Research projects

Surveys show that events are among the most popular vacation activities and can have a positive impact on local tourism. The project examines the influence of major European events on vacation travel planning. The investigation is carried out as part of a quantitative survey.

The German Institute for Tourism Research (DI Tourismusforschung) and the Institute for the Transformation of the Energy System (ITE) at the FH Westküste University of Applied Sciences are working on a joint project with the Federal Association of the Camping Industry in Germany (BVCD) on the regenerative orientation of campsite energy systems.

The aim of the project is to measure awareness of the "Energy Coast" as a tourist destination. With the help of a population-representative survey, different terms of the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein are tested for their familiarity and popularity and assessments of characteristics are surveyed.

Hiking has become a popular outdoor activity in Germany. In a situation where some experts are even talking about a "hiking boom" or a "redynamization of hiking tourism", more and more destinations have discovered hiking as a theme. During the Covid-19 pandemic, spending time in nature and activities such as hiking have received a further boost.

With the growing social demand that the contribution of tourism goes far beyond its economic significance and should also contribute to the quality of life of local people, interest in the local perspective has become the focus of tourism research. The Tourism Acceptance Study was the first comprehensive study to determine the effects of tourism on the local population in their own place of residence.

The German Institute for Tourism Research at the FH Westküste University of Applied Sciences is working on a joint project with the Federal Association of German Bus Companies (bdo) and KRAVAG-LOGISTIC Versicherungs-AG on the demand for coach travel in Germany.

Overcrowded beaches, queues of tourists in front of attractions and full parking lots - a picture that often presents itself in Schleswig-Holstein as a popular vacation destination. How can tourist hotspots be identified at an early stage and how can we use digital solutions to offer alternative excursion destinations in order to equalize tourist flows in terms of time and space?

As awareness of sustainability grows, more and more companies are publishing corporate social responsibility reports (CSR reports) to explain their sustainable actions. The phenomenon of greenwashing is also frequently investigated in connection with CSR reports, but the topics of CSR report quality and greenwashing have not yet been linked.

Camping vacations and motorhome trips in particular have enjoyed increasing popularity among Germans for years. The Covid-19 pandemic has had little impact on this trend, quite the opposite: the flexibility and independence that comes from taking your own vacation accommodation with you has given this type of vacation a decisive advantage.

The maturity model Smart Destination was developed with partners from all tourism regions in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was commissioned by Tourismus NRW e.V. as part of the Smart Destination cluster, which was part of the funded project "Tourist data management NRW: open, networked, digital". After the end of the implementation period in May 2023, the maturity model will be further developed by the German Institute for Tourism Research and in cooperation with the Tourismus NRW e.V....

Anonymized geolocation events from smartphone applications promise a potentially good application for tourism, but at the same time there are few tried and tested use cases in tourism research. CRUISE aims to use anonymized geolocation events to obtain information about the spatiotemporal behaviour of cruise tourists in Hamburg.

As part of a three-year research project funded by the Norwegian Research Council, the German Institute for Tourism Research at the FH Westküste University of Applied Sciences is working with its partner university, the University of Southeast Norway (USN) in Norway, and Color Line AS as a practice partner to investigate the reactions of Norwegians and Germans to potential climate-friendly adjustments in short sea shipping in terms of demand (volume) and willingness to pay.