A sauna in the apartment, a footbridge leading from the house to the water. A boat is also available. In the apartment “waterworks“ You can feel comfortable on the former factory site between Bahnhofstraße and Havel by Roland Haeßler and Svenja Meinecke in Werder (Havel) in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district. It’s quiet, there’s a clear view of the water at the back, and the neighbors are separated by a screen. To make guests feel even more comfortable, the business partners had a sauna installed – the district also paid for it.
Since 2009, owners of holiday apartments and rooms as well as campsites in Potsdam-Mittelmark have been able to apply for special funding if they want to invest in the quality of their accommodation. The “Promotion of small-scale measures to increase the quality of tourist accommodation“ covers half of the costs, for example for a walk-in shower, new beds or a new sauna. There is a maximum of 5000 euros per year per project. The upper limit is 10,000 euros within six years.
Havelland is particularly popular with tourists
Potsdam-Mittelmark is largely alone with such funding directly from the district. Although there are elsewhere Promotion of tourist offers. In this specific form, however, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the State Tourism Association are not aware of any in other circles.
With 1,168,252 overnight stays in 2022, the Havelland ranks fifth after Potsdam in the ranking of the most popular travel areas in the state. This puts it in the upper half of the travel areas, according to Ronny Korbaniak, Managing Director of the Brandenburg State Tourism Association. Ahead are the Spreewald with 2,132,223 overnight stays, the Oder-Spree lake district (2,072,310) and the Ruppiner lake district (1,355,938). “The Havelland has a network of 793 kilometers of cycle paths and scores with cultural highlights such as the Castle Festival at Ribbeck Castle.”
According to the association, Werder is one of the most popular travel destinations in the country. “The historic old town on the island, the Havel landscape, the fruit and wine-growing tradition and the proximity to Berlin and Potsdam attract hundreds of thousands of guests to the city of flowers every year,” says Korbaniak. With 314,000 overnight stays, the level of overnight stays can be compared to other tourist locations in the state such as Templin, Bad Saarow, Senftenberg and Lübbenau. Based on the number of overnight stays, Potsdam (1,209,022), Burg im Spreewald (532,134), Schönefeld (464,238) and Rheinsberg (435,568) are the most popular places in Brandenburg.
Accommodation urgently needed
The funding guideline for additional tourist luxury was created in 2009 on the occasion of the German Hiking Day. Due to the many visitors, accommodation was urgently needed. In the beginning it was all about the creation of accommodation, but today the grant is intended to increase the quality. According to the district, 267 projects have been approved since 2009, 223 of them for 162 different accommodations. So far, a total of 1.45 million euros in funding has resulted in 2.5 million euros in investments. “In 2022, 17 applicants received a grant notice to upgrade their holiday accommodation or to implement small infrastructural measures,” said district spokeswoman Andrea Metzler.
Christine Steinbach from the Tourist Information Werder says that holiday apartments and rooms are absolutely important, alongside hotels and guesthouses, in order to accommodate the tourists who come to the city of blossoms. There are around 180 private accommodations in Werder. Five hotels and four guesthouses with a total of around 1847 beds. The accommodations are well booked. 2019 was a record year. In 2022 you can almost get there again. However, current figures are still missing.
Roland Haeßler and Svenja Meinecke cannot complain about missing guests either. The coming season from March to the end of October is almost completely booked.
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