting clubs such as hiking clubs are waning with many people now using the internet and ‘winging it’ after doing our own research.
Another key issue with any activity in general is that people need to be able to picture themselves taking part in an activity. As a generalisation, hiking clubs tend to represent an older demographic with limited cultural diversity. In addition as Australia’s cultural make up continues to evolve from its historic anglo base, we are slowly seeing a change in those who are on-trail, but it’s a slow process. While there is diversity, less often do I see a non-caucasian face on-trail. It really doesn’t matter but most people need to be able to picture themselves doing an activity and without a range of diverse demographic and cultural images being shown in mainstream media, it’s a slow change. The phrase ‘you can’t be, what you can’t see’ is equally relevant in hiking.
This is not to say that clubs don’t have a place anymore, far from it, but for them to thrive and grow they need to diversify. Before the angry mobs turn up at my door with pitchforks and fire brands, I do believe that hiking clubs have a very important future to play in hiking but they need to evolve and change or else risk falling by the wayside. By change I mean change the demographics!
The modern version of hiking clubs tend to be the meet-up groups and more commonly commercially based businesses that offer a variety of hiking opportunities. Meet up groups will often target specific audiences and communities such as ‘young’ hikers, urban hikers, and the LGBTQIA+ community. This option is seen as the more modern version of hiking clubs and suit more targeted demographic groups. Commercial operations which are becoming more common will often provide the complete package including the organisation and provision of gear.
We need to get people of all ages, all genders, and all nationalities into hiking
Glamping
When most people think about hiking and camping they develop a picture in their mind about what that means. Often this image includes carrying a heavy pack, sleeping in a small tent, digging a hole to go to the toilet, and eating dehydrated or freeze dried food. While this describes most of my hikes, it’s not everyone’s idea of a good time.
More and more ‘glamping’ (glamour camping) is becoming an option as commercial operations set up huts and fancy accommodation that provides real beds, chef cooked meals, modern toilet facilities, along with the option to carry a small relatively lightweight pack which makes the whole experience enjoyable for a wider range of people.
These privately run camping options are slowly popping up all over the country. Typically, they are often required to meet strict environmental conditions before they can proceed however this is one of the biggest causes of concern by traditional hikers who feel their opportunities are being limited.
From my perspective, anything that allows a wider range of Australians to get out bush is a good thing and we shouldn’t be limiting access to our hiking trails to thoise who only want ‘one type’ of experience.
One of the hut set ups on the Three Capes Track in Tasmania. This is a a bit of a halfway point towards ‘glamping‘ but is defiantly a step above ‘roughing it’
Long distance hiking
I first discovered long distance hiking in around 2006 and the idea that you could walk for weeks, or even months just appealed to me. The practice of long distance hiking is starting to get serious and really only includes a relatively small, but growing subset of hikers. Some of the best hiking experiences I’ve had are when I’ve challenged myself to push that little bit extra on these longer hikes.
Having said that, long distance hiking isn’t for everyone and in fact prior to starting the Bibbulmun Track in 2018 the general comment that I had from family and friends could be boiled down to ‘why on earth would you want to do that?’ Long distance hiking is a great way to decompress from modern life and in my case it allows me tho think, and I mean really think’ which is a luxury that we aren’t often afforded in the busy day to day hustle of modern life.
Tim on the last day of his 2018 Bibbulmun Track hike
Private trails
One of the recent changes to hiking has been the development of private hiking trails. In this instance trails and shelters are set up on private land and the experiences are managed as guided hikes or self supported hikes. The quality and experience may vary.
A good example of this is the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa Signature Walk which is set in the Iconic Uluru Kata Tjuṯa National Park in the Northern Territory. This four day guided trail is on Indigenous land and in areas not accessible to the general public. This walk will provide a new and unique hiking opportunity for hikers who participate as well as provide a revenue stream and jobs for the local traditional owners.
This type of trail is becoming more common and while being a paid experience, provides another option to help get people into hiking.
Uluru at sunrise
Commercialisation of parks and trails
More and more trails are being set up with commercial investment (see ‘Private trails’ above) and while this concept is relatively new in Australia, it is a trend that is accelerating, but why?
In the USA National Parks receive a very small amount of government funding and any additional funds must be obtained through other sources. Entities such as the National Park Foundation, is the official charitable partner of the National Park Service generates private support and builds strategic partnerships to protect and enhance America’s National Parks for present and future generations. What this means in practice is that many US based National parks will focus on specific activities rather than trying to do it all.
In Australia National Parks are created, managed, and funded mainly by state or territory governments with a very small handful being managed by the Australian Government. This means that National Parks are in competition for funding with things like health, education roads.
Because our National Parks are state based we don’t have a central philanthropic organisation such as the US based National Park Foundation to raise money for all our parks. One thing we are starting to do is to allow commercial entities to set up infrastructure within our National Parks that typically offer space for private lodges, restaurants and cafes. Over the past few years in particular this has caused a great deal of outcry as people see this as diluting the wilderness experience. In the USA one name that is applied to this is the ‘Disneyfication’ of National Parks which refers to the growing trend of managing wild spaces like commercial theme parks.
I have walked a number of tAustralian trails that have private huts on them and these huts are usually so well hidden you don’t even realise that they are there. By allowing this type of development into our National Parks the funding collected from the leasing of park land to private companies it provides an additional source of revenue that is fed back into maintaining our parks.
