1st European GREEN Conference

23-26 May 2023

Vodice, Croatia

Sustainable mobility linking Danube Travel Stories

Matej MARUŠIĆ 1*, Vlatko ROŽAC 2 and Georg FRANK 3

1
DANUBEPARKS – Danube River Network of Protected Areas, Schloss Orth, Orth
an der Donau, Austrija; m.marusic@danubeparks.org
2
Public institution Nature Park Kopački rit, Mali Sakadaš 1, Kopačevo, Croatia;
vlatko.rozac@pp-kopacki-rit.hr
3
Donau Auen National Park, Schloss Orth, Orth an der Donau, Austria;
g.frank@donauauen.at

Correspondence: m.marusic@danubeparks.org

Abstract: Recognizing the vast cultural and natural heritage of the Danube region,
within the Interreg DTP Transdanube Travel Stories project (July 2020 to December
2022) 6 new narratives and stories were created to support the development of
innovative promotion concepts, and different sustainable mobility management
tools.

New narratives are representing the holistic approach of letting visitors experience
the heritage of a region as one entity transporting values and emotions. They are
meant to link the stories of single destinations and thematically focused routes
with each other, like pieces of a big puzzle, providing the visitor with a bigger
picture under the umbrella of the Danube.

During the project, 6 new tourist trails were developed:

1. Europe of Contrasts (from Linz to Timişoara)
2. Nature Lover (from Kopačevo to Tulcea)
3. Roaming like a Roman (from Regensburg to Zaječar)
4. You had me at Culture (from Ulm to Murska Sobota)
5. Trading Hustle (from Ulm to Bucharest)
6. Soul-searching (from Budapest to Babadag)

DANUBEPARKS worked on the development of Trail #2, which is focused on the

story of the relationship between nature and mankind. The trail is passing through
8 protected areas in 5 Danube countries in the Lower Danube section.
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Vodice, Croatia

Keywords: sustainable
tourism, protected areas,
sustainable mobility, Danube, nature trails

Introduction
//Introduction should refer to previous research results and explain the purpose of
the investigations.

Whereas there are already many initiatives dealing with conservation and research
of the cultural and natural heritage of the Danube Region, the project Sustainable
mobility linking Danube Travel Stories (acronym: Transdanube Travel Stories)
which was co-funded by European Union (Danube Transnational Programme)
promoted sustainable tourism as another important option to use and preserve
this heritage. While European Cultural Routes and other Danube-wide networks
such as DANUBEPARKS – Danube River Network of Protected are already working
to valorise these assets, within this project focus was on the implementation of
innovative promotion concepts (new narratives) and sustainable mobility
management tools.

Selected strategy to promote the Danube macro-region as touristic area was

development of new narratives. Although some single sites do not attract enough
tourists, idea of the project partners was to link selected sites to a story (along a
trail) to achieve higher interest and better understanding of region’s heritage.

There were two main pillars of the project:

1. The integration of mobility management instruments (such as: mobility
managers, mobility centres, mobility plans) in institutional structures at
route and destination level, and
2. The establishment of tourism product clubs at destination level and
improving of thematic and institutional linkages between the European
Cultural Routes and other networks.

The main idea behind this project which was implemented between July 2020 and
December 2022 in the framework of the Danube Transnational Programme with
the overall budget of € 1,820,926.66 was that new narratives and mobility
management together with advanced institutional capacities should provide the
framework to better position the Danube as a unique sustainable tourism
destination on the market. Expected long-term result was to see more European
citizens experiencing European cultural and natural heritage in a sustainable way.

Aim of this paper is to present the whole process behind the development of
narratives, stories and trails during the project, as well as innovative promotion
 1st European GREEN Conference
23-26 May 2023
Vodice, Croatia

tools used to promote

cultural and natural
heritage of the Danube region

Materials and methods

// Experimental part should be written clearly and in sufficient detail to allow the
work to be repeated. Materials and Methods should indicate instruments,
samples, subjects, chemicals, etc., giving enough details only if new methods
and/or procedures and/or principles are used. For the well-known methods and
techniques an adequate reference(s) citation will suffice.

