SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 4, 2025--
Atmosfy, the leading video platform for reviewing live dining, nightlife, and travel experiences, today announced the launch of the All-Access Pass by Atmosfy, an in-app rewards engine that markets travel, experiences and more. Following a recent investment from Capital One Ventures, the new rewards engine will continue the company’s mission of powering the next generation of real-world discovery.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250604270684/en/
All-Access Pass features Expedia-powered hotel inventory and brand integrations across dining, nightlife, and experiences. Atmosfy users now earn 10% cash back on over 3.5 million global properties, plus access to curated perks from marquee partners, including Tock.
“As the go-to platform for Gen Z discovery, we’re proud to partner with the world’s largest travel brands like Capital One, Tock, and Expedia to unlock meaningful savings across hotels, restaurants, and experiences,” said Michael Ebel, Founder & CEO of Atmosfy. “We’re not just helping users find where to go, we’re helping them save when they get there. Atmosfy is fueling global experiences, offering inspiration, connection, and rewards that help the next generation experience more of the world.”
To date, over 250 million experiences have been discovered on Atmosfy across 10,000 cities and 150 countries. As the leading video discovery platform for Gen Z travelers, Atmosfy is redefining how the next generation explores the world by favoring immersive, authentic video content over static reviews. Gen Z already contributes over $150 billion annually to the global travel market, and Atmosfy helps brands convert this high-intent audience at scale.
According to Atmosfy’s latest State of the Market report, Gen Z’s travel decisions are accelerating toward social-first, video-led platforms that blur the lines between inspiration and action. Users are three times more likely to make a purchase after watching video content, and 56% say they rely on friends and creators to guide real-world decisions. That behavior is translating into more spontaneous travel patterns – over 30% of Gen Z travelers now book flights less than a week in advance, and 44% make last-minute hotel bookings.
As planning cycles shrink, Atmosfy’s All-Access Pass rewards real-time discovery with instant perks and builds long-term loyalty around the creators, content, and communities Gen Z trusts. With travel bookings on Atmosfy up 3x year-over-year in 2025, Gen Z increasingly prioritizes spontaneous and video-led decision-making. The platform expects this growth to accelerate through 2026 as more users unlock real-world savings and brands embrace performance-based campaigns driven by social discovery.
Atmosfy is actively expanding its global partner network to make millions of experiences instantly bookable on the platform while also offering rewards through the All-Access Pass to the platform’s engaged audience. With marquee partners like Capital One, Expedia, and Tock already on board, Atmosfy is shaping the next generation of travel and commerce and delivering unmatched savings, reach, and loyalty.
To explore partnership opportunities, visit atmosfy.io or reach out to partnerships@atmosfy.io.
About Atmosfy
Atmosfy is the leading video discovery platform for Gen Z travel, dining, and experiences, spanning over 250 million discoveries across 10,000 cities and 150 countries. The company is backed by venture firms including Redpoint Ventures, Village Global, Canaan Partners, Industry Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, Palm Tree Crew, and others. Learn more at atmosfy.io.
Atmosfy, the leading video platform for reviewing live dining, nightlife, and travel experiences, announces the launch of the All-Access Pass by Atmosfy, an in-app rewards engine that markets travel, experiences and more.
RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.
In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.
Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.
“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.
If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.
For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.
“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.
Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.
"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.
Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.
Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.
Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.
The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.
“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.
As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.
What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.
The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.
One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.
Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.
“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.
The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.
Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.
“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.
Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.
“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
