Mobility management and -service for an environmentally friendly excursion and short trip traffic in the district of Wernigerode

Initial point of the project was the impending loss of relevance of the Ostharz as vacation site through increasing numbers of daily visitors and weekend vacationers. Associated with that are - because of the dominance of cars on excursions - ecological consequences as well as the impairment of the recreational aspect. Goal of the project was to structure the further development of tourism in the Ostharz region actively, thus on the one hand to increase attractiveness and at the same time to secure the recreational aspect by implementing an environmentally friendly mobility management.

Therefore, the project's main objective is to develop a target-group-specific mobility management for environmentally friendly excursions and short trip traffic based on the example of the district of Wernigerode (Harz-Region). The project is commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

The main topics are:

Improvement of the delivery of information and of the presentation concerning mobility and leisure
Optimisation of service- and leisure-supply
Development of a multi-modal mobility-supply
Optimisation of the traffic-supply, especially with respect to public transportation (event-orientated journeys and departures as well as mobility within the district)

Within this project, sociologists and psychologists are working together with planners and computer scientists as well as practice partners - an almost unique constellation. Sociological and technical competencies will have an equal amount of influence.

The project started with broad desk research by the ISOE, which explored the state of the art in the area of target-group-specific leisure mobility and drew conclusions for the on going of MobiHarz. A summary of implemented measures is also part of this investigation.

An abstract is available under http://www.isoe.de/literat/kurzdp18.htm

The empirical part of the project is done with the help of a "several-step design" that contains both quantitative and qualitative interviews in Wernigerode and its catchment area.

First of all, 11 interviews with experts and 70 qualitative interviews with Harz-visitors were conducted.

These qualitative explorations give an overview about the motivational aspects of their trip to the Harz and the implementation of plans. Additionally, the interviews helped to find out about social background and personal circumstances, and show lifestyle-specific attitudes and general orientations concerning leisure, trips and holiday arrangements of the Harz-visitors. Furthermore, the acceptance, usage and desires regarding information patterns and preferred information-mediawere investigated.

In addition, the qualitative material helps to construct first hypotheses regarding the uncoupling of mobility and auto-mobility in the Harz. On the other hand, the respondent's everyday expressions are useful for the development of the following questionnaire for the quantitative survey.

The next step was to carry out two extensive, standardized surveys: one surveying visitors of the Eastern Harz Mountains region (completed by the Planer Society, Dortmund); the other surveying daily visitors and short vacations to the region under investigation. Using both sets of data – relevant item batteries were instituted – it was possible to work out a typology, one based on general life-style orientations and specific orientations toward leisure time mobility.

Results

Through a clustering the following groups took shape:

The Open Type
The Conventional Type
The Unobtrusive Type
The Risk Oriented Type
The Safety Oriented Type
The Nature Loving Type
The Fun Oriented Type

As target groups, in particular the following can be noted: the "Nature Loving Type," because of their love to nature; the "Safety Oriented Type," due to their wish to avoid all risks (including driving car into an unknown area); the "Open Type," in light of their pragmatic choice of means of transportation; and the "Fun Oriented Type," because of their affinity as urbanites for local public transport.

The other groups display a strong orientation toward the car, and therefore are not included among the main target groups. They could, however, due to their special preferences in certain areas, become target groups.

The mobility style analysis approach depicts a device, which supports practice oriented persons in tourism, transportation companies and planning in designing measures and offers so that these will be put to use and thereby achieve a higher economic capacity. The knowledge about different attitude and assessment patterns of the target groups is helpful in strengthening wanted orientations with measures and dismantling of attitudes depending on user barriers.

For achieving the implementation of the chosen approach, the target groups were presented to other participants in the project and other interested parties within the county of Wernigerode, and for each type, by addressing their specific orientation, ideas for products and services were worked out with respect to arrival, mobility in the area, information and service, and activities within the Eastern Harz Mountains. The target group model serves here as a framework for the development of target specific and practice oriented measures and offers, in the area of bicycle and pedestrian traffic and Rübelandbahn; as well as for the design of information material and services.

Results of the project were to design an implementation of new offers, e.g.. a bicycle and mountainbike path-concept including signage and the design of a brochure. But also existing offers were tested in reference to their target-group-acceptance, e.g.. the HarzTourCard - Tourist-combination-ticket for personal transportation and reduced entrance fee cards or the information leaflet of the HarzTourService (http://www.harztourservice.de), and target group specific improvements and differentiations could be identified.

The insight and the precise target specific design of offers in the Ostharz are also transferable onto other tourist regions with similar profile.

Please consult the German version of the project description for available material.

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Mobility management and -service for an environmentally friendly excursion and short trip traffic in the district of Wernigerode

Results