Developing criteria for the sustainable structuring of tourism destinations in Germany

In Germany there are already a great many good examples of how tourism regions are bringing sustainable development, which can seem an unwieldy concept, to life. The federal competition on sustainable tourism regions provided the first solid set of data for possible approaches to structuring local tourism services sustainably. The competition also, however, highlighted the need for a comprehensive set of steps and practical guidelines on how to make tourism regions more sustainable. Often, destination managers do not know how to go about integrating the principles of sustainable development into their tourism activities in practice. The focus must therefore now be on maintaining the momentum and building on it in line with international approaches to sustainable destination management. To this end, a research project conducted by BTE Tourismus und Regionalberatung elaborated generally applicable, sound criteria accompanied by indicator suggestions for developing sustainable tourism destinations in Germany.