Digital Sustainability Guide for Destinations (NaWeDe)

Project description

Through the NaWeDe research project (Digital Sustainability Guide for Destinations), the German Institute for Tourism Research at FH Westküste University of Applied Sciences, in close collaboration with the Deutscher Tourismusverband (DTV) and the Schleswig-Holstein Tourism Association (TVSH), an AI-powered knowledge hub to support sustainable tourism development in the DACH region. The project’s goal is to make practical knowledge, best practices, and proven measures for sustainable destination development accessible to tourism stakeholders in a structured, user-friendly, and digital format. Against the backdrop of growing challenges such as climate change, resource consumption, declining public acceptance of tourism, and the limited human and financial resources of many destinations, NaWeDe is designed to help facilitate targeted sustainable transformation processes in tourism. Existing knowledge on measures and solutions has often been decentralized, inconsistent, and not very visible. At the same time, gaps in knowledge and action persist within the industry, as does limited use of AI-supported applications. As part of the project, sustainable measures and best practices from tourism stakeholders will therefore be systematically collected, categorized, and converted into a machine-readable data schema. Building on this, an interactive knowledge hub with an integrated AI-based recommendation system will be created, offering users personalized recommendations for action and guidance. Additionally, features for networking and knowledge transfer among tourism stakeholders are planned. The development of the platform will be monitored and evaluated through needs assessments, focus groups, interviews, surveys, and user tests.