Nature Tourism in Germany's Protected Areas

Germany as an incoming tourism destination is well-known for its cultural attractions, although it also has a long tradition as a nature tourism destination. However, this tradition is based mostly on the domestic market and on day-trips in the surroundings of urban agglomerations. Nowadays, most nature tourism destinations in Germany are located inside or nearby protected areas. The system of large-scale protected areas in Germany consists of 16 national parks, 17 biosphere reserves and 103 nature parks covering nearly 30% of the German land surface. Nevertheless, the majority of these protected areas have been designated after tourism development had been in place for decades. Thus, not all nature tourism activities taking place in these destinations could be assigned to protected areas. However, the economic impact analyses of German protected area tourism prove that they play a very important role for nature tourism in the mostly rural periphery.