Sustainable Tourism Law

Umbrella label for booking sustainable tourism services Ernst Führich 1 University of Kempten (Germany) I. PROBLEM In autumn 2017, stakeholders in Germany launched the green label “Grünes Blatt” for sustainable travel services. The label helps booking a sustainable holiday for consumers after consultation with a travel agency and offers a comparison system in the booking engine “Bistro Portal”. The project ‘Green Travel Transformation GTT’ in the Bistro Portal, which is mostly used in Germany, enables travel agencies to see and book hotels with a sustainability certification for the first time. Members of this project are stakeholders like DER Touristik and Thomas Cook, Futouris e.V. and universities like LEUPHANA Universität Lüneburg, supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Berlin. II. SUSTAINABLE TOURISM II.1 Definition Sustainable travel and tourism is on the rise: tourist demand is growing, travel industry suppliers are developing sustainable programs and governments are creating new policies to encourage sustainable practices in tourism. But what does “sustainable tourism” really mean? Sustainable tourism is the concept of visiting a place as a tourist and trying to make only a positive impact on the environment, society and economy. Sustainable tourism intends for people to respect the people on the holiday location, their culture, customs and the socio-economic system of the destination 2 . According to the World Tourism Organization UNWTO, 1 Professor at the University of Kempten, Germany, and the author of “Reiserecht”, 7. iss. 2015 C.H.BeckMunich. 2 http://traveltips.usatoday.com/meaning-sustainable-tourism-2297.html.