The new season of the Touriseum and the Gardens of Trauttmansdorff will open on Friday 29 May. Open now every day from 9 am to 7 pm.

In 2003, the Touriseum – the South Tyrol Museum of Tourism – was opened at Trauttmansdorff Castle in Meran. It is the first and only museum in Europe that is devoted exclusively and in depth to the topic of tourism.

The Touriseum at Trauttmansdorff Castle has recently welcomed a rather curious object: one of the showcases for the permanent exhibition about the history and former inhabitants of the castle contains a cake, baked 118 years ago for the Empress Elisabeth at the Sonnenwirt inn in Nals.

Tourism and war seem at first glance to be mutually exclusive. This new exhibition at the Touriseum shows how closely they are in fact related.

This winter the Touriseum in Meran will be opening its doors over the four weekends before Christmas. It is the perfect attraction for Christmas visitors to Meran, located close to the city centre with plenty and see and do. The museum can be reached via an easy walk along the charming “Sissi Way”.

The Museum for Tourism at Trauttmansdorff Castle near Meran reopens on Tuesday, 1 April, with three completely redesigned rooms presenting the changes in tourism in South Tyrol over the last 15 years.

The Touriseum exhibition on the waiting profession now has a trilingual title: “Cie ëis’a gën? Sie wünschen? Desidera?” [What would you like?] and, since 4 December, can be seen until 1 April 2013 in the “Tublà da Nives” cultural centre in Wolkenstein/Selva di Val Gardena.

For the series of events lasting until 15 November entitled “Shalom aleichem - Jewish vignettes from Tyrol”, visitors to the Touriseum at Trauttmansdorff Castle near Meran will be made aware of the many Jewish traces in the history of tourism in Tyrol.

In spring the South Tyrol regional authorities purchased a number of caricatures by Meran artist Anton Frühauf, which were then given to the Touriseum in Meran. Under the title “Curtain up!” the caricatures can be seen until 15 November in the stairway of the Regional Museum of Tourism at Trauttmansdorff Castle.

The 2011 visitor questionnaire has again confirmed the popularity of the Touriseum. It is particularly pleasing that the Touriseum staff were rated as either friendly or very friendly by 95% of all visitors.