Although the Danube region is hosting rich cultural and natural heritage, the
tourism industry in this area exhibits a pronounced concentration within certain
hotspots1. Visitors tend to allocate only a brief duration to these chosen
destinations, relying mainly on plane and/or car transport. 2 Unfortunately, efforts
to cultivate sustainable approaches for exploitation of the vast tourism potential
remain limited in scope. Moreover, the absence of cohesive linkages among
diverse tourism products prevents the realization of the Danube region's full
touristic significance.

The project addressed the following three challenges:

1. Rich natural and cultural heritage is not yet presented in a way that catches
tourists. Single sites are presented as stand-alone attractions. This is not enough to
inspire tourists to spend a holiday in the region. Today, the presentation of natural
and cultural heritage is fact-oriented and lacks the wider context and experience
of a Danube identity. Thematic connections between destinations are missing.
2. Most trips to the Danube and within the Danube region are carried out by car.
Tourism accounts for about 5% of the world`s total CO2 emissions (of which about
75% are related to transport). Possibilities to travel the Danube region with
sustainable means of transport are limited and information about these offers are
not easy to find. Under these circumstances, an increasing number of tourists
1
Transnational cultural policies for the Danube Region (EUSDR); page 27; available at:
https://rm.coe.int/routes4u-study-eusdr-policies/16809e8553%0A%0A
2
https://pure.buas.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/15672038/Paul_Peeters_et_al_appendix_delivera
ble_1_subject_matter_review.pdf, page 62
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Vodice, Croatia

would
automatically show a high
increase in car use.
3. There is a lack of institutional cooperation (e.g. concept of product clubs not
well known in the middle and lower parts of the Danube) and a lack of capacity
(e.g. inadequate or not exiting visitor management towards lower Danube) to
support sustainable tourism development. Little cooperation at local/regional and
national/transnational level results in single-site offers that lack wider context and
consistent experience. Trans-sectoral cooperation between stakeholders of
routes/destinations (also between themes), tourism and transport is missing.

With a rich know-how of the participating partners (certified European Cultural

Routes and other networks), work plan was developed.

Fig. 1: Partnership composition of the Transdanube Travel Stories project

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Vodice, Croatia

Fig. 2: Work plan for the thematic work packages

The project used the methodology of narratives. Narratives are???###

During the project, experts groups included the heritage of selected sites from the
thematic list of the routes into a story with each site representing one part
of the story.

###List of developed stories:

Resultant, the story leads tourists along a trail consisting of the different sites
arranged in a specific geographical order. Each story includes sites with a clear link
to the Danube. They provide the elements for an over-arching Danube story inter-
connecting the themes of all involved routes. In order to transform stories into
narratives, tools are applied or developed (if not existing yet) that enable the
tourists to experience the content of the story.

###How it was done:

Fig. 3: Diagram of the project development

Example of Returning to the Last Danube story:

Mobility management promotes was tool to promote sustainable transport.

###How mobility managers were trained###
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Vodice, Croatia

Trained mobility managers

informed tourists about
possibilities to travel along this trail and to reach the sites at the respective
destinations (city/town containing one or more heritage sites) with sustainable
means of transport.

###Information on official website

The new narratives and mobility managment are used to develop green travel
products (for each trail).

#List of our Green Travel Products:

#The Danube Travel Challenge will promoted the over-arching Danube narrative.
The new narratives together with MM instruments provide the route management
organisations with powerful tools to promote sustainable tourism.

At destination level, the project strengthens the institutional capacities by

establishing Tourism Product Clubs.

#What are the Tourism Product Clubs???

### List of DANUBEPARKS Product Clubs:

The members of the product clubs translate the narratives into local service offers
and build the link from the heritage to today´s modern life.

Results and discussion

// The information given in tables and figures should not be repeated, and only
relevant data discussed and explained. Combining the results with discussion can
simplify the presentation.

### Results from the Final Report

During the project, 6 new tourist trails were developed:

1. Europe of Contrasts (from Linz to Timişoara)
2. Nature Lover (from Kopačevo to Tulcea)
3. Roaming like a Roman (from Regensburg to Zaječar)
4. You had me at Culture (from Ulm to Murska Sobota)
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Vodice, Croatia

5. Trading Hustle (from Ulm to

Bucharest)
6. Soul-searching (from Budapest to Babadag)

#Story Returning to the Last Danube:

### DANUBEPARKS Product Club Kopački rit:

Conclusions
Conclusions have to briefly explain the significance of the research results.

### What was the biggest challenge and success?

### What should be the follow-up?

### How to replicate methodology??

References