Berlin-wide scientific survey on e-scooters by HNEE and the Berlin Tourism Citizens' Advisory Council.

The Berlin Tourism Citizens' Advisory Council and the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) are conducting a joint project to analyse Berlin citizens' opinions on the use and handling of e-scooters in Berlin.

In April of this year, Parisians voted 89 per cent in favour of abolishing rental scooters in the French capital. This decision has reignited the debate in Berlin about the future handling of e-scooter hire.

"As a citizens' advisory council, it is our task to make the opinions of citizens visible and to develop recommendations for action for politicians on this basis. With this cooperation project and the resulting findings, we want to make a constructive contribution to a much-discussed and tourism-relevant topic. At our citizens' forum in February of this year, e-scooters were discussed several times by citizens. We have therefore decided to launch this project, which we see as one of our four long-term focus areas "Tourist Transport"," explains Eric Hattke, spokesperson for the Berlin Tourism Citizens' Advisory Council.

Under the direction of Prof. Dr Nicole Häusler, students on the Master's degree programme in Sustainable Tourism Management at HNEE developed a scientific questionnaire to record the opinions of Berlin citizens and tourists regarding the use and handling of e-scooters in the German capital. In recent weeks, the students have conducted on-site surveys in all 12 districts, primarily with Berlin citizens.

In addition, a survey is publicly accessible online. Citizens can take part in the survey until 31 July. After that, the scientific analysis will be carried out by HNEE Master's students.

The evaluation of the on-site surveys and the online survey is an examination requirement for students as part of the "Sustainable Destination Management" module. In addition, recommendations for action are formulated for policymakers based on the surveys. The results will be presented at a press conference at the end of September.

"These surveys and the recommendations based on them will enable students to apply their academic work in practice. I also think it is essential that civic engagement, such as the Berlin Tourism Citizens' Advisory Council, is also supported externally, e.g. by universities, in its important work," says Prof Dr Nicole Häusler, explaining her collaboration with the council.

About the Berlin Tourism Citizens' Advisory Council
The Berlin Tourism Citizens' Advisory Council acts as an interface between politics, administration and urban society and is actively involved in shaping tourism in Berlin in an advisory capacity. It is part of the Berlin Tourism Concept 2018+ for sustainable tourism that is compatible with the city. The Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises supports the project in cooperation with visitBerlin. The advisory board is working on four key topics (tourist attractiveness of Berlin's outer districts, preservation of club culture, tourist transport, inner-city tourism for citizens) in six working groups.

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