Rheinhessen Conference on November 14, 2018

Under the motto "Wine, Tourism & Culture - a Successful Tri-Hessian Triad", the 9th Rheinhessen Conference took place on November 14, 2018 at the Service Center Rural Area Rheinhessen-Nahe-Hunsrück (DLR) in Oppenheim. Initiators of the event were in addition to the DLR Rheinhessen-Touristik GmbH, Rheinhessenwein e. V., the working group Rheinhessen Culture and Rheinhessen Marketing e. V. The event is considered an exchange and information platform of all wine tourism activists in Germany's largest wine-growing region.

At the beginning of the conference, Michael Lipps, Dean of the DLR, demonstrated the close integration of the Rhineland-Hessian and Rhineland-Palatinate tourism strategies. "The triad of wine, tourism and culture is a potential that we should use for the further development of the umbrella brand Rheinhessen!", He shouted to the plenum.

In her welcome address, District Administrator Dorothea Schäfer (Mainz-Bingen district) emphasized the need for structures in order to advance Rheinhessen. "Only a cooperation beyond the boundaries of local authorities can lead to success," summarized the county councilor.

District Administrator Ernst Walter Görisch (Alzey-Worms district) appealed for a broader financial framework for regional management in order to further develop wine tourism. "Our wines are great, the growth in tourism is developing positively and culture has also started. We should continue to develop our network in order to survive in the competition of wine tourism destinations, "says Görisch.

Sarah Staub from inspektour tourism and regional development from Hamburg gave insights into current market research results of the study "Destination Brand" - a representative online survey with around 1,000 respondents. 62% of respondents are familiar with Rheinhessen, ranking the region number 6 among the 13 German wine-growing regions and even able to improve by 5% compared to the last survey. 45% like Rheinhessen, 29% would like to choose Rheinhessen as a short trip destination and 19% could even imagine a longer trip to the region. The respondents give Rhinehessen a high level of expertise in the wine sector: around 55% associate Rheinhessen with wine, 41% are interested in a wine trip, while the topic of culture currently has a downstream significance. 25% of respondents consider Rheinhessen suitable for a cultural trip. "Use your potentials to provide you with opportunities for holidays that have a lot of opportunities, such as: To combine culinary, city tourism, rural holidays or even nature experiences. "Dust motivated the participants.

Volker Gallé, spokesman of the working group Rheinhessen culture, gave an outlook on the necessary measures to professionalise the cultural sector in Rheinhessen. A project is currently underway in the context of the LEADER funding program of the EU at the Rhinehessen level: The master plan "Network Culture" should point out possible structures for the region and in the end also prepare and implement them politically. "For the cultural sector, there are no professional structures in Rheinhessen to implement joint projects. At regional level, there is a need for networking, coordination and advice, but there is a lack of implementers and carers, "Gallé said.

Christine Wingert from the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft in Bonn showed models of urban-rural cooperation with a view of different cultural regions and provided insights into possible forms of networking and structures. As prerequisites for successful networks, common ideas, tasks and a common philosophy are as important as a cooperative attitude, networked thinking and a dialogue of all actors at eye level. "With all this, of course, the equipment with appropriate resources must not be missing," said Wingert to consider.

A panel discussion with the tourism representatives of the cities of Alzey (Elena Anesiadis), Bingen (Georg Sahnen), Mainz (Philipp Meier), Worms (Bernd Leitner) and the regional agency Rheinhessen (Christian Halbig) gave insights into the flagship project "Target group oriented cultural tourism" of the tourism strategy Rheinhessen 2025. Together, seven "lighthouses" were defined for marketing, which have sufficient clout to survive in the competition and also have a relevance for the selected target groups in the Rheinhessen tourism: the Dome in Mainz and Worms, the Main ...