www.danube-river.org. Despite differing economic and political systems, seven of the then eight states along the Danube joined together in 1970 to form a tourism marketing association. The aim which united them was to make the Danube region–defined as a seventy-kilometer (forty three-mile) wide band along both banks of the great river–better known internationally and to promote tourism in the area. In 1998 the Danube Tourist Commission extended its activities to include the Main-Danube Canal.
Today the Danube Tourist Commission brings together countries with such varied histories as Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia (since 1998), and Romania (membership resumed in 1999). In 2002, Yugoslavia, now Serbia, became a member once again. Casinos Austria AG participates in the Commission’s work as a supporting member. Bulgaria’s membership is currently suspended; Ukraine and Moldova are not yet members of the Commission. Today members can look back on over thirty years’ experience of working together in a remarkably unbureaucratic manner.
In December 2004, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia joined the Danube Tourist Commission as a supporting member. Bonaventura Cruises, managed by Dutch ship-owners, Jan C. van den Engel and Herman H. Weulen Kranenberg, has been a supporting member of the Danube Tourist Commission since 2005. The company specializes in the British and Dutch markets.
The Danube Tourist Commission was founded at a time when no one could foresee the fall of the Iron Curtain, and it can thus justly claim to be the first tourism organization in the world to have spanned the great political and ideological divide. The Danube Tourist Commission is organized officially as an association. Member states are represented by their national tourism organizations. They are helped in their work by supporting members, currently Casinos Austria,, the Serbian Chamber of Industry and Commerce and Bonaventura Cruises. The Danube Tourist Commission is financed by membership dues.
The Danube Tourist Commission established partnerships in 2004 with the Working Community of Danubian Regions, (ARGE DonaulÙ†nder) Institute for the Danube and Central Europe (IDM), International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR), Tina Vienna Transport Strategies/Corridor VII Management, and Route of Emperors and Kings Marketing Association. The Commission is also member of the Vienna UNESCO association.
President of the Danube Tourist Commission since December 1996 has been Mr. Gerhard Skoff of Casinos Austria. The president is assisted by two deputies, Knud JÙÂrgen from the German National Tourist Office in Vienna and Sabine Holzmann of the Austrian National Tourist Office also in Vienna, who together comprise the managing board. The office of the secretary general headed by Ursula Deutsch are located in Vienna at Margaretenstrasse 1, A-1040 Vienna (Tel.: +43/1/588 66-263, Fax: +43/1/588 66-20).
In 2002, about 10,000 passengers travelled on such cruises, whilst a total of 119,000 guests were recorded on cruise liners between. In 2003 the number rose to 45,000 passengers on Danube delta cruises, and to 130,000 on trips between Passau and Budapest. By October 2004 some 43,000 passengers called at Belgrade, 22,000 at Novi Sad, and approximately 60,000 visited the Romanian Danube delta. In 2004, over 90 cruise liners carrying more than 150,000 passengers plied the Danube, in the 2005 season, this number rose to 100.
The pontoon bridge across the Danube at Novi Sad was dismantled on 7 October 2005, opening the river to unimpeded travel along its entire length to the Delta, and leading to a further increase in cruise traffic: 109 vessels were expected to cruise the Danube in 2006.
The activities of the Danube Tourist Commission range from the creation of a uniform corporate identity symbolized by the distinctive blue Danube wave logo to the production of brochures and media work. The latter includes the publication of the “Danube Press Service†in German, English, French, and Italian. Excursion and cruise ship schedules, yacht guide, overviews of cultural events and the Danube Bicycle Trail are also produced. The Danube Tourist Commission is present on the worldwide web at www.danube-river.org. |
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