Unless the Hochheimer Markt attracts up to 500,000 people within five days or tens of thousands flock to the picturesque streets for the wine festival, the wine and sparkling wine town of Hochheim has, compared to the Rheingau strongholds, been asleep in the past few decades.

The city counts 800,000 visitors annually, including only 40,000 overnight guests.

Heike Lattka

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Main-Taunus-Kreis.

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But despite the remarkable Enderle frescoes in the Church of St. Peter and Paul, the historic and award-winning vineyards that even Queen Victoria of England visited, a modern art collection, Bonifatiusroute and Main Cycle Route, which lead directly through Hochheim, the city neglected its marketing for a long time .

That’s over now.

A tourist office opened this summer.

In addition, a catastrophic condition for the Rheingau - the closure of the Salzbachtal bridge - proves to be a stroke of luck for Hochheim.

While the hosts and organizers in the Rheingau complain about failures due to the detours that visitors have to accept because of the closures for a visit, apparently more tourists from Frankfurt and the surrounding area are coming to the picturesque town north of the A 66. The day trippers are now staying at the gate to the Rheingau.

Helpful tips and regional products

The new guests can always find a contact person in the city: The tourist office on the ground floor of the town hall, Burgeffstrasse 30, is open seven days a week;

At the weekend, two specially trained temporary staff provide information on Saturdays from 12 noon to 5 p.m. and on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A guide to the 16 ostrich taverns is available;

Hochheim has a total of 35 restaurants.

The tourist office provides information on current cultural offers. In addition, visitors receive suggestions for routes through the neighboring regional park and for city walks. In addition, fruit spreads made especially for the Hochheimers, Gepa coffee with a Hochheim motif and, of course, wines are sold. When selecting the products, special attention was paid to regionality in order to set an example and to underline the connection with Hochheim and the region, explained the head of the tourist office, Kerstin Koschnitzki.

The vinotheque, which is stocked by 20 Hochheim wineries, is a special gem. In the open bar, the Hochheimers always serve the coronation wine of their reigning wine queen. Otherwise, a weekly change in the open wine selection is planned. Small wine tastings and other events should take place there as soon as the pandemic allows again, reports Koschnitzki.

The fact that things are suddenly moving forward with city marketing in Hochheim can be traced back to the former mayor Angelika Munck (Free Voters), who repeatedly addressed the topic of tourism in the election campaign and in the city parliament.

Munck remembers that she had to drill very thick boards back then.

There was always a lack of money to promote professional city marketing.

But with André Krams she not only brought a new press spokesman to the town hall, but also made the young man head of city marketing, which gave the topic a new impetus.

The efforts are now bearing fruit.

Finally, there is also an awareness in the city council of what a beautiful city you live in, says Munck.

Use tourism for the good of the city

Successor Dirk Westedt (FDP) clearly sees the advantages of professionalized city marketing: the clear goal is to preserve and improve the trademark wine and sparkling wine city, according to the mayor. Thanks to its good transport links and its central location in the middle of the Rhine-Main area, Hochheim is in an excellent starting position to use tourism for the good of the city.

Krams sees advertising for local recreation guests as an economic factor. This would not only support winemakers and restaurateurs. A wide variety of companies and industries benefited from the guests. That is why the people of Hochheim have long since entered into cooperation with the tourism information centers in Wiesbaden, Mainz, Eltville, Geisenheim and even Frankfurt. In Hochheim they hope to be able to build a network from which everyone ultimately benefits equally.

According to Munck, an important step has been taken with the tourist office. But the city could not be satisfied with that alone. In view of the tight financial situation of the city, creativity is all trump card. It is important to keep reinventing yourself. The future Boris Becker tennis academy with a small fan museum, which should give the wine town an international flair, will probably also contribute to this. While building work is still going on on the former Tetra Pak site, city leaflets in English have long been available.