Abstract. Tourists nowadays search for authentic and interesting experiences and acitivities in a destination. The project FLOW.NRW wants to present the federal state North Rhine-Westphalia as an attractive urban destination and as a living space with a high quality of life in international competition. It aims to attract people to discover the numerous facets of the various cities with its cultural, creative and digital potential. In contrast to the previous project #urbanana, the project approach in FLOW.NRW is now extended to the regional centres outside the Rhine-Ruhr region. The objective of this study therefore is to investigate the potential of the regional centers included, how an integration into the project can be successful and what potential for the future of the project can result from this.

The data is collected via a short preliminary study with the three project partners Köln Tourismus, Düsseldorf Tourismus and Ruhr Tourismus as well with qualitative guideline-interviews with seven experts from the regional centers. After the evaluation with the method GABEK it turns out that the regional centers offer a lot of potential which can be communicated into the project. Especially within the threads Culture and Design exist many linkages, whereby the digital scene is still developable.

The study has practical implications since it highlights the potentials of the cities and helps the project management to develop the project further, get better connections to the cities and thus to create a working network which strengthens the whole federal state NRW as a travel destination.