+ 21.09.2010 + September 21 is celebrated by the United Nations as the ‘International Day of Peace’.

Cherished as a veritable lifestyle industry, Travel and Tourism has been more and more identified as a highly versatile cross-communication tool among cultures; thus often referred to as The Peace Industry. Why not take this job-producing Peace Industry and make it the leading industry in renewable energy conversions under the sign of The Sun?

Sustainable/Responsible Tourism and Renewable Energy together could form the strategic cross-promotional linkage jointly promoting a new lifestyle.

This is the quintessence of an essay written by Max Haberstroh, an international tourism consultant, member of EUROSOLAR (www.eurosolar.org), who has been working for different government and non-government organizations on development projects in Eastern Europe, Central and Southeast Asia, Africa, Middle East and Latin America.

He is an ardent combatant for renewable energy, particularly solar energy: “Using and boosting renewable energy instead of fossil fuels would not demand ceding one slice from our usual comfort”, he says. "Tourism, professing sustainability, ecology and responsibility, actually should – and could – create new synergies and give inspiration to new lifestyle trends."

The UNWTO-lead Hotel Energy Solutions (HES) project recently launched in Palma is an inspiring initiative. "But where all the other tourism destination marketing organizations, amongst more than 25,000 worldwide, that claim to be ecological protagonists and who promote sustainable/responsible tourism, by making renewable energy the pivot of its social and ecological solidarity?"

Read the whole article: www.maxhaberstroh.de

Max Haberstroh 2010