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.

The DANUBEparksCONNECTED project promoted by the "Danube Transnational Programme" runs from 2017 to 2019 and aims at counteracting the fragmentation of habitats along the Danube. The DANUBE HABITAT CORRIDOR campaign is designed to retain important habitats and their connections to each other by means of a Danube-wide strategy and initial pilot measures. A special focus lies on the island habitats of the Danube, the riparian forests and dry grasslands.

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.

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 European Diploma for Protected Areas is doubtless one of the most valuable awards that can be bestowed upon a region. Awards can be given to sufficiently protected natural and cultural landscapes – in the case of the Wachau, the designation of the valley as a landscape conservation area is the gentlest possible but nevertheless sufficient level of protection – above all due to their special quality in scientific, cultural, aesthetic and/or recreational terms.

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.

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

The Wachau project is the first LIFE project implemented in the region whose goal was to conserve the region’s most endangered habitats. This resulted in three focal points: Lively Danube, dry grasslands and natural forest.

Through the provision of a development plan, Wachau Zones enable the municipalities to determine possible development in historically valuable settlement areas more precisely than with conventional methods. The concept of the Wachau Zones is therefore one of the central elements for preserving the building culture typically found in the Wachau as a World Heritage Site.