INTERREG Project Transdanube Travel Stories

10 partners from seven countries, including the Linz Tourist Board and WGD Donau Oberösterreich Tourismus GmbH, are involved in the new EU project "Transdanube Travel Stories" for sustainable tourism in the Danube region and want to use new, innovative strategies to charge the European lifeline with new stories and experiences.

The two-and-a-half-year project, with a total volume of €1.82 million, builds on the results of its predecessor, Transdanube.Pearls, which was completed in 2019. The new project is about developing innovative, so-called Danube narratives. Selected destinations and sights along a travel route will be linked to an experienceable story and promoted. The aim is to arouse interest in the Danube region as a tourist destination and create a unique Danube memory.

The ten project partners from seven Danube countries are working hand in hand, under the leadership of the Federal Environment Agency, to make the Danube an experience in a sustainable way. The new narratives and stories are being developed under the leadership of the Linz Tourist Board together with experts from various fields. Based on this, travel offers for individual as well as group tourists will be developed. WGD Donau Oberösterreich Tourismus GmbH, as the coordinating body of the Danube Pearls network, will provide support for the partners both in the development and in the marketing of the products.

Recognizing the extensive cultural and natural heritage, the Transdanube Travel Stories project aims to support sustainable tourism in the Danube Region through the implementation of innovative marketing concepts (new narratives/narratives) and sustainable mobility management tools.

New narratives and mobility management in combination with increased cooperation between stakeholders will provide the framework to better position the Danube as a unique sustainable tourism destination in the market. As a result, more European citizens will be able to experience the European cultural and natural heritage in a sustainable way.

• Developing new and innovative narratives/narratives to promote the Danube macro-region as a tourism destination. Selected sights along an itinerary will be linked to a story that can be experienced. In this way, interest is to be aroused and a Danube memory created.
• Integrate mobility management tools (mobility managers*, mobility plans) into the institutional structures in the participating cultural routes and networks, as well as at the destination level, in order to make it easier for vacationers to experience the new narratives/narratives through environmentally friendly means of transport, thus limiting the negative, transport-related consequences of increasing tourist numbers.
• Establishment of tourism funds at destination level and improved thematic and institutional cooperation between the participating European Cultural Routes and networks in order to strengthen the cooperation of the main stakeholders and jointly promote sustainable tourism in the Danube Region.

The project was successfully completed at the end of 2022:

The Transdanbue Travel Stories are now available as an e-book (they were originally written in English and then translated into German).

The stories and matching travel suggestions, products and videos from the Danube Travel Challenge can be found at: www.danube-pearls.eu.

For all those interested in the outputs and details, everything is collected on the official project page: www.interreg-danube.eu/approved-projects/transdanube-travel-stories

Tour operators can also get ideas for trips along the Danube here. If you are looking for contacts in the participating organizations and countries, please contact us: info@strassederkaiserundkoenige.com, +43 732 7070 2932