Description of Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a Science City: This designation, which was granted in August 1997 with a certificate by the Hessian Ministry of the Interior, recognises the national and international importance of the city in the areas of science and research.

The city has an exceptionally fortunate location in the middle of Europe. It lies just half an hour away from the international airport Rhine Main in Frankfurt. As a medium-sized city with more than 157,000 inhabitants, it offers 120,000 jobs – a remarkably favourable ratio.

The city is the economic and cultural centre of the southern Rhine Main area and combines an appreciation of the arts with a passion for science and innovation. Darmstadt still has the charm of a royal capital – at the same time, it is a modern city, a laboratory for cultural as well as scientific experiments.

Why Darmstadt joined SCITHOS
Darmstadt is ‘City of Science’. Therefore, it is a logical consequence that Darmstadt Marketing has taken a leading role in scientific trends and developments by joining research projects on Augmented Reality, on serious gaming, on pedestrian routing and navigation, on mobile provision of tourist information and advice and the implementation of new innovative products in the urban leisure tourism segment.

As an economic centre in a metropolitan area, Darmstadt faces similar problems as most cities: overcrowding, traffic, pollution, noise. And with its Mathildenhöhe on the UNESCO World Heritage short list, an additional stream of visitors and (over) touristification will further fuel these problems.

With SCITHOS, Darmstadt Marketing hopes to get useful guidelines and recommendations for action to reduce existing and counteract upcoming problems.