Destination “Deutsche Nationalparke” als touristische marke Available to Purchase

National parks are trademarks for unspoilt landscape and authentic nature experience, a quality which is one of the most important competition factors in tourism and which does comply with today's most popular trends in tourism. But up to now the surrounding tourism regions do not use the attraction value of German national parks for their destination marketing. In 2002, the UN‐Year of Ecotourism and the national tourism campain for Germany's natural heritage, made the tourism sector aware of national parks. The situation analysis carried out in German national park regions revealed, that national parks in traditional destinations only play a secondary role, while they are paramount idea for marketing in underdeveloped regions with still modest tourist infrastructure. On the other hand there are medium or even higher developed destinations where national parks are playing a quite dominant role in tourism. The different types of national park regions require different strategies of destination management. As one strategy a corporate identity and policy for creating and establishing a touristic brand “German National Parks” is proposed.