Economy
The town has 1,585 inhabitants as of December 31, 2002, and is the seat of the township association (Verbandsgemeinde) Loreley. With the villages Ehrental, Wellmich and Heide, the number of inhabitants is over 2,000.
The most important economic areas for St. Goarshausen are tourism and wine making. In earlier times was the town an important place along the Rhein for fishing and as an embarcation area. Today, the formerly very busy town is losing its importance and relies more and more on tourism. Especially problematic for St. Goarshausen is the short distance to the larger city Nastätten, that has replaced St. Goarshausen as the regional centre.
In tourism, the biggest competitor is the twin city St. Goar on the other shore of the Rhine. St. Goar is only reachable by ferry, as the closest bridge is 30 km away. While there is an established need for a bridge across the Rhine, plans for connecting the towns have not yet been realised.
To help tourism, a visitors centre has been established in connection to the Lorelei rock.
Read more about this topic: Sankt Goarshausen
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