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Ideas for sustainable, health tourism forest use

Successful first workshop in the pilot region Traunsee-Almtal in the course of the “INTERREG project AB291 – Network for Health Tourism in Forest”

24.9.2020 | THD-Pressestelle

As one of five specific pilot regions, the densely wooded, touristically attractive Traunsee-Almtal region in Upper Austria is a partner of the “INTERREG Project AB291”, in which the European Campus Rottal-Inn (ECRI) in Pfarrkirchen is the lead partner.

The first project workshop took place on Tuesday, 15 September at the invitation of Mayor Wolfgang Bammer and the Traunsee-Almtal Tourist Office in the municipal office of Grünau im Almtal. In addition to the five-member project team, which will oversee the project until summer 2020, the workshop focused in particular on the invited experts from the fields of forests, health and tourism. With their many years of competence and expertise, they are making a significant contribution to the joint development of ideas and approaches on how forest and natural areas can be used for health tourism in the specific context of the municipality of Grünau and in the pilot region Traunsee-Almtal. The premise is always to create added value for local providers and stakeholders as well as visitors and guests without damaging natural resources.

In an initial three groups and a subsequent joint discussion round, the 17 workshop participants gathered important findings and assessments on future target groups, nature-related service options or necessary structures and partnerships, which are fundamental for the sustainable use of forests in the future. Prof Dr Christian Steckenbauer, Dean of ECRI and experienced tourism expert, was the host.

The results of the workshop will be used to derive specific offers and products for Grünau and the Traunsee-Almtal pilot region, but together with the findinds from the other four pilot regions, they will also be made fundamentally transferable and applicable to corresponding destinations. Prof Steckenbauer also sees this as an important step for the future: “In view of social change and changing travel motives, the development of new offers in the area of forest & health is of enormous importance – even more so as a result of the Corona pandemic”.

In an interdisciplinary, cross-border project consortium consisting of a total of 14 well-known partners, this ambitious project is approaching the subject of “forests, health and tourism” from various angles and is developing sustainable approaches in five selected pilot regions (in addition to the Traunsee-Almtal, also the Tennengau, Bad Birnbach, Neureichenau, Braunau-Simbach) on how local forest and associated natural areas can be used for health tourism.

Bild (ECRI / DIT): At the workshop in Grünau im Almtal, the participants developed concepts for the sustainable use of forests under the direction of Prof Dr Christian Steckenbauer (4th from the right) and Sebastian Markov (1st from the right).