Tourismuspolitik am Scheideweg?! – Reflektionen für neue Narrative in Freizeit, Tourismus und Hospitality

The leisure, tourism and hospitality industry in Germany has been complaining about some time about the lack of appreciation on the part of tourism policy-makers from the local to the federal level – despite increased and rising key tourism figures. On the one hand, one reason may be the high number of crises – polycrisis – that both the industry and society are facing. On the other hand, the industry is realising that existing narratives are no longer achieving the desired level of attention – the narrative of tourism as an economic factor seems to be over, but at least in a state of flux. The question therefore arises as to what possible new narratives in the sense of the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) could look like in order to gain the necessary attention and thus the desired appreciation in the tourism policy discourse. The starting point for the considerations discussed is Bavaria as the number one tourism state in Germany, which acts as a benchmark in many respects and formulates a claim to leadership in German tourism based on its own self-image.