The Haunoldstein beautification and village renewal association is dedicated to the history of the Bründlkapelle. To mark the 100th anniversary of the chapel and the local spring, the story of its creation and importance is to be elaborated together with local historian Dr Gerhard Flossmann.

Approximately 600 asylum seekers and recognised asylum seekers currently live in the Wachau-Dunkelsteinerwald region. Building on the work done in the asylum and integration coordination project, targeted measures and offers should be put in place to improve the integration of people who fled to us in recent years. A central role will be accorded to the people already well advanced in the integration process.

UNESCO’s Wachau World Heritage Site clocks up about 490,000 overnight stays every year in the summer season. However, not only are the many offers in summer gaining in importance but so is the growth in activity in the off-peak tourist seasons. This is having an initial positive effect towards extending the season in the Wachau, which already runs beyond the end of October. Some establishments continue to be open at this time or have developed entirely into year-round enterprises. The pilot run of the “Wachau Advent” is intended to create a stimulus for staying longer in the region in addition to the existing attractions.

In the municipality of Dunkelsteinerwald, there are three “centres” – Gansbach, Gerolding and Mauer – which constantly gives rise to conflicts. With this challenge in mind, the municipality would like to elaborate a long-term development strategy together with the citizens of all these settlements. A professionally competent company should be commissioned to support the process and create the necessary strategy.

Status: withdrawn The Castle Association is equipping the Raimondosteig, a loop hiking trail around the Hohenegg castle ruins, with information boards about the castle’s history and also inviting the residents of Hafnerbach to submit their ideas for coming up with and elaborating topics. Franz Pötscher from the office for museum concepts and consulting is supporting the process because the outcomes should also flow into the new local history museum.

Over the coming three years, the Danube Lower Austrian Visitors` Ring will be organising a comprehensive package of qualification measures with training courses, workshops and excursions in a LEADER cooperation project for establishments in the Wachau and Nibelungengau. The landlords should be provided with business training and prepared for future challenges. The changing needs of guests as a result of demographic changes should be identified and the offer adjusted to Holiday on the Farm establishments, vineyards and private room landlords.

In recent years, the regions of the Wachau and the Dunkelsteinerwald focused on the topic of hiking. Following preparatory work in the Jauerling-Wachau Nature Park (parts of the hiking system there were later emphasised in the so-called Jauerling-Runde), the World Heritage Trail, a 180 kilometre-long, long-distance hiking trail on both banks of the Danube opened in 2010 after an intensive planning phase and became a pioneering project both at home and abroad. Based on the success of the World Heritage Trail, the Dunkelsteinerwald-Runde was planned and implemented in the years that followed and thus complements the overall trail network of 30 stages and probably the biggest non-alpine hiking centre in Central Europe.

With the support of its members, the Hafnerbach Energy Group defined green energy generation sites in the municipality, combined them into an energy hiking trail and also designed and implemented information portals. The trail was opened as part of a hiking day.

In recent years, a number of initiatives have established themselves in the region in late autumn and winter which have had a very positive impact on the development of tourism and thus on extending the season. Apart from the long-distance hiking trail “World Heritage Trail Wachau”, which can be easily hiked even in the colder months thanks to the mild climate, numerous cultural initiatives, such as “ELIT” (European literature days), “Wachau in Echtzeit” (Wachau in Real Time - curated by Ursula Strauss) as well as many Advent markets and culinary events have become established. The implementation of the mobility concept (bus connections) means that all municipalities in the region can now also be easily reached without a car.

The municipalities of Mautern, Bergern, Furth, Rossatz-Arnsdorf and Schönbühel-Aggsbach will be intensifying their collaboration over the coming years and focusing on the common positioning of the south bank. Under the direction of Martin Vogg, who was previously responsible for the project Wachau 2010 plus, existing offers should be combined with new ones and wrapped up into bookable packages, starting with the two locations of Maria Langegg and the Aggsbach Charterhouse.