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.

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 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 has several attractive town, small-scale and regional museums that cast light on and provide information about a range of cultural aspects. Some were revised, extended or completely recreated within the scope of Wachau 2010plus.

As a historic cultural landscape, the Wachau is overflowing with heritage-listed buildings. In addition to the refurbishment of venerable buildings, Wachau 2010plus also enabled the implementation of projects in the area of gardening and cultural heritage.

With the overall cultural tourism package based on the Aggsbach Charterhouse, the former place of activity of the Carthusians, Aggsbach Dorf, aims at positioning itself as a tourist destination on the south bank of the Danube. Existing sights will be integrated into an overall concept as a way to attract more visitors.

An important objective of Wachau 2010plus was to balance out the tourist season in the Wachau. To this end, a number of events were conceived and implemented that had a big impact on increasing the number of overnight stays from October to December. From the outset, joint ventures were sought with the existing festival organisers Kultur Melk GmbH (Wachau Kultur Melk GmbH since 2012) and NÖ Festival GmbH in Krems.

Several publications were produced within the scope of Wachau 2010plus. Some of the publications are about independent projects, others are about project-supporting activities, such as catalogues or educational material.