Regulation of hiking trails
It used to be that you turned up to your hiking trail of choice and just started walking. It didn’t matter too much which bit of dirt that you were travelling on when you started. However these days while this still describes the majority of trails, a number of our more popular trails are being regulated. This includes:
- Requiring trail permits
- Many of our more popular trails such as the Overland Track are being ‘loved to death’ which has resulted in permits being issued to ensure that the environment isn’t being trashed by increasing numbers and to ensure hikers also have a good on-trail experience
- Mandated travel direction
- In addition to limiting the number of hikers on the Overland Track, the direction of travel has also been mandated during the permit period. This means that that everyone travels in the same direction and campsites are managed to cope with a given number of people each day. During the off-season you can travel either direction
- The travel direction enforcement is becoming more common world wide e.g. https://www.timeout.com/news/italy-has-implemented-a-one-way-system-for-some-hiking-trails-042424
Overland Track pass displayed on our packs. The rangers check trail users
Our changing purchase patterns
Now let’s move away from the on-trail experience to purchasing of hiking gear. For many years your local outdoor store was the go-to destination for all your gear purchases. These days the internet has greatly changed our purchasing patterns, not just in hiking, but overall.
For outdoor stores to survive they need to provide knowledgeable, friendly advice but also need to provide online purchasing options. For a number of years the importers and manufactures tried to avoid impacting the revenue from their bricks and mortar partners, but as the retail stores cherry-picked ranges and ignored stocking the full range of gear from brands, manufacturers have been looking at ways to sell their ‘less loved products’ now providing us with ranges of gear we didn’t previously have access to. This includes brands from both Europe and the USA in particular that previously had never made their way to Australia. This has driven manufacturers to sell their gear through online retailers such as Amazon, that again we previously didn’t have access to. Love or hate Amazon the ability in many cases to deliver your purchase within 24 hours is a game changer and one that pushes the outdoor stores to lift their game.
Another big trend in hiking gear over the past decade has been the ‘normalisation of ultralight gear. This is a trend that has had a series of swings and roundabouts initially focusing on the lightest gear we could find but now shifting towards the lightest gear that also provides the features we want. As part of this trend new materials are being created that from a physical standpoint may not appear very different but which perform so much better and have the potential to be so much more durable at a fraction of weight of older materials.
The other trend in hiking gear is the shift towards environmentally friendly production methods and materials that at its peak, try where possible to repurpose old gear rather than throwing it into landfill.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
2024-26 has seen the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and this new technology is starting to impact just about all aspects of our lives including outdoor adventures. While there are certainly positives to this new technology there are also negatives. Social media is a great example of this, particularly in changing the images we see on social media; is what we are seeing real or artificial?
Another impact is auto generation of online content with the ability to ask AI to create an article on some particular aspect of hiking/outdoor adventure. This potentially means that content creators may have no experience whatsoever and just be pumping out articles that may or may not be accurate. Various online surveys have identified that many social media users want to know if the content is real or AI generated and I can’t blame them.
As a podcaster AI offers the ability to remove crush words such as ‘um’s’ and ‘ah’s from audio content and as someone who spends a fair amount of time doing that manually I think thats a great timesaving option.
Where I see AI being helpful is in the formatting, editing and layout process rather than in the content creation itself rather than in the real life experience aspects of blogging.
As I update this article in June of 2026 there was a recent rescue of hikers in Kosciuszko National park using drones with AI software, the first of its type in Australia, and the way of the future. While this methods wont always be able to be used why send hundreds of people into the bush to look for lost hikers when an AI drone can do it with less risk to the searchers?
A hiker getting a photo taken on Wedding Cake Rock on the Coast Track in Royal National Park. There is a now a study fence and an optional AUD $3,000 fine if you do this. In. addition this particular rock has been identified a one that will fall into the ocean sooner rather than later. So don’t do it!
Technologies on the trail
The impact of technology on our outdoor adventures continues to grow. It used to be that we could totally disengage from technology but with the advent of StarLink and other satellite internet providers we can be connected even as hikers.
Our mobile phones now also allow us to access emergency services in some instances and this will be a technology that continues to change and improve over the coming few years. In. addition Telstra provides satellite messaging on there mobile phone plans which I have been found to be really useful in. staying in touch. This system still requires clear access by your phone to the sky but its very handy.
One service that has been available for a number of years is phone-based mapping services such as Far Out. These types of services have changed the way we navigate on designated trails.
Personal locator beacons are also changing and have moved away from just being a press button activation to now including two way satellite communication which provides a greater degree of connection with those at home and friends who worry about you when you go remote.
Garmin GPSMap 66i GPS Handheld and Satellite Communicator
Final thoughts
Like any hobby/activity hiking is evolving, sometimes the changes are small and incremental being hard to notice and at other times the changes are major, changing the way we see, do, and think, about things, with GPSs or AI being examples.
The gear we use and the hiking practices we are familiar with are still valid with these new practices and technology helping to improve outdoor experiences. Having said that we don’t have to change what we do but we do need to acknowledge that newer generations becoming involved in outdoor adventures will use these newer, more modern products as well as newer technologies.
Love it or hate it, time marches on and we need to keep up.
Last Updated
30 June 2026