Tourism and recreation

The Rhön should continue to serve recreational purposes. Attempts must be made to promote kinds of recreation which constitute a small burden to the ecosystems and protect the recreational quality of the landscape (landscape esthetics, silence, closeness to nature and diversity). The intact nature and landscape of the Rhön is the most important capital for the further development of tourism in the area.

The Rhön must preserve and constantly foster the individual character and qualities of its landscape if it wants to survive the competition by other recreational regions ("land of open expanses"). Holiday-makers should get to know landscape, nature, culture and people living in the Rhön. The already existing variety in accommodation and catering should therefore be maintained, im-proved from a qualitative point of view and be extended from the point of view of quantity to medium-sized companies. The title"biosphere reserve" should set quality standards oriented towards the environment also for the infrastructure and supra-company offers at the level of municipalities and of the region. The contribution of tourism to regional added value must be increased, especially by creating a stronger link between offers made by restaurants and products from the region. Conflicts caused by holiday traffic and leisure time activities which are of detriment to the environment should be avoided by specific informative, control-ling and shifting activities. Sensitive areas with a high value for nature conservation should be kept free of recreational activities as much as possible. Leisure time activities which constitute a heavy burden to the ecosystems, the landscape esthetics or calm recreation activities in harmony with nature should not be promoted in the Rhön and if they cannot be avoided should be controlled in a very careful manner.

The infrastructure for leisure time activi-ties and tourism should primarily concentrate on the central tourist municipalities and the regional centres for leisure time and recreational activities. The tourism sector should be much more intertwined with services provided by local firms from agriculture, crafts and trade. The development of the Rhön for tourism should be achieved with traffic and transport systems which are as environmentally compatible as possible. The following measures are proposed for the further development of tourism: Improvement or development of tourist offers, especially by improving the structure of company sizes, extending the number of holiday apartments offered, expanding and improving the quality of conference centres as well as strengthening the profile of the catering trade (gas-tronomy with a regional flavour). Strengthening marketing activities in the sector of tourism to improve cooperation between suppliers within the region and to increase the number of tourists especially to open up new target groups for "gentle tourism". Improving what is on offer in the field of education and the provision of information in the sectors of nature conservation, landscape maintenance, agriculture, underlining standards of an environmentally friendly catering trade and gastronomy (especially the gastronomy which is typical for the region and is based on products from local farms with naturally compatible production methods). Steering holiday traffic by means of broad-range public relations work, steering of visitors, offers made by local public transportation systems.