The spreewald water landscape

After spending the first day with the product side of regional marketing, in the afternoon we continued with the professional excursion programme more on the tourist service delivery. As was already mentioned, the Spreewald is nerved by hundreds of side channels, the so called “Fliesse“.

This river landscape is one of the most beautiful as well as one of the most unique nature reserves in Europe. The terms Spree (the river) and Wald (forest) embrace a rugged inland delta with a network of several hundred kilometres of branching water paths in a very small area. In former times, people had to rely on their boats for their daily commuting to work or for transporting larger objects.

Nowadays the traditional “Kähne“ have become the most important tourist attraction in the region. More than 750 coxswains earn their living during the summer season by poling their boats through the wonderful quiet and natural landscape. Naturally, also on the boats the combination of regional tourism and products had to be present. To accompany a good beer nothing is better than Spreewälder Cucumbers. Before arrival we still learned about the cooperative organisation of the coxswains, a traditional handicraft that had developed from a part-time activity to the main occupation and source of income for several hundreds of families in the Spreewald. Products and services have been combined to a win-win-situation, which is successful, but has to be constantly cultivated in a more and more fierce competition on the tourism market.