Consultation process for tourism service center launched
Five municipalities from the districts of Neuwied and Altenkirchen want to work together in new ways in tourism in the future. The first major virtual kick-off meeting of the five municipalities, Neuwied district administration, Neuwied district economic development agency, tourism and spa association (THV), Westerwald-Touristik and consulting firm took place recently. The aim is to professionalize the structures and optimize cooperation and the development of tourism offers.
The five Westerwald municipalities, Altenkirchen-Flammersfeld (district of Altenkirchen), Asbach, Dierdorf, Puderbach and Rengsdorf-Waldbreitbach (all district of Neuwied) want to follow the example of other Rhineland-Palatinate municipalities in the future and position themselves more effectively in tourism. Four of the five municipalities can look back on years of fruitful cooperation through the existing joint "Raiffeisenland Leader Region". A good foundation for future cooperation within the framework of a Tourist Service Centre (TSC), which is intended to pool strengths and resources and ultimately aims to professionalize local tourism.
For this reason, various tourism service centers have already been established in the Rhineland-Palatinate regions and municipalities in recent years to ensure greater professionalization of tourism work at a local level. Before such new structures can be set up and implemented, there is a professionally supported development process, which is funded by the state and is intended to prepare the players in the region for the new structures and get them on board together.
The five Westerwald municipalities have now launched the preliminary consultation process with a large, virtual project kick-off. They are receiving support from the Rhineland-Palatinate Tourism and Spas Association as well as dwif Consultung, whose advice and technical expertise in the tourism and leisure sector will accompany the process planned until summer 2021. The district of Neuwied is taking on a central and mediating role in the process via the Economic Development Agency (WFG).
The planned approach of the TSC process was presented at the kick-off meeting. Expectations and challenges were also discussed, as well as considerations regarding the creation of thematic working groups and the involvement of other municipal and tourism-related partners. In particular, the active and continuous involvement of both political and tourism representatives from the five municipalities as well as interested local communities is being sought. It was also decided to set up a steering group and a tourism specialist group, which will work together to shape the development of the TSC in a total of six workshops until the planned end of the project in summer 2021.
Now that the go-ahead has been given, it's time to get to work on the content. The workshops will be preceded by a comprehensive inventory and data collection by the dwif, which will form the basis for the further process. The first workshop will then take place in February 2021 together with the tourism specialist group.