"Overtourism" is a buzzword that is often used in connection with Dürnstein. The historic town centre is one of the best-known sights of the Wachau World Heritage Site. However, the old town is absolutely overrun at certain times. Various measures on every level should help to avoid conflicts and ease the current situation.

Exercise and sport play an important role in maintaining life-long health, yet studies show a lack of exercise and sport in the Austrian population. The “Melk Exercise Park” is intended to help change this failing in Melk and the surrounding area in a completely accessible way.

Krems-Stein, the idyllic twin town, is considered to be the "Gateway to the Wachau" and a pioneering model of monument management with World Heritage status. At the same time, however, the town’s more recent history – and above all its contemporary history – is marred by numerous dark spots.

The Wachau region was inscribed in the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites as a continuing cultural landscape in 2000. Little is known about the value of World Heritage, in particular the “OUV - outstanding universal value”. A major awareness-raising campaign is intended to change this and specifically address the population. The knowledge and importance of the Wachau Cultural Landscape should be imbued in the population as a way of getting everyone to handle this World Heritage site with greater sensitivity.

SANLAS Holding is looking to integrate the private gardens of Hollenburg Private Clinic into the regional tourism offering. In cooperation with the local tourism agency, Donau Niederösterreich Tourismus GmbH, a master plan is to be created that defines how the gardens and the publicly accessible infrastructure of the clinic can be used.

The historic town of Dürnstein, with its many iconic buildings of historic importance, such as the blue tower of the abbey church or the castle ruins, has been a hotspot of activity in the Wachau tourism region from day one. The limited space available, the lack of coordination between the visiting times of different tour operators and the many options available for coming to visit the town all result in very high visitor numbers. This is creating an ever stronger sense of exploitation amongst the town’s few permanent residents (according to a recent count, only 93 people live within the town walls) and of being a stranger in one’s own home.

The World Heritage Centre at the boat station in Stein, in the municipality of Krems, was opened in September 2011. Ever since then, it has proven to be extraordinarily stable in terms of its design and substance. However, seven years later, some of the information is no longer up to date and a few things have happened in the region in recent years that are not represented on the information panels in the World Heritage Centre.

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.

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.

The Management Plan for the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Wachau was presented at Göttweig Abbey on 29 March 2017.