Communities

Pilot project "Development of guidelines and certification of allergy-friendly communities"

Allergy sufferers still receive too little attention in society – in everyday life at home and also when travelling, even though the number of allergy sufferers in Europe has now reached an average of one per family.

For this reason, the European Centre for Allergy Research Foundation (ECARF) initiated the pilot project „Development of Guidelines and Certification for allergy-friendly communities“.

With support from the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, ECARF is working to develop a catalogue of steps that should make it possible for communities to orient themselves toward the needs of allergic visitors and offer a network of suitable options from various areas of service. These include, for example, hotels, restaurants, cafés, bakeries and supermarkets. The pilot project has the goal of creating quality-controlled, allergy-friendly tourist destinations all across the country. Bad Hindelang in the Allgäu region was chosen as a pilot community, and in May 2011 it was awarded the ECARF Seal of Quality.

In the year 2008, ECARF supported the Baltic Sea resort town of Baabe on the island of Rügen as it adjusted to the needs of allergic visitors as part of a pilot project. ECARF was able to certify Baabe as the first allergy-friendly community worldwide. The experiences and knowledge gathered in the process are now being used in the systematic development of guidelines as part of the certification project in Bad Hindelang. The guidelines for communities will be applicable throughout Germany. ECARF acknowledges that certain measures must be determined individually for specific groups of services such as hotels or restaurants, as they must adhere to varying sets of regulations.

In order to measure the results and consequences of certification for the community of Bad Hindelang and its visitors, the project is assessed by a scientific research team. Once the project is completed in 2012, these assessment findings will also contribute to the creation of the guidelines.