Renewable Energy in the Marketing of Tourism Companies

The specific situation of tourism companies causes difficulties with regard to sustainability. After all, their job is to sell perfectly staged counterworlds to everyday life. In essence, the touristic experience invokes “the crossing of boundaries”—spatially, socially, but also morally. The postulate of so-called sustainable tourism—to “fully” take into consideration future economic, social, and ecological requirements—resembles the squaring of a circle, at least for those companies that attempt to create a “coherent overall picture” to satisfy the demands of their customers. For that reason, tour operators face specific difficulties when it comes to the adequate integration of positive approaches to marketing renewable energy in their client-focused service packages. These positive approaches certainly exist in the tourism value chain and can be used to satisfy the minimum requirements for “sustainable” tourism, the criterion of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council. The relevance of this difficulty can even be demonstrated for a leading corporation in the field of tourism, Studiosus Reisen München GmbH. This case study provides food for thought. What is needed in the future to sustainably reduce tourism’s frequently evoked so-called green gap?