Transboundary sustainable tourism
To encourage nature-friendly behavior of visitors and to create consciousness of locals about ecosystems and the region’s common history, multiple measures were taken to foster TB cooperation in the sustainable tourism sector: 1) Wooden tourism infrastructure (walkway, viewing hut, tower) was set up, allowing visitors to experience nature without disturbing habitats. 2) Walking and cycling routes, which benefit from and emphasize the common cultural and natural history, were expanded and matching bilingual maps were published. 3) Training of TB nature and culture guides ensured valuable TB guided tours for every audience on various topics. 4) To foster common projects and to improve coordination of local tourism, workshops for local tourism stakeholders were organized. These measures resulted in combined tour offers that attract visitors, give an understanding of the regional history and modern ecosystems and landscapes, and benefit local businesses. 5) Finally, outcomes of a better coordination of TB public relations included a common logo, travelling exhibitions, a bilingual homepage and informative signs along the trails to elevate the visibility of the TB National Park Region.
From the beginning of the Middle Ages to the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815), the region at the Dutch-German border has been the common property of 12 parishes. The Meinweg reflects this common history still today, which combined with attractive landscape features (e.g., terraced landscapes) and the cluster of Natura 2000 protected areas provides a suitable landscape for sustainable tourism.
For many stakeholders the cooperation means a shift in their usual reasoning, which concentrates mostly on attracting the most visitors possible to their own organisation or municipality. It turned out to be the most motivating to integrate tourism-focused stakeholders from the start as partners, which increased their identification with and commitment to the project. Similar considerations applied to cooperation of guides, hotels, and restaurants: even though there were some beneficial outcomes, maintaining collaboration required constant motivating actions and cooperation turned out not to last in several cases. In future, a more detailed concept for these stakeholders should be established at the beginning of the project. Regarding the elaboration and publication of hiking and cycling maps, it turned out to be very useful to cooperate with an editor from the start to ensure the maps are published/reprinted even after the completion of the project.