Manuel Woltering

Dr. Manuel Woltering is a researcher at the Chair of Human Geography, Institute of Geography and Geology, Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg. His work focuses on economic geography, particularly leisure and tourism research in protected areas, regional economics, and sustainable development. He is based in Würzburg, Germany, and can be contacted via email at manuel.woltering@uni-wuerzburg.de.

Education:

• Diplom-Geograph in Economic Geography, Economics, and Political Science (2001-2007), Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich
• Dr. rer. nat. (2011), Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg

Research Interests:

• Economic impact of tourism in protected areas (national parks, biosphere reserves, nature parks)
• Total Economic Valuation (TEV) of natural landscapes
• Socioeconomic monitoring systems for conservation
• Visitor travel distance analysis and spatial economics
• Protected area branding and sustainable development

Current Projects:

• Regional economic effects of sustainable tourism in nature parks (2020-2025, funded by UFOPLAN)
• Economic effects of tourism in Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park (2021-2023)
• Regional economic effects in the Berchtesgadener Land Biosphere Reserve (2021-2022)
• Regional economic effects in Hamburg and Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Parks (2018-2022)

Key Contributions:

• Development of standardized methods for visitor and economic impact analysis
• Extrapolation techniques for national-level assessments of nature parks
• Collaboration with international organizations (UNESCO, IUCN) on conservation economics
• Integration of social media data for visitor provenance estimation