Building in a World Heritage site is a topical issue. Historic settlement areas often present difficult challenges for municipalities and owners. With the help of the Wachau Zones, development plans are elaborated which simplify dealing with historic buildings in line with World Heritage requirements.

In a time when churches are being used less and less as places of worship, adapting them into places of culture and retreat is becoming increasingly important. To mark the 300th anniversary of the painter "Kremser Schmidt", his paintings in Wösendorf parish church were lavishly restored. In order to be able to protect the paintings better for future generations and to make their contents easier to see, a new LED lighting system should be installed.

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.

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.

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.