Development Strategy for the Theme Trail 'Black Forest Spa Trail', Germany
Client:
DMO Black Forest
Brief project description:
The Black Forest Spa Trail ('Schwarzwald Bäderstraße') is a 270 km circular route running between the gold city of Pforzheim and Freudenstadt, passing classic spas and health resorts in the northern Black Forest. The only evidence remaining of the tourist road, which was launched in 1970, is the signage. Responsibility for marketing lies with the DMO Black Forest and the individual towns.
The Northern Black Forest Tourist Action Alliance concluded that the Northern Black Forest is ideal for health tourism. The revamp of the route will demonstrate whether the area still warrants this label and whether the concept is sustainable.
Key elements of the project:
- Investigate the current situation and potential themes for reorientation, taking into account community expectations
- Evaluation of regional studies and research on current trends, target group profiles for health tourism, the situation of competitors and examples of best practice
- Presentation of possible positioning and thematic scenarios, including how they differ from other themed trails
- Proposals for strategic repositioning including a detailed definition of the target groups, the main topics and a new market presence with logo and name
- Development of staging and product opportunities along the trail, including offers and quality criteria
- Development of a strategic marketing concept for the trail
- Proposals for reorganising and financing the trail