We're riding a wave': the explosive rise of urban treasure hunts across British cities

If you spot someone in a busy city-centre street with a puzzled, possibly pained look asking their companions if that's an elephant at the top of a drainpipe, they are probably not mad: they are on an urban treasure hunt.

- Mark Brown

There has been, one city tourism boss said, an "explosion" in the number and popularity of treasure and scavenger hunts in the UK. From tracking down art thieves in Penzance to investigating an am-dram murder in Inverness, treasure hunts are popular with couples, families and groups including hen parties.

Increasingly, companies are using treasure hunts for team-building. Forget networking, embrace net-walking. Why book a stuffy hotel function room when you can work together outside and also have a drink halfway round?

Most treasure hunts do not have prizes, apart from bragging rights, although the German company Komoot is this month upping the ante by staging a hunt in Bristol offering, it says, £32,500 in prize money.